In Platinum with a Rhodium dial of solid silver, the Lange 1 Time Zone 136.025 returns A. Lange & Söhne's travel watch to the livery of its very first reference. When the Lange 1 Time Zone was introduced in 2005, the inaugural 116.025 paired a Platinum case with a silver-toned dial; eighteen years later, in July 2023, Lange gave the second-generation model the same combination, adding it as a boutique version to the Rose Gold and White Gold references of 2020. Collectors know the pairing well. On the time-only Lange 1, Platinum with a Rhodium dial and rhodium-plated gold hands and markers has long been nicknamed the Stealth, because the precious metal hides behind a monochrome face, and the 136.025 brings that understatement to one of the most practical complications in the family. Behind its sober dial is the full second-generation specification: a dedicated hand-wound movement, ring-shaped day and night indicators for both zones, a city ring with 24 time zones and a window that shows whether the chosen city observes daylight saving time. It is not a limited edition, but as the only Platinum Lange 1 Time Zone in the current collection it occupies a distinct place within it.
The Platinum case is 41.9 mm across and 10.9 mm high, brushed and polished, and its weight is noticeably greater than that of the gold versions, the only clue to the metal at a distance. Two correctors sit on the left side of the case: one at 8 o'clock for the city ring and one at 10 o'clock for the date. The dial is solid silver with a Rhodium finish, cooler and greyer than the Silver of the Rose Gold model, and every applied element on it, from the Roman numerals of the home-time circle to the hands, is rhodium-plated gold, so that the dial furniture and the case share one pale tone. The second zone is read in the small circle at 5 o'clock, with printed Arabic numerals and an applied arrow that points to the city ring at the periphery. That ring lists 24 reference cities and is the busiest element on the dial, yet placing it at the outer edge leaves the Lange 1 composition untouched, with the outsize date at upper right and the power reserve scale beside it. Against all that grey, only three accents carry colour: a red marker on the city ring, the red window in the arrow and the dark blue half-rings that indicate night. A black alligator strap, stitched by hand, closes with a Platinum prong buckle.
The watch is designed to be set quickly on arrival. A press of the 8 o'clock corrector moves the city ring one time zone toward the east and, in the same motion, advances the small dial's hour hand by one hour, so that the time shown at 5 o'clock always belongs to the city under the arrow. The crown corrects both displays at once, and pulling it to its second position copies the zone time onto the large circle when the traveller wants local time to become the main time; the outsize date, linked to the main time, is then adjusted at 10 o'clock if necessary. Each time circle has its own day and night ring at the centre, with a dark blue semicircle for the night hours, turning with the hour hand so that the period of the day can be read in both places without counting hours. The daylight saving display relies on a coding on the underside of the city ring, which colours the arrow's window red for cities that change their clocks seasonally and leaves it plain for those that do not. Inside, the hand-wound movement of 448 parts, 38 jewels and three screwed gold chatons draws its 72 hours of running time from one mainspring barrel instead of the two used in the 2005 watch, and a stop-seconds mechanism halts the balance during setting.
The first Lange 1 Time Zone arrived in 2005 as one of the earliest major complications built on the Lange 1, and it established the formula the watch still follows: a second dial for the zone time, a city ring to choose it and a crown that keeps both times in step. Over the next fifteen years the model was made in several gold versions alongside the original Platinum, with a twin-barrel movement and small arrow-shaped hands for day and night. In June 2020 Lange presented the second generation with a movement developed for it, the ring-shaped day and night displays and the daylight saving window, launching it in Rose Gold, White Gold and a limited Yellow Gold edition. The Platinum 136.025 followed in July 2023 and closed a circle, since its colours recall the 2005 reference while everything behind them belongs to the later design. It also connects the Time Zone to the long-favoured configuration of the time-only Lange 1, the Platinum and Rhodium version collectors call the Stealth, whose appeal lies in a luxury that reveals itself only to the wearer. Among the current Lange 1 Time Zone references, it is the most restrained, a watch whose complexity and precious metal are both kept deliberately out of view.
The 136.025 suits collectors who spend their lives between cities and want a travel watch that does not announce itself. Platinum gives it substance on the wrist, the Rhodium dial keeps it discreet in a meeting, and the second dial, day and night rings and daylight saving window mean that the time in another city never has to be worked out mentally. For owners of a Stealth Lange 1, it is the natural complicated companion, sharing the same palette and the same off-centre layout. For collectors who value history, its resemblance to the 2005 Platinum reference makes it a link between the two generations of the model. Through the sapphire caseback the hand-wound movement shows the Saxon decoration in full, with its ribbed three-quarter plate left in untreated German silver, blued screws securing the gold chatons, a polished whiplash spring for the regulator and a floral pattern engraved by hand on the balance cock. Worn on its black alligator strap, the watch reads at first as a plain grey-faced Lange 1, and only when the city ring and the second dial are noticed does its purpose as a traveller's instrument become clear.
