A. Lange & Söhne brings 2025 to a close with the Lange 1 Daymatic Honeygold. Limited to 250 pieces, the new edition pairs the familiar reversed Lange 1 layout with a warm chocolate brown dial and the straw-coloured precious metal that has become synonymous with the brand’s most exclusive releases.
The automatic version of Lange’s signature watch is dressed in Honeygold for the first time. The proprietary alloy has appeared only sparingly since its 2010 debut, making this one of the rarer expressions of the Daymatic and a notable addition to the broader Honeygold lineage. Exclusivity aside, the Daymatic exudes tangible quality, as expected from Lange.
Initial thoughts
The 17th Honeygold edition since the material debuted in 2010, the Daymatic is, to my eye, one of the more attractive editions in the series. Perhaps it’s my affinity for the Lange 1 design, but the simplicity of the layout and textures is more appealing than some other recent editions like the Odysseus that was launched at Watches & Wonders.
The Daymatic has always felt like the quirky sibling within the Lange 1 family, in a good way. And while the reversed dial takes some getting used to after becoming accustomed to the standard model, this layout has its advantages. For one thing, the repositioned sub-dial for the time display makes it easy to peak at the time while half the watch remains tucked away under one’s sleeve.
The entry price of about €75,000 is a lot of money for a simple day and date complication, but the Daymatic is a lot of watch. Given the top-class automatic movement, peerless construction, and emblematic (reversed) Lange 1 dial layout, it manages to hold its own among similarly dressed calendar watches like the Patek Philippe ref. 5235R.
While the ref. 5235R is a proper annual calendar and the the Daymatic is merely a day-date, the Lange holds up well thanks to its overall finishing and execution. That it’s a defined limited edition in Lange’s proprietary Honeygold alloy is the icing on the cake.
Honeyed history
Honeygold is Lange’s proprietary gold alloy, which offers a straw-coloured hue somewhere between white and rose gold. A full 18k gold alloy, Honeygold is 75% gold and the rest is a secret recipe of minerals like copper and zinc. The result is not just an attractive colour; Honeygold is actually harder (more scratch resistant) than typical gold alloys.
This special material debuted in 2010 and has been reserved for limited edition models. In total, there have been 17 Honeygold editions to date, including this Daymatic and the Saxonia Thin Onyx launched a few weeks ago.
With edition sizes ranging from just 15 pieces for the Richard Lange Tourbillon Pour le Merite Handwerkskunst to 265 pieces for the 1815 Moon Phase Homage to F.A. Lange, the brand has authorised the production of just 2,135 Honeygold pieces in total over the past 15 years. All told, that’s barely 3% of total Lange production over that time. In this context, the Daymatic is the second-largest run of Honeygold watches at 250 pieces.
Lange quality
Exclusivity aside, Lange can always be counted upon to deliver tangible quality. Unsurprisingly, the Daymatic is lovingly built inside and out. The Honeygold case is produce by Efteor, a top-quality supplier of cases. Like all of the cases the company produces for Lange, the lugs are made separately and soldered to the case. This is part of what gives the case its distinctive profile and enhances the continuity of the brushed case band.
The brown dial is crafted from a heavy disk of sterling silver. The dial surface, by and large, has been given an satinated matte finish that contrasts with the snailed chapter ring for the hours and minutes and the running seconds sub-dial. It’s a simpler palette of finishes than we’ve seen on some other Honeygold editions, and the restraint is welcome.
The L021.1 calibre inside the watch is where Lange puts most of its own efforts, and to good effect. While the brand’s ‘entry level’ automatic L086.1 used for the Saxonia (and the related L155.1 used in the Odysseus) skips most of the gold chatons for which the brand is known, the L021.1 is a large and lavishly finished movement that looks every bit as good as its manually wound counterparts.
This means untreated German silver plates and bridges, heat-blued screws, and black-polished steel for the escape wheel cap and swan neck adjustment system for the stud carrier. Even the winding mass, which in most watches is little more than a distraction, is richly constructed from 21k gold for the main section and platinum for the outer rim.
