The Best A. Lange & Söhne Watches To Buy Now

When watch collectors think of German watches, they tend to envision the classic Flieger, or maybe something that is distinctly Bauhaus.  German watchmaking is so much more than those two narrow examples, however.  When you look at what A. Lange & Söhne are producing, you see what can be done when German precision is combined with luxury watches.

From that description — if you were not familiar with A. Lange & Söhne — you might be thinking of some very classic and sterile dress watch designs.  While they certainly have some watches that start to lean in that direction, they also have a number of very interesting, and dare we say fun, designs in their collection.  And that’s before you consider the level of finishing that goes into their movements.  Let’s walk you through what we feel to be ten of the best.

A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Thin Copper Blue

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As we mentioned at the outset, one might think of a brand like A. Lange & Söhne creating sterile dress watches.  With an ultra-thin case, polished indices and sword hands, you’ve got the start of something familiar.  But then you get to the dial, and you’re presented with something that just grabs the eye and refuses to let it go.  The dial itself is made of solid silver, coated in goldstone that’s layered with copper oxidized crystals within the coating. This is an old Venetian technique used to simulate the shimmering effect found in natural Aventurine stone.  This is a stunning effect that is not found on many watches.

A. Lange & Sohne 730.079F 1815 Tourbillon Enamel Dial

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Sometimes, a sparkling dial like on the prior watch might be a bit too much.  But what if you want something more than just the simple painted brass blank?  How about enamel?  A true enamel dial will play with the light in a way you would not expect, and immediately sets it apart as something different.  Then again, the tourbillon at the base of the dial cements that.  There’s also a very clever zero-reset mechanism that allows you to stop, set, and restart the watch with one-second accuracy. When you pull the crown out, the seconds go to zero, and the tourbillon stops (no mean feat).  Then you set it to the external source, and push the crown back in at the start of the minute.

A. Lange & Söhne Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar “Terraluna”

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Not all A. Lange & Söhne watches have all of their secrets hiding on the dial side.  Many expose the movement on the reverse, giving the owner the ability to appreciate the finishing that goes into all of the components.  While the front of the watch gives us a deconstructed regulator, the reverse is a celestial show unto itself.  This piece has an orbital moon phase indicator that displays stars and the moon rotating around the earth while going through its phases and will be accurate for over 1000 years without an adjustment. The globe, showing the northern hemisphere and broken down to each timezone, goes through a full 24-hour rotation as the moon revolves around it.  You’ll also want to take notice of the balance wheel, which is positioned where the sun would be, allowing you to visualize the screws on the wheel as rays of sunlight.

A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia 105.027

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While the movement in the A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia 105.027 is no slouch, what we really want to highlight here is just how compact this particular watch is.  The case comes in at just 33.9 mm, which is compact by even today’s standards.  Despite the smaller size, you still have the oversized date display, and reading the time off of the dial is simple, due to how clean the layout is.  As symmetrical as things are, you might be wondering what that pusher is just above the crown.  That is there for one reason – to adjust the date.  No fiddling with the crown here when a short month rolls around, just use the rectangular pusher — a convenience not to be understated.

A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 25th Anniversary 191.066

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 For a watch that is slightly larger (only slightly), you might prefer to look at the A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 25th Anniversary 191.066.  This particular model is a sort of “greatest hits” of prior Lange 1 models, bringing a hunter caseback, argenté dial, and blued hands to your wrist.  The movement is of particular note as well, as it contains a double-barrel configuration.  This nets you a 72-hour power reserve.  And should you not get to it before it runs down, the movement stops the seconds hand right at zero, so you can set it back to an accurate time when you get it running again.  This is courtesy of the L121.1 calibre (introduced in 2015) tucked into the 38.5mm case.

