By Dhananjay Pathak
The German town of Glashütte, is known as the birthplace of the German watchmaking and is home to many profound watch brands, with A. Lange & Söhne being one of them. A subsidiary of the Richemont group, A. Lange & Söhne is known for making exquisitely crafted luxury timepieces and just in case you are not aware of Lange’s work, watches such as the recently introduced A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Rattrapante perpetual calendar (which we looked at here) and the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk watch collection (which we went hands-on with here) are in my opinion a few good examples to exemplify the brands design ethos. The year 2017 has a special significance for the brand, as it marks the 10th anniversary of the brands first boutique that opened in Dresden in 2007. To celebrate this milestone the brand is introducing a special limited edition timepiece the A. Lange & Söhne 1815 “Cuvette”, a traditional looking watch featuring a hunter style engraved case back referred to as Cuvette.
Dresden Frauenkirche (a Lutheran church) is one of Dresden’s most famous landmark and after being destroyed during the World War II the iconic building was brought back to its glory between the year 1994 and 2005. Yes, we are not here to discuss Dresden’s history but this monument does hold a special place in A. Lange and Söhne’s own history and that is because the brand opened its first “proprietary” point of sale in September 2007 adjacent to the Dresden Frauenkirche. So, as a celebration of the boutiques 10th birthday, the brand has beautifully engraved the monuments picture on the case back of the A. Lange & Söhne 1815 “Cuvette”.
As mentioned before the case back on this watch is of hinged style and flipping open the case back offers a great view of the exceptionally decorated hand-wound movement, the calibre L051.1. This is an in-house movement which operates at a frequency of 3Hz, offering a power reserve of 55 hours. Being a manually wound movement implies that the proud owner of this watch would need to wind this watch every couple of days to preventing it from coming to a standstill, which could be a cause of concern for many people, but is one of my favorite details of this timepiece, as makes the ownership experience more interactive.
The dial on this watch has been nicely executed and is very clean and highly legible. The black printed Arabic numerals along with the railroad style minute track really work well here and provide a nice contrast against the silver dial. The seconds are represented through a subsidiary seconds dial at 6 which has been recessed to add a little depth to the dial. Time can be read using blued alpha handset for hours and minutes and a blued stick style seconds hand. Though I love the overall dial design on this watch, one of the things that I dislike is that the numeral at 6 had to be cut by half to accommodate the seconds subdial as it does disturb the overall symmetry to an extent.
The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 “Cuvette” is an elegant dress watch with some pocket watch nostalgia courtesy of the hinged case back, which has been made all the more special through the engraved historical motif. Also, as this is a limited edition timepiece the watch would be produced in a limited number of 20 (10 with gold case and 10 with a pink gold case), and depending upon the case type would come fitted with either a black or a brown alligator leather strap. Prices for the watch have not been announced as yet, but looking at how the regular 1815 is priced, we are expecting the prices of this watch to be north of 25,000 Euros. For more info, please visit alange-soehne.com
