An A. Lange & Söhne watch with a bracelet is a rare and sought-after item, with vintage examples in hot demand. Lange’s new Datograph Perpetual in platinum – graced with a five-row bracelet – is therefore big news for collectors, and with only 50 pieces, it’s a watch they will be strenuously competing for.
The Datograph Perpetual, launched in 2006, was the first the first A. Lange & Söhne wristwatch to combine a chronograph and a perpetual calendar with an outsized date. It contains a manual wound movement, with no rotor to hide its intricate decoration, visible through the caseback.
The bracelet is a rare touch, particularly in platinum. There has never been a bracelet on a Datograph Perpetual, with the exception of a special-edition Datograph Up/Down Hampton Court. There are no other bracelet models in the current Lange catalog, other than the Odysseus Chronograph. Few braceleted Langes have ever been made, which means vintage examples are hard to come by.
As a perpetual calendar, it displays date, day of week and month across decades while also recognizing which years are leap years. On 1 March 2100, when the leap year is omitted according to the Gregorian calendar, the calendar display must be corrected by one day. The chronograph is a column wheel mechanism with a flyback function, which can measure to one fifth of a second. The watch thus delivers precise long and short-interval timing in one package. There is also a tachymeter scale, and Lange’s signature outsized date window. The dial is dressed up for the occasion, with 11 hand-applied baguette-cut diamonds as hour markers (with a total weight of approx. 0.13 carats). A pair of diamonds are set at the 12 o’clock-position, while the markers were omitted at 4 and 8 o’clock, creating space for the auxiliary dials. The movement is the manually wound caliber L952.1, with a 36 hour power reserve. Each watch is numbered from 1 to 50. Priced at $276,000.
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