EGN NEWS DESK
“To date, designing and crafting top-class chronographs ranks among the many best challenges in precision watchmaking,” states Anthony de Haas, Director Product Development. “As early as 25 years in the past, our engineers created a masterpiece with the Datograph that marries extremely subtle capabilities with a well-balanced dial configuration. This singular mixture of true engineering finesse and expressive design has made the Datograph an emblem of our philosophy to proceed to discover new avenues, and serves as an incentive for future developments.”
Five years after A. Lange & Söhne launched its inaugural assortment, the corporate unveiled the Datograph—its first-ever chronograph motion in 1999. The motion, named calibre L951.1, was a wholly unique design by the Saxon manufacture and included a column-wheel chronograph with a flyback perform, a exactly leaping minute counter, and the signature Lange outsize date.
This motion marked the preliminary step within the Saxon manufacture’s ongoing quest to increase the horological panorama, establishing the Datograph because the forefront of a collection that now contains 13 revolutionary fashions that includes a chronograph perform. The calibre L951.6, belonging to the Datograph UP/DOWN and unveiled in 2012, improved upon its predecessors with a power-reserve indicator and an prolonged energy reserve of 60 hours.
The Datograph Up/Down distinguishes itself with options designed for clear and exact time measurement, just like these required in early aviation. Its flyback mechanism, exact leaping minute counter, outsize date, and power-reserve indicator make it exceptionally useful. The flyback perform allows fast back-to-back time measurements by performing the cease, reset to zero, and restart actions consecutively with a single button press. The exact leaping minute counter advances on the actual second when the chrono seconds hand completes a full minute cycle. The “Up/Down” refers back to the power-reserve indicator situated at 6 o’clock, displaying the remaining time earlier than the watch wants winding, particularly when the indicator strikes into the pink zone after two days.
The Datograph Up/Down’s dial is a mannequin of trendy readability. Its harmonious association is immediately recognizable, with a twin aperture for the date beneath 12 o’clock forming the apex of an equilateral triangle configuration. The subdials for the small seconds and exactly leaping minute counter sit under the dial’s horizontal heart axis, enhancing the stability of the show. In this new iteration, the watch encompasses a blue dial, offering a putting distinction with the rhodié-colored subdials, luminous arms, and baton hour markers.
At the center of the Datograph Up/Down is the manually wound calibre L951.6, comprising 451 elements, every assembled twice and meticulously completed within the distinctive Lange model. This caliber is a paragon of technical excellence and aesthetic precision, working at 18,000 semi-oscillations per hour (2.5 hertz) and permitting for time measurements correct to one-fifth of a second. The inside workings, together with the minute counter mechanism and the column-wheel that controls the chronograph sequencing, are seen by way of the sapphire-crystal caseback.
The technical prowess of the motion is matched by its craftsmanship. Intricate particulars just like the acute inner angles discovered within the chronograph’s clutch rocker are notable for his or her precision, demanding distinctive talent and persistence to good. Other hallmark options embrace bridges crafted from untreated German silver and the hand-engraved stability cock with a whiplash spring, adorned with 4 gold screwed chatons.
The Datograph Up/Down is now accessible in three distinct variations. The dimensions of this new mannequin stay the identical, with a case diameter of 41.0 millimeters and a peak of 13.1 millimeters. Besides the most recent white gold with a blue dial version restricted to 125 items, the watch can also be supplied in platinum with a black dial and in pink gold with a black dial.
