A. Lange & Söhne’s newest Saxonia Thin watches are the next big thing.
On the occasion of the Audrain Newport Concours & Motor Week 2025, A. Lange & Söhne has introduced two new timepieces to its Saxonia Thin collection. Launched in 2011, the Saxonia Thin remains the brand’s slimmest timepiece collection. Over its 14-year history, the Saxonia Thin has been introduced in several iterations, and the two new pieces mark the first time the timepiece has been available in platinum and Lange’s proprietary honey gold. The watches feature jet-black onyx dials, making them truly black tie ready.
Despite the fact that onyx is rarely used in precision watchmaking, “it’s not as complex [to craft] as enamel,” Anthony de Haas, director of product development at A. Lange & Söhne, said in an interview. The onyx “is a very thin disc that is superfine and polished and fixed to a carrier dial of silver.” The two layers together have a height of just .65 millimeters, and the onyx layer is only .3mm thick. “You need the silver dial because it has little ‘feet’ that fit into the movement and fix it on. You can’t make that out of onyx because it’s very fragile,” de Haas said. The two layers are glued together with a specially formulated adhesive because the silver has a different elasticity than the onyx and “it can break. So it’s a bit of a tricky thing, but it’s handleable.” The onyx’s black is deeper than any enamel, de Haas said, “the onyx is the deepest of the blacks.”
Timekeeping Excellence
The new timepieces will be available in a limited edition of just 200 individually numbered pieces each. They both are powered by Lange’s manufacture caliber L093.1 manually wound movement with a power reserve of 72 hours. The movement’s highly detailed finishing is visible through a sapphire crystal caseback. Both watches are presented on a black glossy alligator strap, adding to their elegant look.
“I call them the tuxedo watches,” de Haas said. “It’s a private luxury, just for you.” Indeed, with a height of just 6.2 millimeters, the watch can easily “go stealth” and slip under a shirt cuff with ease. Like the best-fitting tuxedo, the Saxonia Thin watches’ dials adhere to the brand’s precise proportions between the hands and the hour markers.
Size Matters
For Lange watches, determining the precise lengths of the hands and minute markers has to do with case sizes, according to de Haas. “With a 40mm case [the size of the new Saxonia Thin watches], the hands are longer and the hour markers are longer,” said de Haas. “With a smaller case, the sizes are adapted, but the proportions are always the same. The length of the hands towards the hour markers and the distance of the hour markers away from the bezel are all adapted to the size of the case. We are a bit geeky and nerdy about that.”
But such exacting measurements come at a price. “It’s a big investment because they have to be especially made for us. They are not standard.” But standard is not a word that’s often associated with A. Lange & Söhne. The brand, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of its rebirth last year, still produces only a few thousand watches per year, and that’s not going to change, because traditional watchmaking is in its DNA, according to de Haas.
The brand’s original founder, Ferdinand Adolph Lange, set the high standards that the brand follows to this day. All of the brand’s watches are still anchored by a patented three-quarter German silver plate that Lange introduced in 1864. “We are a collector’s brand,” de Haas said. “We are pure watchmakers and everything we do has a reason, and that’s what I like about Lange.”