The classic colour for festive occasions has triggered many a revolution – in the realms of fashion or art, for instance.
In 1915, a black square with a side length of 79 cm launched a revolution in the art world. Eleven years after Kazimir Malevich’s foray into avant-garde art, the little black dress by Coco Chanel caused an éclat in the realm of fashion. It was dubbed “the uniform for all women of taste” and is still referred to that way. Black is a designer’s favourite colour because it highlights the pure underlying form. It can also have a technical function. Photographers prefer black cameras because they produce no reflections. And in a wristwatch, a black dial combined with bright markers or luminous displays assures high contrast and good legibility.
Black wins
Beneath the black dial of the model GRAND LANGE 1 in a white-gold case: the L095.2 manufacture calibre. Crafted by a master of the trade, the figure was inspired by the filigreed woodturning works by Egidius Lobenigk and Georg Wecker in the 16th century that can still be admired in the Green Vault museum in Dresden.
Black on black
The history of ink, which began 5000 years ago in Egypt, is the quest for the most contrast-rich colour with the best opacity. Ink with black pigments comes closest to this ideal. Today, nanotechnology can take credit for a “Super Black” that absorbs 99.6 per cent of the light. Against such a background, the luminous outsize date of the GRAND LANGE 1 “Lumen” would shine as brightly as the celestial canopy above the Atacama Desert.
Black and white
The camera in the background is reminiscent of the many pioneering mechanical accomplishments that originated in Saxony. The first camera for 35-mm perforated film was built there in 1932. It was followed four years later by the world’s first single-lens reflex camera. Exposure times as short as a thousandth of a second gave rise to masterpieces in black-and-white photography. The digital display of the model LANGE ZEITWERK also switches in fractions of a second with a gentle click. A patented constant-force escapement makes this possible.
Black discs
Vinyl records are experiencing a renaissance. For music enthusiasts, what counts is not the haptic experience of the black round with its large cover and liner notes. It’s the mechanical sampling of the spiral groove that creates a richly detailed, three-dimensional sound¬scape as in a concert hall. In the model DATOGRAPH UP/DOWN, the aesthetic thrill lies not only in the relief structure of the fine azuré grooves on the bright subsidiary dials. Lange’s calibre L951.6 ranks among connoisseurs as the technically most advanced and well-designed chronograph movement.
