At the end of last month, A. Lange & Söhne held a grand special exhibition in Hong Kong, allowing watch enthusiasts to fully explore the brand’s watchmaking spirit and craftsmanship over the years. The Director of Product Development, Anthony de Haas, personally engaged in real-time conversations with the media, sharing the stories behind a series of new products and the brand’s vision for 2022. During the conversation that day, Mr. Anthony de Haas simply shared some thoughts about the future, but unexpectedly, a few weeks later today, the brand introduced another special piece – the 1815 Rattrapante chronograph watch.
Once again, the strength of the brand, A. Lange & Söhne, will release the “Chasing Needle” watch again after four years, which is destined to become a major news in the watch industry. However, what sets this apart is that the newly launched “Chasing Needle” no longer focuses on long-distance timing measurements, but rather measures the lap speed of a random number of laps within one minute, further expanding the timing function in the brand’s “Chasing Needle” series.
In terms of operation, the watch is equipped with two overlapping chronograph hands, namely the central chronograph hand and the central chasing hand. When the button at the 2 o’clock position is pressed, the two hands will start simultaneously. The central chasing hand can stop independently from the central chronograph hand, then resynchronize with it, and can be repeated indefinitely.
To successfully maintain this complex calculation and rotation, it absolutely relies on the powerful heart behind the 1815 Rattrapante. The new watch is equipped with the in-house L101.2 movement from A. Lange & Söhne, with time recording and split timing controlled by two column wheels and highly precise. When fully wound, it can provide a power reserve of 58 hours. Due to the free-swinging balance spring inside the movement, the vibration frequency can maintain an astonishing rate of up to 21,600 times per hour. As the power core of the new watch, the brand continues to present the perfect structure of the movement through the sapphire crystal case back, allowing the owner to appreciate it.
L101.2 movement, is the brand’s seventh in-house movement with a split-seconds chronograph function over the years, so the brand deliberately added special decorations during production, such as the upper bar, hairspring, and jumping device on the movement, all decorated with straight graining, while the chamfers are polished, and the beveled edges are a major challenge for finishing experts. This is featured in the 2020 limited edition of 100 pieces of the 1815 RATTRAPANTE HONEYGOLD “Homage to F. A. Lange” watch, made of the brand’s unique 18K honey gold alloy, commemorating the 175th anniversary of the Saxon watchmaking legend.
In terms of design, the new 1815 RATTRAPANTE is crafted in noble platinum with a 950 case, its bright silver-white dial contrasts sharply with the deep blue hands, while the details are adorned with an outer “railroad track” minute scale, tachymeter scale, and Arabic numeral hour markers.
In terms of dial layout, due to the self-developed movement by the brand, watchmakers can freely choose the position of the sub-dials. For example, the 30-minute counter and small seconds sub-dial, usually located at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock, have been moved to 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock, positioned on a vertical central axis. The symmetrical layout gives the 1815 RATTRAPANTE a harmonious and expressive personality, reflecting the classic A. Lange & Söhne pocket watches and the series named after founder Ferdinand Adolph Lange’s birth year.
Since its reestablishment by A. Lange & Söhne, a variety of watches have set new standards in the industry. When it comes to mentioning the masterpiece of “chronograph” watches, it is impossible not to mention the pioneering history of precision watchmaking that the brand opened in 2004, presenting the DOUBLE SPLIT chronograph with dual rattrapante hands, greatly extending the range of split timing from 60 seconds to 30 minutes. In addition, with the introduction of the TRIPLE SPLIT in 2018, the new third pair of hands can be stopped independently, allowing the timing and rattrapante functions to be maintained for up to 12 hours, once again pushing the boundaries of “chronograph” watches to the highest level. Now, the brand new 1815 RATTRAPANTE is grandly introduced, indicating that A. Lange & Söhne is once again showcasing its pursuit of this craftsmanship. This new masterpiece will be globally limited to 200 pieces, exclusively available at authorized retailers, so collectors may want to inquire with the brand.
資料及圖片來源：Courtesy of A. Lange & Söhne