Key facts and price
A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Daymatic Honeygold Ref. 320.050
Diameter: 39.5 mm Height: 10.4 mm Material: 18k Honeygold Crystal: Sapphire Water resistance: 30 m
Movement: L021.1 Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, day, and date Frequency: 21,600 beats per hour (3 Hz) Winding: Automatic Power reserve: 50 hours
Strap: Alligator with matching pin buckle
Limited edition: 250 pieces Availability: At A. Lange & Söhne boutiques only Price: Approximately €75,000 excluding taxes
Sotheby’s upcoming auction in New York brings to light a pair of remarkable Patek Philippe pocket watches with double movements once owned by John Motley Morehead III (1870-1965), an American patron of the brand with exotic taste.
Unknown even to Patek Philippe until now, the two watches each include a primary minute repeating base movement with a secondary movement under charismatic doré dials. Beyond their intrinsic rarity, the golden duo are significant from a historical perspective in offering a portal into early 20th-century American watch collecting, when interest began to shift from decorative to technical.
The who
A chemist who helped form Union Carbide, Morehead seems to have had a penchant for unusual, highly complicated watches.
He also owned a triple complication with upside down “American” perpetual calendar, carillon minute repeater, and a double chronograph (as in, two separate chronographs) as well as a rattrapante but with only two seconds hands. The excellent research by Sotheby’s uncovered record of another of Morehead’s watches that was a carillon repeater with two sets of hands, like these watches, but powered by only one movement.
Both double-movement watches going on the block at Sotheby’s have a primary movement with minute repeating on the back and a secondary simple movement on the front. The smaller of the two makes do with just a minute repeating base movement, while the larger watch also has a split-seconds chronograph with a minutes counter.
The duo sport yellow gold dials to match the case, rather than enamel that was typical for the period. Both movements can be wound from a single crown, and set with the combination of a pull-out crown and pin.
No. 197’589 – Double movement with minute repeater
Patek Philippe built the first watch, no. 197’589, in 1920 and sold it to Morehead two years later. Like all of Morehead’s known watches, the dust cover is engraved “Made for John M. Morehead by Patek Philippe & Co”. The hands are coded by colour and form: blue spade hands for the primary movement and gold Breguet hands for the secondary.
Watch No. 197’589
The United States was Patek Philippe’s most important market of the time, and this watch exemplifies American taste. The slim bassine case – 12 mm without crystal thanks to the flat movements – and concealed hinges give the case a sleek, modern look. Most of Patek Philippe’s hidden hinge watches, which won’t snag when pocketing a watch, were made for the American market.
Movement of watch No. 197’589
The dial also reflects American tastes at the time. The combination of thick block Roman numerals and Breguet hands appears on many watches sold by important American retailers such as Tiffany & Co. or Shreve, Crump & Low.
A tangible illustration of diverging transatlantic tastes lies in watch no. 174’129 that was made for James Ward Packard. The watch was first exhibited in Europe with a different dial before delivery to the American industrialist, clearly showing the difference in American and European taste.
Images – Journal Suisse d’Horlogerie 1914 (left), Patek Philippe (right).
No. 197’590 – Double movement with minute repeater and split-seconds chronograph
Patek Philippe completed Morehead’s second watch, which has a sequential movement number, in 1924, and he took delivery the following year.
It is significantly larger at 55 mm in diameter – about 10 mm larger than the previous – and about 20 mm thick without the crystal. Two factors contribute to the height. First, both movements look to be about normal height, unlike the extra-flat movements paired in the previous watch.
Watch No. 197’590. The switch between the pendant and split seconds button locks the chronograph buttons, a common feature on Genevan watches.
Second is the addition of a split-seconds chronograph to the primary movement. Not only does this increase the height of the movement on the back, it also adds two additional hands to the front.
The towering hand stack includes two hands for the hours, two for the minutes, and two for the split seconds chronograph. With six hands in total, it ties the Calibre 89 for tallest (currently known) Patek Philippe hand stack.
Art Deco-esque bold arabics such as these were often filled with radium, which is hazardous to human health and damaging to dials. Thankfully, this doré dial was spared from illumination.
The Patek Philippe signature is not period correct, which is unsurprising; while enamel dials may still look new after a hundred years, metal dials need some help. Though the dial is the most important part of a watch to many wristwatch collectors, with complicated pocket watches the movement arguably matters most.
Movement of watch No. 197’589. The movement decoration is, of course, excellent.
Patek Philippe would have sourced both movements from Victorin Piguet, an etablisseur in the Vallée de Joux that specialised in complicated or unusual movements that had a close relationship with Genevan manufacturers.
