Written By: Rhea Lobo
Circular wristwatches take a step back to make way for A. Lange & Söhne's refined rectangular-shaped Cabaret Tourbillon HONEYGOLD.
It’s not often you see a rectangular watch on the market – they’re exceptionally rare, and often complicated to produce. Yet they’ve been around for over a century, enjoying their heyday during the Art Deco era before being bottlenecked into a niche reserved for collectors and connoisseurs. While round watches dominate today’s landscape, a few rectangular icons have continued to drift through the watch world like regulars at an exclusive members club. You may not always see them, but they’re always there.
Courtesy of A. Lange & Söhne
Courtesy of A. Lange & Söhne
A. Lange & Söhne had its own star moment in 2008 with the Cabaret Tourbillon Handwerkskunst, introducing, for the first time, a mechanism capable of stopping the tourbillon with a V-shaped arrest spring within the manufacturer’s historic first non-round wristwatch design from 1997. Kudos from tourbillon specialists still echo today.
The revived rectangular design has resurfaced through the years in ultra-limited releases, but never quite like this. Enter the Cabaret Tourbillon HONEYGOLD: a technical achievement and arguably one of the most glamorous watches Lange has produced in recent memory.
Courtesy of A. Lange & Söhne
Courtesy of A. Lange & Söhne
The namesake color comes from A. Lange & Söhne’s proprietary 750 HONEYGOLD®, a closely guarded alloy reserved for only a handful of the Maison’s most exclusive creations. It’s almost the watchmaking equivalent of a family recipe nobody is getting access to. Warm, rich, and subtly darker than traditional yellow gold.
Courtesy of A. Lange & Söhne
Courtesy of A. Lange & Söhne
Accompanying this highly engineered material is the black-rhodiumed dial, crafted entirely in-house. Against the dark backdrop, the sculpted hour markers, Roman numerals, and signature A. Lange & Söhne branding emerge in relief, creating a dramatic three-dimensional effect that feels almost architectural. It’s all very film-noir-meets-precision-engineering.
At six o’clock, it’s impossible to ignore the aperture revealing the highly acclaimed tourbillon. Inside, the upper bridge and cage top have been finished using black polish, one of watchmaking’s most demanding decorative techniques. Depending on the angle, the surface alternates between a mirror-like reflection and a jet-black sheen, a visual trick so satisfying it borders on witchcraft.
Courtesy of A. Lange & Söhne
Limited to just 50 pieces, the Cabaret Tourbillon HONEYGOLD captures the essence of watchmaking and class the world is desperately pining for, sneakily tick-ling the heartstrings of watch collectors, and it’s fairly certain A. Lange & Söhne is still cruising through its prime.
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