A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus titanium Watch Review
The A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus titanium perpetuates the story of the German marque’s highly coveted sports watch, first released in 2019. This version, released in 2022, is housed in a titanium case and is a beautifully proportioned, highly practical and superbly finished expression of fine watchmaking. Mark McArthur-Christie, discusses this eminently elegant expression of watchmaking in his own distinctive style.
The watch industry has a history of taking its time
Perhaps it’s a function of carefully measuring each unchanging second of time, but the watch business is not exactly given to rushing things. Despite this almost tectonic resistance to change, every now and then, pressure builds and suddenly there’s an earthquake. Back in the early 1970s, expensive watches were all about precious metals, slimline build and elegance. To be fair, the 1960s were pretty similar. And to be honest, the ‘50s were much the same. See what I mean?
Then Gerald Genta turned up with sketches for a top-end stainless steel sports watch and the industry’s continental plates snapped into a new pattern. Soon, one smart stainless sports watch followed another and the industry altered the way it looked at luxury.
Glashütte watches
Meanwhile, in Glashütte… well, nothing changed, really. The town’s watchmakers carried on doing what they did, steadily and splendidly. Elegant, interesting, beautifully constructed watches made their way from bench to wrist. Stainless sports watches? Very nice I’m sure if you like that sort of thing, but a bit arriviste.
As the turn of the last decade approached there were rumours, sure, but nothing of substance was spotted. Then, in 2019, A Lange & Söhne unveiled their Odysseus model – a brand new stainless steel, top-end sports watch. And it was a bit of a beauty, too. If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth taking a few years to do, right?
Lange Odysseus in titanium
Now, with positively indecent haste, a mere three years later and the Glashütte firm has put a titanium Odysseus on the market. Titanium? From Glashütte? At this rate there’ll be a digital watch by Christmas. Actually, a mechanical digital Lange would be a splendid thing indeed…
A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus titanium – dial
Now, despite all this rash rushing into using a completely new metal, Lange recognises that some things really shouldn’t change. Look at the dial and you’ll see the trademark day and two separate digit date windows. So far, so traditional. The buttons for adjusting them are faired into the case side near the crown (like the older Odysseus watches housed in stainless steel and white gold). But the rest of the dial is very different indeed. Have a close look at the chapter ring; see how the guilloché work arcs around the hour markers, making them look as though they’re recessed.
The sub seconds dial uses guilloché too, although without the arcs and contrasted with the same stippling as the main dial. The day and date wheels stand out on a white background against a blue-grey dial that keeps changing depending on the angle of the light; the other two Odysseus watches use the same shade for the dial and date/day wheels. This is one of those dials that, at first glance, seems simple but the more you look the more you see.
A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus titanium – case
Then there’s the new case material – the first time Lange has used titanium for a case. It comes in at nearly half the weight of steel, but this doesn’t make the new watch a horological lightweight, despite weighing a feathery 104 g. And titanium has a completely different feel from steel; even where it’s textured, there’s a silky smoothness to it. And, because of the way the metal oxidises, there’s a gentle shimmer to the case and bracelet. Lange hasn’t tried to up-size the watch to offset the metal’s lightness either. It’s a perfectly reasonable 40.5 mm in diameter and just a sparrow’s whisker higher than 11mm.
The bracelet is titanium too and picks up the same stippled texture as the dial, but with polished chamfers. Working titanium to this high level of finish is headache-making stuff, so hats off to the Lange team for delivering a top-level job. The clasp, with its own pusher and micro-adjuster (just depress the Lange roundel in the middle and you get an extra 7 mm of adjustment without having to take the watch off) must have been a particularly finicky production and finishing process to get right. Despite all this cleverness, it’s a cinch to size the bracelet because of the easy-to-separate link design.
And this is a proper sports watch, too. Screw the signature crown down and the case will happily deliver 120 m of water resistance, despite having a sapphire display back. That’s more than enough for any real-world application.
A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus titanium – L155.1 DATOMATIC movement
That clear caseback is well worth having because you are able to spend many happy hours just looking at the L155.1 DATOMATIC movement within. Just take the oscillating weight. These are usually pretty utilitarian things. They just rotate as your wrist moves and impart power to the mainspring. So far, so meh. But not here. For a start, the outer part of the weight is 950 platinum, so its notable density means that even lifting a glass of wine helps power your watch. The weight is finished in black rhodium plate (stippled again) and the outer rim is fixed with five blued screws (matching the other screws gracing the movement). This sort of attention to detail just makes you want to smile.
The balance that’s the grateful recipient of all this centrifugality runs at 28,000 vph (4 Hz) and will keep doing so for 50 hours if you decide not to take any more sips from that glass. The timing screws on the balance wheel are recessed to reduce drag (and, to be honest, to look smart too). And that balance bridge… anchored solidly at both ends (more blued screws – we do love a blued screw around here) with hand-engraving and a swan neck to correct any beat error. Bluntly, you could just spend a happy evening enjoying the balance bridge alone. Lange tells us that one can even tell which artisan performed the engraving – each is very slightly different.
But that hand-engraving is just one of the finishes on this Odysseus. The gear wheels and mainspring barrel get decorated with either circular graining or solarisation. The bridges get those lovely overlapping perlage circles. They’re produced by hand using a tiny peg with abrasive smeared on its tip. The three-quarter plate is appointed with Glashütte ribbing, made by a slightly inclined, rotating grinding wheel that is moved along its surface in straight, parallel lines. Even the stud holder is straight-grained. These are properly obsessive levels of finishing and I thoroughly approve.
Finally, the whole movement gets assembled twice, not because Lange’s watchmakers are in the habit of making a hay of things (far from it), but because that’s the best way to make sure everything fits just so.
A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus titanium – closing thoughts
Given all that, it’s hardly surprising that Lange will only be producing 250 of these titanium Odysseus watches.
It may have taken a few years for Glashütte to have got around to making a titanium sports watch to this elevated standard, but I’d say it’s been worth the wait.
Further reading
https://www.alange-soehne.com/
Technical specification
- Model: A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus titanium
- Reference: 363.117
- Case: titanium; diameter 40.5 mm; height 11.1 mm; sapphire crystal to the front and exhibition caseback
- Functions: hours; minutes; small seconds display with stop seconds; date; day of the week
- Movement: calibre L155.1 DATOMATIC; automatic movement; frequency 28,800 vph(4 Hz); contains 31 jewels; power reserve 50 hours (when fully wound)
- Strap: titanium with safety deployant buckle with precision length adjustment mechanism
- Price on application
- Limited Edition: 250 pieces