The why
While we know for whom these watches were made and how they operate, the answer to the question of why they exist is more elusive.
In 1930, not long after Morehead took delivery of his double-movement watches, several American newspapers printed the humourous page-filling quip “Retail jewelers assert that every man should carry two watches. But a man with one watch knows what time it is, and a man with two watches could never be sure”.
The implication being that jewellers wanted to sell more watches, yet there might be some merit to the idea. Morehead does mention carrying two watches in letters unearthed by Sotheby’s research, and wasn’t the only American collector to do so.
Today, it is easy to tell if a watch is off as you can always consult your phone. In the past, however, spotting issues wasn’t as easy – unless you carried two watches. If both watches are keeping good time, they will be in agreement. If one is keeping good time, and the other is not, you may not know the correct time, but you know something is amiss, which you’d be ignorant of with only a single watch.
To take this even further, if you carried three watches – or two watches, one of which with two movements – you could reasonably assume the correct time if two agreed and one did not. According to Dava Sobel’s A Brief History of Early Navigation, “It was not uncommon for one ship to rely on two or even three chronometers, so that the timekeepers could keep tabs on each other.”, and survey ships could carry many more to establish consensus.
Sidereal time
One of the most compelling explanations is that one movement tracks mean solar time, and the other, sidereal time. A sidereal day is one full rotation of the earth, which takes about 23 hours 56 minutes 4.091 seconds. It is essentially your local right ascension, which is the celestial equivalent of longitude, with its own celestial equator. Unlike terrestrial longitude, right ascension is normally expressed in time rather than degrees, with 24 hours being equivalent to 360°.
Sidereal time tells you what the sky looks light over head. For example, if you watch reads quarter-to-seven in sidereal time it means Sirius (the brightest star in the sky) is directly overhead. This explanation works especially well as Morehead had such a passion for the stars that he donated the Morehead Planetarium to his alma mater, the University of North Carolina. The only issue is that sidereal time is expressed on a 24-hour time scale, though 12-hour chronometers that were used as ad hoc sidereal timekeepers do exist.
It was possible to track sidereal time using a single balance and gear ratios as demonstrated by another watch in this auction – the S. Smith & Son Astronomical Watch made by Audemars Piguet, which depicts the sky over Trafalgar Square, where the firm was headquartered at the time. However, such a solution adds inherent additional inaccuracy. Patek Philippe calculated 25 trillion different trains to achieve the Sky Moon Tourbillon’s error of only -0.088 sidereal seconds per day – impossible without computers.
That said, the train used by Leon Aubert for the Leroy 01’s planisphere achieved an error of only -0.157 seconds with a 365:366 ratio. Though watches using a two balance solution exist even today, such as the Arnold & Son DBS. Since the watch has seen multiple services, it is not possible to determine if one movement was adjusted to sidereal time from the factory.
The S. Smith & Son Astronomical Watch, also known as the “Grosse Piece”
Dual time
Surely no one would make a movement with two separate balances just to indicate two different time zones – yet such watches exist. The Erivan Haub collection, also sold by Sotheby’s, included an excellent example (though in rough condition) made for the Turkish market with cadran europée (European dial) and cadran (Turkish dial) to keep track of Turkish and Central European Time – which much of continental Europe had adopted by 1910, when the watch was made.
Image – Sotheby’s
The how
Both double-movement watches use Adrien Philippe’s sliding pinion system, which Patek Philippe still uses today – as does nearly every other manufacturer.
Pulling the crown out causes the setting lever (orange) to pivot, causing the yoke (green) to push the sliding pinion forward, disengaging from the winding pinion and engaging with the setting pinion.
The setting pinion connects to a (red) rocker, a (blue) spring keeps this rocker centred normally, but when the crown is pulled a (purple) piece attached to the (green) yoke pivots the rocker, connecting the crown to the primary movement’s hands.
You will notice that this is mirrored on the other side. Pressing the pin in the case band at two o’clock moves the second yoke (green) pushing the sliding pinion forward to meet the setting wheel. A (purple) piece on the yoke pivots the rocker in the other direction, mesching with a wheel (not shown in this image) with a shaft that connects to the secondary movement.
The same principles apply to the larger watch, as seen below.
