Thoughts On The A. Lange & Sohne Cabaret Soirée Lady’s Watch

I’ve had the pleasure to see an enormous array of luxury watches. Among those have been a wealth of women’s watches, and my experience has been to view them from a male perspective – as someone who would potentially judge and observe someone wearing the watch, as opposed to considering their aesthetic value on my own wrist. In seeing women’s luxury watches, I have been able to place them in a few distinct categories, far fewer that those reserved for men’s watches. Among those categories are handsome functional watches, and beautiful, but impractical jewelry watches. Few timepieces are able to successfully straddle both of these characters.

The first time I eyed something that I really felt were both, were A. Lange & Sohne watches. It was actually first at their factory that I saw some of the female senior workers adorning the timepieces, and it really made me question what other watch brands were doing wrong that Lange was doing right. The luxury component of the watches was simple and straight forward, but impressive. Totally in-house made movements in mostly all-gold cases (with the occasional platinum case), and the highest level of fit and finish (not to mention careful construction), that I’d personally seen. What struck me as interesting is that all the watches seemed to start with a simple concept – that being easy to read, perfectly designed instruments to tell the time. Every other women’s watch of this magnitude that I’d seen for the most part sacrifices form over function. Not Lange. Then on the side of jewelry you see mother-of-pearl dials, diamonds galore, and colors verging on the side of “girly,” here in these watches.

This in a sense is the case with the new Cabaret Soirée watch line. They used the existing rectangular women’s Cabaret watches, and apply a fine level of diamond decoration to the 18k white gold cases, as well as the option of baby blue, or soft pink color tones. On the one hand it is a simple way of creating a new model, but on the other hand you have a charming and approachable timepiece in trendy tones, with the DNA of pure smart function. For me, the concept is sort of like putting makeup on Einstein. You get all the good “brains” inside the watch with the movement and the traditional design theory, plus you get the glitziness only found from the luxury watch world.

Interestingly enough, these Lange Cabaret Soirée watches are highly limited. Just 10 pieces each. A total of twenty for a collection is thin even for A. Lange & Sohne. I suspect it has to do with the economy, and because the usual buyer of a Lange watch is a bit more conservative than the type who goes light blue or pink. Plus, for the price that such watches command (well over 50,000 euros I am sure), you’d have to wear them on more than just “special occasions” to get the most blue or pink bang, for your buck.

Ariel Adams publishes the popular luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.