A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Time Zone 136.029

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If you liked that dial layout on the Lange 1 25th Anniversary, but find yourself wanting (or needing) to track multiple time zones, then there is the A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Time Zone 136.029.  This particular version was released in 2020 (when just about no one was traveling) and heralded the first update to the model since 2005.  On the left hand side of the case you’ll find two pushers – one for adjusting the date (as we saw on the Saxonia), and another for adjusting what city (and the reference time) that is being tracked in the second time zone subdial.  Once you’ve set the main time (using the crown, as usual, which also adjusts the second time zone), all you need to do to adjust the second time zone is work the pusher as your plane lands in your new destination.  As far as these sorts of watches go, this is an elegant simplicity to what it enables.  Around back, you’re treated with the superb finishing on the movement, as well as an unexpected treat – some components actually mounted over top of the main plate, giving you a little more visual interest.

A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus

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So far, we’ve shown you a number of Lange watches that are very dressy in appearance.  If you find yourself looking for something that leans a bit more towards a classic steel sports watch – but still want that superb movement work – then it’s the A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus for you.  For us, we thoroughly enjoy that the large date display has been kept, and is balanced out by the day-of-week display on the left side of the dial.  To create a watch that is ready to go toe-to-toe with the other luxury steel sports watches, Lange created a brand new movement.   Inside beats the new Calibre L155.1 DATOMATIC made from the ground up for this watch line. This is an automatic movement with a shock-resistant balance, a 50-hour power reserve, and finishing to a level that only Lange can achieve.  Of course, that new movement allowed them to keep the dial ever-so-Lange, including the running small seconds, rather than a centrally-mounted seconds hand.

A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Up/Down “Lumen” Ref. 405.034

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No conversation about movements would be complete without at least one chronograph appearing to showcase the technical know-how that such a movement represents.  Lange produced their first in-house chronograph movement just nine years after they relaunched.  This is no small feat, considering these facts about some other brands you are no doubt familiar with. After A. Lange & Söhne released the Datograph, it took another seven years for Patek Philippe to introduce an in-house chronograph. Vacheron and AP took another 16 and 20 years respectively to create their own in-house equivalents. Sufficient to say building an in-house chronograph is extremely difficult, making one as beautiful as the movement in the Datograph can only be done by A. Lange & Söhne. This is why the Datograph is such a celebrated and collectible timepiece. This particular version was released in 2010, and brings an almost unexpected shot of lume to the watch, making the watch look quite different in the evenings.

A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 Moonphase “Lumen” 139.035

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Of course, the Datograph is not the only watch in their collection that gets the luminous treatment.  For another example, we’d point you to the A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 Moonphase “Lumen” 139.035.  Again, you’ve got a smoked sapphire dial allowing light to reach the luminous elements under the dial, allowing the date, for instance, to still light up when it changes over at midnight.  That’s not all that glows, however.  The luminescent moon phase draws in one’s gaze, especially the fully lit green against the black parts of the dial. The smoked sapphire allows for details of the dial side of the movement to be seen as well. Both discs for the date indication have a luminescent background behind their black numerals. The A. Lange & Söhne logo and other printing are applied to the semi-transparent dial, which creates a rather charming floating effect to the text.  Housed in a 41mm, this is a rare Lange that you should jump at the opportunity to see in person, should it present itself.

A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Striking Time

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While opinions will certainly differ, I feel that I have saved the best for last.  Or, if not the best, perhaps the most unique.  While we expect large digits on a Lange dial, we think of them as dates.  On the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Striking Time, however, they’re actually a digital display — hours and minutes — of the time.  If implementing that was not challenging enough, there was also a musical element added to the watch.  With the strikers and gongs flanking the subseconds dial, you have a quarter sonnerie complication, meaning that every fifteen minutes the right striker taps the gong, producing a pleasing and high tone that audibly marks the passage of time.  At the change of an hour the left striker goes to work, producing a single lower but equally enjoyable timbre. Sure, your phone can pull similar feats in time display and chimes, but this watch gets things done with an elegance your phone cannot even hope to approach.  And should those tones not be desired, you can use a pusher to disengage them, so the tones are disturbing, say, a meeting or your sleep.