Manufacturer: A. Lange & Söhne Year: Circa 2010 Reference No: 233.032 Movement No: 74’932 Case No: 188’310 Model Name: 1815 Material: 18K pink gold Calibre: Manual, cal. L051.1, 23 jewels Bracelet/Strap: Crocodile Clasp/Buckle: 18K pink gold A. Lange & Söhne pin buckle Dimensions: 40mm Diameter Signed: Case, dial, movement and buckle signed. Accessories: Accompanied by A. Lange & Söhne Guarantee dated February 4th, 2010 and stamped Tourneau, leather envelope and product literature.
Catalogue Essay
A Lange & Söhne’s 1815 collection was launched in 1999 as a tribute to their founder honoring his exacting standards and precision quality movements, which today resemble pocket watches made during Ferdinand’s time. They feature three-quarter plates, blued screws, hand-engraved balance cocks, and gold chatons. Lange worked diligently to consistently reproduce movements in a move toward standardization and better timekeeping, as well as advance mechanical standards. The 1815 collection is known for precision timepieces offered in a wide variety of models including a Grande Complication masterpiece, annual calendars and chronographs, perpetual calendars with split-seconds, and time only wristwatches like the present lot. Each model is a tribute to the horological traditions Ferdinand Adolph Lange sought to achieve with one common design attribute found on each model: the railway-track minute scale.
The present reference 233.032 embodies the 1815 heritage with a 40mm diameter pink gold case housing the manual wound L051.1 caliber with 55 hour power reserve, beautifully displayed through the sapphire crystal back. The silvered dial is highlighted by Arabic numerals, blued-steel hands and outer railway-track minute scale. The watch is in excellent overall condition and accompanied by the A. Lange & Söhne warranty dated 2010.
Originally founded in 1845 by Ferdinand Adolph Lange in Glashütte, Dresden, Germany, the firm established an entire watchmaking culture and industry in Glashütte. The brand quickly became Germany's finest watchmaker, first creating dependable, easy-to-repair watches before going on to produce some of the world's finest complicated pocket watches, including Grande Sonnerie watches, tourbillon watches and Grande Complications.
On the final day of World War II, their factories were destroyed by Russian bombers, and in 1948 the brand was confiscated by the Soviet Union. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, Ferdinand's great grandson Walter Lange re-established the brand with the objective to once again produce top-quality luxury watches. Now part of the Richemont Group, its original vintage and modern creations are highly coveted by collectors. Key models from the modern era include the Lange 1, Pour Le Mérite Tourbillon and the Zeitwerk.
