𝕊 𝕂 (𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕟𝕪) 𝔻𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕒

The dial on this Lange 1 forced the brand to develop a new caliber. Mother of Pearl is thicker than the German silver that Lange normally uses, meaning the hands sat too low. Lange lengthened the pinions to lift the hand stack clear and called the resulting caliber the L901.4. Same movement as every other Lange 1, adjusted for this specific dial. The case had to grow too. Diameter stayed at 38.5mm, but thickness went up about half a millimetre, entirely to make room for a slice of shell. And it isn't solid shell. Lange describes its own mother of pearl dials as a very thin layer laid over a solid silver base, which is why the watch still behaves like a Lange 1 underneath. It arrived in 2001 as one of a pair. This one on a strap, and a second reference, the 160.029, on an integrated white gold bracelet built for Lange by the jeweller Wellendorff. At launch the strap version was 18,700 euros and the bracelet version 29,100, so the bracelet alone cost more than half the watch again. The plain Mother of Pearl version had the shortest run of the family. Gone from the catalogue by the middle of the decade, while the guilloché version carried on to 2009. And Lange has no Mother of Pearl in the collection at all today. Available now.