The No. 1 Thing That Makes A Watch Desirable

A. Lange & Söhne

“Early watchmakers recognized the value of decoration as a way to impress their clients, but also out of a sense of pride in their work.“

While the term “decoration” often refers to trivial or superficial adornment, in the world of high-end timepieces, it is what separates the artisans from the also-rans, and can mean the difference between a $10,000 watch and a $50,000 one. Decoration is what elevates a brand from haute horlogerie to haut de gamme. It is a practice as old as watchmaking itself, derived from the traditions of scrimshaw and wood carving and jewelry making. So what is decoration and why should you care?

Let’s be clear: When we talk about watch decoration, we’re not talking about setting diamonds in a bezel. Decoration refers to the practice of hand-finishing the components of a watch movement. It is done to demonstrate attention to detail, but also to accentuate the complexity and ingenuity of the mechanical pieces themselves by catching light or highlighting a voluptuous curve. An unadorned watch movement, while fascinating to observe, is not altogether elegant — flat steel plates, gears and springs sandwiched below the dial. Early watchmakers recognized the value of decoration as a way to impress their clients, but also out of a sense of pride in their work.

Pocket watches typically had snap-on or screw-on casebacks, allowing easy viewing of the movement, which almost always had some simple decoration. Even the workmanlike railroad-issue pocket watches of the early 20th century, built for accurate timekeeping in the dusty coveralls of engineers and brakemen, were decorated. When wristwatches came along, sealing off the movement and pressing it to the flesh, decoration was minimised, limited to perhaps a few arcs of brushwork on a winding rotor. But with the recent resurgent interest in mechanical timepieces, watchmakers are again paying attention to decoration and oftentimes proudly displaying it behind glass casebacks that make the back of the watch more interesting than the front.

The German brand A. Lange & Söhne is known for its high level of decoration. All of the components in a Lange movement, most of which are machined out of German silver (a nickel steel alloy that patinas well), are hand-engraved before they are assembled. What is more remarkable is that the components are decorated not only on the front, the side visible through the caseback, but also on the backside, which would only ever be seen by a watchmaker when the timepiece goes in for regular service. The balance cock is actually hand “signed” by an engraver with his initials. The movement is then assembled, calibrated and tested, then disassembled, cleaned and put back together with all-new heat-treated blued-steel screws. This process is why collectors will pay upward of $100,000 for a Lange timepiece and is what separates the brand from most others.

The typical decoration seen in fine movements include Cotes de Genève (a striped finish) guilloche (a repeated circular pattern), chamfering (polished edges of plates) and intricate engraving. The most coveted kind of decoration is that which is done by hand with traditional 19th century tools. And while decoration doesn’t help with the accuracy, precision, durability or readability of the watch, it does affect one aspect that is prized by watch connoisseurs: its desirability.