With the Odysseus, A. Lange & Söhne presented its vision of a sporty and elegant luxury watch designed for everyday use three years ago. The sixth watch family of the Glashütte-based German manufacture made its first appearance in a stainless-steel case pressure-tested to twelve bars and featured two large apertures for the weekday and date display, which are indicated in a mechanically digital fashion. This year, a titanium version, which is limited to 250 pieces, is being added, with the lightweight material marking a first for A. Lange & Söhne.
Equally new is the ice-blue dial color, which is underlined by a refined surface texture. The hour ring is distinguished by fine guilloched grooves that extend in gentle arcs to the hour markers, creating an embedded look.
The motif is repeated on the scale of the subsidiary seconds dial. The irregularly structured inner surfaces of the main and subsidiary dials contrast with the uniform lines. The argenté-coloured flange ring with the minute scale forms a shadow gap and adds lucidity to the dial. Among the Arabic five-minute numerals in black, the red printed 60 stands out as a refreshing colour accent. The sporty nature of the watch is emphasized by prominent hour and minute hands in the Lange-typical lance shape. Just like the notched baton appliques, they are made of polished white gold and filled with a luminous compound.
The case has a diameter of 40.5mm and a slender height of 11.1. It contains the self-winding manufacture caliber L155.1 Datomatic, which is visible through the sapphire crystal case back. A skeletonized and partially black-rhodium-plated central rotor with a 950 platinum oscillating weight delivers a powerful winding performance.
When fully wound, the watch boasts a power autonomy of 50 hours. The oscillation system is designed for superb rate stability. For this purpose, the balance beating with a frequency of 28,800 semi-oscillations per hour (4 hertz) has been aerodynamically optimized, with recessed poising screws and firmly suspended beneath the balance bridge. It is manually engraved with a stylised wave pattern. In line with Lange’s philosophy, all parts are lavishly hand-finished and the movement is assembled twice.
For its first watch with a titanium case, A. Lange & Söhne created a matching bracelet that forms a harmonious entity with the case. Thanks to its precision-stepped, easily operable adjustment mechanism, the length of the closed bracelet can be changed up to seven mm.
The new Odysseus retails for approximately $60,000 when converted to USD.
To learn more, visit A. Lange & Söhne, here.