German watchmaking A. Lange & Söhne has installed a giant replica of its Triple Split mechanical split-seconds chronograph in the centre of Harrods‘ Fine Watch Room.
The 5 metre high model sits at the heart of the lower ground floor, where the brand has its own boutique, and draws people down the stairs from the luxury watch department’s ground floor.
The 50:1 scale replica was first seen in January this year at A. Lange & Söhne stand at SIHH in Geneva.
The scale of 50:1 means that its volume is about 125,000 times larger than that of the original for the wrist. Had its components been made of solid metal, a part weighing one gram in the wristwatch would have tipped the scales at 125 kilograms in the replica. Thus, the model would have weighed three tonnes – as much as a juvenile elephant.
But a number of measures were implemented to drastically reduce its weight in order to avoid statics and assembly problems. Many of the aluminium and titanium parts are hollow and consist of several components. This increased the number of parts of the model to about one thousand, nearly twice as many as in the original.