A. Lange & Söhne

You get the feeling when you visit Lange in Glashuette that to the workers there this is not just a job; they see themselves as custodians of a watchmaking tradition unique to the region and to their culture, which to them is a very precious thing, and it comes through, I think, in the watches.

On the original version of the Datograph vs. the new one --I am of two very divided minds on the subject.  I LOVE the idiosyncrasies of the original --the quirky Roman numerals in particular give it to me a very, very attractive character.  On the other hand, having had a chance to spend some time with the Auf/Ab, there is no doubt that it is in many respects a better design.  The dial is less cluttered and one very important improvement, though it may seem minor, is that the chronograph and running seconds subdials no longer "cut" the minutes track, which means it is possible to set the watch more easily and accurately.  The longer power reserve is a big plus as well; the fact is 36 hours is a little on the low end of the spectrum and I have had the watch run down on me (or I should say, have let it run down) occasionally, especially on the weekends, because you reach the end of the power reserve fairly quickly.

I also admire very much the fact that they keep making incremental improvements to what was already arguably the best manual wind chronograph movement in the industry --for instance the movement in the original had some engraving on the plate that was under a spring, and on rare occasions this would produce a little drag on the spring.  It was an extremely minor problem which virtually never produced any functional issues, but nonetheless in the new movement, they shifted the engraving to another part of the plate to avoid the risk of momentarily fouling the spring.  That kind of attention to detail is just one of the many reasons I have so much affection for Lange & Soehne and feel it is such a special company, and I hope they stick to their guns, keep production low and quality high, and just in general, don't forget who they are --as so many even haute de gamme level watchmakers seem to have done in recent years.

Jack

More posts: Datograph

  login to reply