A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1 Daymatic Watch

Although I've written about the new A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1 Daymatic watch elsewhere, I needed to mention it to my primary audience here on aBlogtoRead.com, especially after getting my hands on them. Lange has officially released a new "grail watch." Extending the attractiveness of the Lange 1 line even more by essentially adding a new automatic movement and twisting up the design a bit. Plus, the watch has grown by just a hair from the Lange 1. When A. Lange & Sohne was a reborn luxury brand in the 1990s, the avant garde Lange 1 watch to be their flagship model - with a look and poise un-paralleled elsewhere. Now, 15 years after the Lange 1 debuted its asymmetric face, we are presented with a new vision of the model.

It is important to realize that there have been a number of Lange 1 watch iterations over the years. From the large sized XL model with its overlapping dials, to the world timer or moonphase models - the watch collection certainly has its share of versions. However, instead of just adding functionality here, the Lange 1 Daymatic is a real reinterpretation of the watch line - as seen in the eyes of an automatic. While it may seen unexciting to you that the major change is just the addition of an automatic movement - realize that A. Lange & Sohne makes very few automatic movements. Normally none of their flagship models have these convenient mechanical movements included. The movement has all the standard beautiful decoration with a gold rotor that has platinum around the edge for additional weight.

Manually wound movements are often preferred in high luxury watches - especially those of distinct Germanic flavor. Why? Because the movements feel more traditional when they are manually wound, but more importantly, you can have an unobstructed view of the movement. A. Lange & Sohne makes all of their own movements. This includes the design, to the manufacture of tiny parts, to the decoration, to the intense assembly and testing. Because each watch spends so many hundreds of hours being detailed and finished, the brand needs you to see what it is that you are paying for. It begins to make a lot more sense why a watch cost's $50,000 or more dollars when you know that it took 6-12 months to complete it by hand. Then when you see the movement and its beautiful, meticulous finishing and decor, you "get it." An automatic movement has so much of the movement covered with the oscillating rotor, that this becomes a bit of an issue. At least this is the idea. You can easily disagree with it.