Limited to 150 pieces, the Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar 345.056E is the edition A. Lange & Söhne released alongside the regular Rose Gold model in April 2021, when it introduced its self-winding Lange 1 perpetual calendar. Its case is White Gold and its dial is solid Rose Gold, a reversal of the usual relationship between case and dial that Lange uses only rarely, and the result is a soft, salmon-toned face framed by cool white metal. The edition marked the arrival of a significant addition to the Lange 1 family: a full perpetual calendar, with month, day of the week, leap year, outsize date and moon phase, built into the asymmetric layout of the Lange 1 without a tourbillon and on a self-winding movement. Every calendar display, including the ring of months around the edge of the dial, jumps in an instant at midnight. The White Gold edition was sold through Lange boutiques, and of the three Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar references now in the collection, it is the only one made in a numbered series and the only one with a dial made of gold rather than silver.
The 41.9 mm case is White Gold, 12.1 mm high, with recessed correctors along its left side. The dial is cut from solid Rose Gold and given a matte, finely grained surface rather than being plated or lacquered, so its colour is the natural tone of the metal, warm and slightly pink, with a soft sheen instead of a mirror finish. Against it, Lange uses rhodium-plated White Gold for the hands and the applied markers, matching the case and keeping the dial's warmth contained within a silvery frame. The outsize date sits in its double window, framed in the same white metal, and the ring of month names runs around the periphery, forming an outer border to the composition. A retrograde hand indicates the day of the week, a small display tracks the leap year, and the seconds subdial houses the moon phase with its integrated day and night indicator. The combination of grained Rose Gold and White Gold accents gives this edition a vintage character, recalling the salmon dials prized on mid-century calendar watches, while the layout remains entirely that of the Lange 1. It is worn on a brown alligator strap closed by a White Gold prong buckle.
Within the case is the same self-winding movement that drives every Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar: 621 components, 63 jewels and five gold chatons secured by screws, derived from the Lange 1 Daymatic and wound by a gold rotor with a Platinum mass, with 50 hours of running time when fully wound. The calendar it carries follows the Gregorian rules for month lengths and leap years and will need no correction before 2100. What distinguishes it is the instant change. The outsize date, the day of the week and the peripheral month ring do not creep forward during the late evening but leap at midnight, which means the White Gold edition shows a complete, unambiguous calendar at every moment of the day. Driving a ring as large as the dial in a single step requires a reserve of force that a conventional perpetual calendar does not need, and Lange presents the solution as one of the defining technical features of the model. The moon phase follows the lunar month in the seconds subdial, while its background changes between day and night. Correctors in the case band allow each display to be set separately, and the whole calendar can be advanced together after the watch has been laid aside.
Lange introduced its first perpetual calendar of the modern era, the Langematik Perpetual, in 2001, and brought the complication to the Lange 1 in 2012 with the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar, where the peripheral month ring first appeared. The 2021 Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar kept that ring and the instant displays but dropped the tourbillon, using the Daymatic movement as its base to make a calendar watch for regular wear. Lange launched it in two forms: the unlimited Rose Gold 345.033E with a Grey dial, and this White Gold 345.056E with its solid Rose Gold dial, reserved for 150 collectors. The Platinum 345.036E with a Black dial followed in September 2023, so the White Gold edition remains the only limited version of the model. Its warm dial also distinguishes it from the earlier Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar references, which were offered with silver-toned and grey dials, and from the cooler later versions of the self-winding model. As the edition that accompanied the debut of the self-winding Lange 1 perpetual calendar, the 345.056E holds a place in the model's history that later versions cannot share, and it set the tone for how Lange would vary the model's colours.
The 345.056E appeals to collectors who want the most distinctive version of the Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar and value the scarcity of a numbered launch edition. The White Gold case and solid Rose Gold dial create a combination that is both warm and restrained, unusual enough to stand apart from the Rose Gold and Platinum references yet classical in feel. It will interest collectors of salmon and gold-dialled calendar watches, owners of other Lange 1 models looking for a complicated companion with a different character, and those who follow Lange's limited editions. Because the watch is self-winding, the calendar stays running through regular wear, and the instant displays make its information clear every time the wrist is turned. At 41.9 mm it has presence without excess, and the brown alligator strap underlines its warm, vintage register. Through the sapphire caseback, the hand-finished movement shows the German silver plates, blued screws and engraved balance cock that accompany every Lange complication, a reminder that the gold on the dial is matched by the work beneath it.
