A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph winner’s watch – Review
The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph winner’s watch is a pièce unique created for the forthcoming Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. This beautiful expression of watchmaking features a white gold case and a solid pink gold dial. Its chronograph movement is a paragon of horological refinement and the model is the prettiest iteration of the 1815 Chronograph to date. The only thing I cannot help wondering is why has Lange only made one example?
A. Lange & Söhne watch
A few years ago, I interviewed Wilhelm Schmid, the CEO of A. Lange & Söhne. I recall asking him why his German watch brand was not aligned with one of his nation’s esteemed car marques. He explained that Lange shared more in common with classic cars. He went on to explain that the craftsmanship synonymous with classic cars is seldom equalled by modern-day products, hence the watch firm prefers to align itself with the world of vintage classics.
Germany’s most prestigious watch brand has enjoyed a long relationship with Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, a glamorous event, hosted near the shores of Lake Como. The event is a beacon for classic car aficionados and those individuals with a taste for the finer things in life. The marriage between the world of octane-rich art and Haute Horlogerie makes much sense.
The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph winner’s watch is a pièce unique pairing a 39.5 mm white gold case with a solid pink gold dial. To the rear of the watch is a hinged cuvette, engraved with the Concorso coat of arms. I suspect many wearers will frequently open this hinged cover, eager to view the beautifully appointed hand-wound Calibre L951.5.
Connoisseurs may recognise this movement from ‘regular’ versions of the 1815 Chronograph. It upholds Glashütte tradition, featuring a three-quarter plate, gold chatons and an engraved balance cock. A traditional column wheel determines whether the chronograph is being started, stopped or reset.
While many of today’s high-end chronographs use a vertical coupling to engage the chronograph, Lange favours a traditional approach, using a lateral clutch. This latter form of coupling indulges the wearer with a view of the chronograph engaging and disengaging with the fourth wheel. While some chronographs with lateral clutches can stutter when actuated, Lange has skilfully eradicated such problems. Indeed, it delivers the benefits of a vertical coupling but with the mesmerising spectacle of meshing gears.
Consistent with all Lange models, the movement finishing is beyond reproach. Furthermore, the movement is endowed with the purist’s favourite means of regulation, a variable-inertia balance. The swan-neck effectively works like a sliding stud holder, providing a trained watchmaker with the means to easily address a beat error.
Beyond the movement, the dial is gorgeous. It features a bi-compax layout, lancine-shaped hour and minute hands, a small seconds display and a 30-minute chronograph register. The watch includes a flyback function and a pulsometer scale.
In my opinion, the A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph winner’s watch is the prettiest iteration of the chronograph to date. The only thing I cannot help wondering is why the company has only made one example? I hope the firm from Saxony goes on to release a ‘regular’ version in a similar colour scheme. Indeed, I suspect long queues would undoubtedly ensue.
A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph winner’s watch – the brand’s press release
A special model of the 1815 CHRONOGRAPH is the award that for the first time awaits this year’s owner of the most attractive car at the tradition-steeped competition for classic automobiles. The unique piece in 18-carat white gold with a solid pink-gold dial and a hand-engraved hinged cuvette is reserved for the “Best of Show” winner.
Since 2012, A. Lange & Söhne has been a partner of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, which this year will be held on Lake Como from 1 to 3 October. Every year, Lange CEO Wilhelm Schmid has presented the owner of the competition’s most elegant vehicle with a LANGE 1 TIME ZONE “Como Edition”. Each of these watches is a unique piece, as the hand-engraved hinged cuvette refers to the event: The “CONCORSO D’ELEGANZA VILLA D’ESTE” signature frames the coat of arms as well as the founding year 1929 and the current event year. They bridge the span from the first Concorso d’Eleganza to the present. This exceptional watch is not for sale. It is reserved exclusively for the winner in the “Best of Show” category.
In 2021, for the first time, this timepiece is an 18-carat white-gold edition of the 1815 CHRONOGRAPH with a pink-gold dial and a hand-engraved hinged cuvette. The selection of this watch, one of the most beautiful column-wheel-controlled flyback chronographs, as the new trophy is a reminiscence of the historic link between motor sport and time measurement.
The 1815 CHRONOGRAPH in the 39.5-millimetre white-gold case melds classic design with mechanical ingenuity. With its Arabic numerals and the railway-track minute scale, the dial in pink gold recalls A. Lange & Söhne’s legendary pocket watches. The brown subsidiary dials for the seconds and the minute counter contrast well against the bright background. The black rhodiumed gold hands for the hours and minutes, that match the case, and the steel chronograph hand, the subsidiary seconds hand and the minute-counter hand, which are also rhodiumed, ensure good legibility as well. A dark-brown strap made of hand-stitched leather with a prong buckle in white gold rounds out the colour concept.
In use since 2010, the manually wound calibre L951.5 features column-wheel control, a snail for the precisely jumping minute counter, and a refined flyback function. It has a power reserve of 60 hours. A large cam-poised balance wheel driven by a freely oscillating hairspring crafted in-house assures superior rate accuracy. Because it beats at a frequency of 18,000 semi-oscillations per hour (2.5 hertz), the watch delivers readings of stopped times with the accuracy of one-fifth of a second. The sapphire-crystal caseback reveals the lavishly hand-finished chronograph mechanism. A subtly composed choice of different materials and surface decorations emphasises the three-dimensionality of the movement architecture. The open configuration allows the critical switching processes to be observed. The hand-engraved balance cock with the Lange- style whiplash spring is visible as well.