Winding is where the two differ the most. On the smaller of the two, both movements share the same winding pinion, a cutout in the plate of the secondary movement allows it to mesh with the secondary crown wheel. An additional wheel is needed between the crown wheel and barrel, since the secondary crown wheel turns in the opposite direction of the primary crown wheel.
The smaller watch also uses a more elaborate regulator arrangement, a screw that passes through the primary movement and connects to a cam. Turning the screw moves a lever (blue) back and forth which then moves the regulator on the secondary movement.
The screw for the secondary movement’s regulator has scars around it, probably from wayward screwdrivers. Also note that forty is spelt as “fourty”, something you still occasionally see on Swiss watches today.
The composite of the movement photos provided by Sotheby’s show the movements as if folded open like a book.
The arrows show how the primary movement passes through the secondary movement. The first arrow (from top to bottom) is for the primary hour and minute hands. Just below is the crown wheel, then the hand setting connection, seconds hand, and finally the connection of the regulator. You will also notice a trio of locating pegs on the secondary movement’s perimeter, and corresponding holes on the primary.
In the larger watch, the secondary movement is essentially a key-wound calibre, and the primary movement holds the key. It uses Sylvain Mairet’s differential winding system, which is found in many high grade two train pocket watches of the time, such as clock watches, trip repeaters or those with independent seconds. There are two reverser wheels, one is connected to the barrel of the primary movement, while the other has a square hole that a square shaft (attached to the barrel of the secondary movement) slots into.
Both barrels only wind when the reverser wheel on top turns clockwise, this is an extra wheel between the crown wheel and the other, allowing each barrel to be wound individually. Since there is an extra wheel between the crown wheel and the reverser over the secondary barrel, turning the crown clockwise winds the primary movement while counterclockwise winds the secondary movement.
The composite images below illustrate the movements folded open like a book to illustrate how, from top to bottom, the winding square, minutes totaliser, hour/minute hands, seconds hand, and regulator interface.
The Patek Philippe double movement watches: no. 197’589 (lot 34) has an estimate of US$300,000-500,000, while no. 197’590 (lot 33) has an estimate of US$500,000-1.0 million. For more, visit Sothebys.com.
Francis Ford Coppola’s personal F.P. Journe FFC prototype shattered expectations at Phillips’ New York watch auction today when it achieved price of US$10.8 million including fees.
One of the most talked-about lots this auction season, FFC’s FFC is the most expensive watch sold in 2025, and now the most valuable example of independent watchmaking by some margin.
Big result in the Big Apple
Despite chilly weather in New York, the action in the saleroom quickly turned hot. Auctioneer Aurel Bacs opened at US$1 million, but the bid instantly jumped to US$2 million.
Several bidders then piled on, but the contest condensed to just four phone bidders past the US$4 million mark, including bidders represented by Tadzio Nuno and Paul Boutros, of Phillips’ Geneva and New York offices respectively.
The action then settled into a head-to-head between bidders represented by Alex Ghotbi and Isabella Proia, once again of Geneva and New York respectively. Mr Ghotbi emerged the winner with a US$9 million bid, which brought the total to US$10.755 million with fees.
The bidding was notable for being entirely on the phone – though one bidder was in the room but bidding on the phone – and also for being driven by clients outside of Asia.
A record
The result makes Mr Coppola’s prototype — one of only two made, and the only one in private hands — the most valuable wristwatch from an independent watchmaker ever sold at auction, exceeding the US$8.36 million achieved by the landmark F.P. Journe Tourbillon à Remontoir d’Egalité “15/93” prototype sold last year.
The celebrity aspect of the FFC no-doubt contributed to the big result; Mr Coppola’s connection to the watch gave it outsized visibility that extended to mainstream publications around the world that don’t usually bother covering watch auctions. The extra notoriety may have increased the trophy status of FFC’s FFC.
The other FFC
Mr Coppola’s Chronomètre à Résonance, the watch that started it all, also did well, selling for US$584,000 — more than double the high estimate, going to a European collector. This watch was given to Mr Coppola by his late wife Eleanor, and introduced the acclaimed director to the brand.
Mr Coppola became enamoured with the brand, and famously invited Mr Journe to his Inglenook winery, where the pair had the fateful conversation that led to the creation of the FFC. The Resonance is arguably significant in the history of F.P. Journe, and something of a bargain.
