A. Lange & Söhne has continued to mark a quarter century of the Saxonia family’s Datograph, with the launch of the limited edition Datograph Handwerkskunst. This follows on from the other commemorative models – the Datograph Up/ Down in white gold with a blue dial, and the Datograph Perpetual Tourbilllon Honeygold Lumen limited editions.
The Handwerkskunst models are all limited editions characterised by hand-finished dials and movement decorations that don’t appear in the brand’s usual production models, such as the use of tremblage, and relief engraving, both done by hand. This latest addition to this special series uses both of these, with a black-rhodium treated gold dial and the rhodium-plated chronograph sub dials featuring the finely grained surface achieved by tremblage. It is an attractive but very time-intensive form of manual decoration, and obviously best appreciated under a loupe.
The Datograph Handwerkskunst has a 41mm sized yellow gold case (13.1mm thick) with a crown for winding and time setting, two chronograph buttons, one button for rapid adjustment of the classic Lange outsized date
The functions on the dial are familiar – hours, minutes, a small seconds dial with stop seconds, flyback chronograph with jumping minute counter, and the outsized date. The applied indicies and Roman numerals are chamfered with straight training. The hour and minute hands are gold, whereas the subsidiary seconds, minute counter hands, and the chronograph seconds hand are steel with yellow gold plating.
Through the open case back can be seen the in-house manually wound L951.8. Beating at 18,800 VPH, it has a power reserve of 60 hours. It features plates and bridges on the three-quarter plate made from German silver, with the granular surface finishing on the bridges mirroring the tremblage decoration on the dial. As is the case with all of Lange’s watches, there is a hand-engraved balance cock which, for this birthday model. In this instance, it is a vine pattern design, but in this instance, it is in relief. The chronograph levers are black-polished, which means that incidental light is reflected in one direction.
Coming on a dark brown alligator strap with a yellow gold deployant buckles, the new A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Handwerkskunst is limited to twenty-five numbered pieces and is a boutique-only edition, with POA.
[Photo credit: A. Lange & Söhne]
Categories: A. Lange & Söhne, chronograph, German watches, Limited Editions, Watch Profile, watches