Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Return of the Full-Platinum Bracelet on a Limited A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Perpetual
The platinum bracelet, once one of the most desirable accessories produced for A. Lange & Söhne watches, is officially back!
Like a few other high-end watch brands (AP, VC, PP…), A. Lange & Söhne has its fair share of ultra-collectable watches. The elusive steel Lange 1 is one of them. The Grand Complicatio,is anothern ultra-rare, ultra-complex watco. But you might be surprised to know that one of the most desirable items by A. Lange & Söhne is not a watch. It is the result of a collaborative effort between the Saxon brand and German jeweller Wellendorff. Yes, we’re talking about the rare metal bracelet that was once offered, but rarely ordered (because of its price), on several Lange watches, including the first-generation Datograph (made popular by basketball legend Michael Jordan). Now, after years of abscence, the platinum bracelet is back on the Datograph. Well, let me be a bit more precise: on an absolutely stunning version of the Datograph Perpetual with a glossy black dial and baguette-cut diamonds as hour markers.
The Wellendorff x Lange connection
The Datograph by A. Lange & Söhne is, together with the Lange 1, probably the most important model the brand has ever created. The German watchmaker’s vision of a classic hand-wound chronograph, it was first released in 1999. It originally came with calibre L951.1, one of the very few new chronograph movements in the watchmaking industry for many years, following the quartz crisis. Indeed, while it feels normal for high-end brands now to have their own in-house calibres, this wasn’t the case at all in the late 1990s. The Datograph was a groundbreaking moment in recent watch history. The first-generation Datograph (1999-2012) was primarily available in platinum, with later editions in pink and yellow gold, most of them worn on leather straps.
Far less common were editions worn on metal bracelets. These were not made internally but crafted by Wellendorff, the sole supplier of bracelets to Lange. Wellendorff was already acclaimed for its high-end jewellery and intricate metalwork, an expertise that was undeniable when seeing the platinum or gold bracelets fitted to a Datograph. When fitted from the factory on a new watch, these bracelet-worn Datograph had their own reference numbers, such as 453.135 (detachable platinum bracelet with straight ends, deplyant buckle), 453.035 (soldered platinum bracelet), 403.435 (a later version of the detachable platinum bracelet, with integrated end links) or 403.432 (the same on a pink gold watch).
These rare Datograph on bracelet, as well as the bracelets themselves, have now become extremely collectable. Just to give you an idea, online auction house Loupe This recently sold a first-generation, 7-link, 19mm straight-end platinum Wellendorff/Lange bracelet for a staggering price of USD 116,000. This was all the more a prized item, as these bracelets “are rarely encountered separately from the watches with which they were originally supplied,” as explained by Loupe This.
The return of the platinum bracelet… on a limited Datograph Perpetual
The big news today surely is the return of the full platinum bracelet… But there’s more to the story. What we’re looking at is a new version of the already highly desirable Datograph Perpetual, here fitted with a new glossy black dial and diamond markers. But let’s first talk about the main attraction: a new, five-row platinum bracelet. And by new, I mean entirely new, as it has nothing in common with the old Wellendorff bracelet (most of them had 7 links and were polished), nor with the metal bracelet that can be found on Lange’s sports Odysseus collection. The new bracelet, made entirely of 950 platinum, shows alternating brushed and polished links of different shapes – slight differences between the outer and inner ones – with highly pronounced lateral polished chamfers. It is fitted with a folding clasp, engraved with a bold “Lange” inscription (as it used to be on Wellendorff ones).
Now on to the watch… Technically, this edition remains identical to all previous iterations of the Datograph Perpetual. Launched in 2006 and thus celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, it was the first Lange wristwatch to unite a chronograph and a perpetual calendar with an outsize date. Built on the foundations of the first-generation Datograph (not the Up/Down model with extended power reserve launched in 2012), the Datograph Perpetual is one of the finest expressions of the chronograph complication at Lange, with its outsize (double-digit) date and flyback function.
Here housed in a 950 platinum case measuring 41mm in diameter and 13.5mm in thickness (same proportions as the white gold model from the permanent collection), what sets it apart visually, besides the bracelet, is the dial. Made of solid silver with a glossy black finish, it now includes rhodium-plated sub-counters and, mostly, 11 baguette-cut diamonds serving as the hour markers, with the 4 and 8 o’clock markers voluntarily omitted, while two diamonds mark the 12 o’clock position. The main hands are made of white gold, while the hands related to the chronograph sub-counter indications are made from blued steel.
The display is unchanged and remains visually balanced and fairly legible, at least considering the amount of indications on the dial of this Datograph Perpetual. Hours and minutes are read centrally, together with the chronograph’s elapsed seconds. The counter at 3 o’clock indicates the elapsed minutes (30-minute counter), the month and the leap years in an off-centred element. The 9 o’clock sub-dial is home to the small seconds, the day of the week and a day-night indicator. Last, the top of the dial houses the classic outsize date, forming an equilateral triangle with the sub-dials.
Under the sapphire caseback is a visually stunning movement with incredible depth and complexity. The in-house calibre L952.1 is the reunion of the first-generation Datograph base calibre (L951.1) with a perpetual calendar mechanism on top. As such, it doesn’t benefit from the extended power reserve of the Up/Down model, and stores only 36h of energy when fully wound. Made of 556 components, it retains a traditional column-wheel and horizontal clutch architecture paired with a flyback function, and beats at 18,000 vibrations/hour. As always with Lange, the finishing is exemplary, with a level of detail, depth and contrast that few can rival. The German silver mainplate and bridges feature polished edges and ribbing, creating a striking play of texture and colour with the blued screws and polished steel parts.
The stunning-looking A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Perpetual reference 410.136E, with its full-platinum bracelet, is unfortunately not going to be something easy to acquire. First of all, it is released in a limited run of only 50 pieces. Second, while the price is (as always with Lange) upon request, we can expect it to be well above EUR 250,000. That being said, it doesn’t cost anything to dream… For more details, please visit www.alange-soehne.com.
