Review of the A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Tourbillon V2 OXF
- The german symphony
I hope gentlemen you enjoy this review as much as i enjoyed writing it for you all. I hope you like it.
What is it that we love so much about watches? Is it the technical details? Is it all the innovation, craftsmanship, the marketing/branding we associate with it?
I would like to think it is about how they make us feel. Certain watches are made to be mesmerizing.
They make you feel more in connection with the gentleman within you.
And gentlemen, this is the kind of watch we have at hand here. It's a masterpiece made in Germany, i would go as far as to say it's the German symphony.
What do we love about Germany? Who said Autobahn or German cars? Well there are a lot of good things about Germany and any simplification would be unjust. But what first pops to mind is their innovative engineering, their craftsmanship and the order in everything.
It would therefore not surprise anyone that they also can make good watches. When did it start?
History of A. Lange & Söhne
There was a time when German watchmaking was a force to be reckoned. And they are coming back to that again. All the marketing power, money and lobbyism in Swiss watchmaking can’t hide the fact, that german watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne is on par with, or maybe even better than the brands in the holy trinity in Swiss watchmaking.
The eye for detail is astonishing, the level of finishing is done with such perfection, that one can’t ignore to acknowledge the Germans for their craftmanship. The centuries old tradition shines through, as A. Lange & Söhne was established in 1845 in Glashütte, Germany. In many years they took on the Swiss. During the WWII they produced precision timepieces for the military and Luftwaffe.
In 1948 after WWII they were nationalized and in a sense seized to exist.
It was in 1989 after the fall of the Iron Curtain, that Walter Lange (grandson of Adolph Lange) revived the brand as it is known today.
Current no. of production is estimated to around 5000 watches a year.
A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Tourbillon
The tourbillon even if it isn’t an important complication regarding the precision in wristwatches, it has a lot of historical importance. A. Lange & Söhne first produced a tourbillon in 2008, and invented it with a stop-mechanism (stopped the tourbillon as long as the crown was pulled).
In 2014 they introduced the 1815 Tourbillon with a patented zero-reset mechanism, not seen before in a tourbillon. It stops the rotation of the tourbillon and resets it to zero, when the crown is pulled.
The gen has a characteristic design for the 1815 line, with a railway style minute track and big arabic numerals. It has a blued steel minute and hour hand and seconds hand on the tourbillon cage at 6. It’s a simple design, with its german heritage shining through.
The movement has the characteristic Lange three-quarter plate in untreated german silver and a very well-finished movement and balance cock:
In mid 2018 a enamel dial version with red 12 marker was released:
A. Lange & Söhne caliber L102.1, operating at 21600bph (3hz), with a PR of 72 hours.
Gen facts
Diameter: 39,5mm
Thickness: 11,1mm
Tourbillon cage width: 13,2mm
Gen prices
RG: 164100 usd
Platinum: 201300 usd (limited to 100)
The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 (V2) OXF
As I have owned the previous version and was very fond of that, in the approx. 6 months I had it, I will compare it to that frequently in the following.
There was a lot of discussion on RWI regarding the thickness of this rep, as it was measured to be 13,9mm in one of the pre-release videos on youku. And this I will address later on.
Facts first
Rep case diameter: 41mm (previous version was 42mm)
Rep case thickness: Is a little above 13mm, and without the crystal approx. 12mm
Lug width: 22mm (confirmed)
Buckle width: 18mm (confirmed)
Strap: Black piece of garbage, as expected.
Case
The finishing is superb. The bezel and front of the lugs are mirror polished, as well as the case-back, while the mid-case and side of the lugs are brushed.
In the previous version the sides were polished. Which therefore is an improvement. As you can see the sides of the lugs are not brushed in gen, but over all it’s an significant improvement. As it gives a more refined look like the gen.
Crown is well-executed, although it’s a bit thicker than the gen.
Buckle
Although the gen comes with a deployant clasp, which was preferable. But we only get a pin buckle here. There is though, an improvement here from the previous version. The buckle is elegantly mirror polished and feels like it is of much higher quality than the previous versions badly brushed one.
Tourbillon
The tourbillon is placed at 6 and is bridged. It has a second’s hand on it and a rail-way type seconds track. Over all there are vast improvements in design. For example, the sabre is much better looking and even though there are still differences (fx the cock that zero-resets isn’t there in the rep), I would say it’s beautifully executed and looks more gen-like.
They managed to integrate a seconds hand, even though it doesn’t go all the way out to the periphery.
Dial
The dial is one thing that was very special about the previous version. Because it had that textured shimmery look and applied 3D numerals. And I am very relieved to experience that the V2 has the same. It’s a stunning dial. It looks better than the previous version, which had a too big dial. Now the balance between the tourbillon cage and the dial looks better and more gen-like to me:
The minute and hour hand are sword-shaped like the gen and in the blued color. Another improvement here is that the minutes hand goes all the way to the peripheral minutes track. This wasn’t the case with the previous version. I reckon it to be because it’s 1 mm less in diameter.
Crystal
Is crystal clear and with AR-coating. Doesn’t reflect anything much as seen in these two images. For the sake of the review i've put it on a black alligator strap, which is 21mm though, why the spring bars are showing (left image).
The thickness in my humble opinion is very good and the watch doesn’t feel too thick. Neither does it do that on the wrist. For me it feels as it has the same thickness as the previous version. Also, the old version had a big dial and felt very different than the gen in the looks of it. The V2 has a more “compact” look to it like the gen, because of the slightly smaller diameter and thickness of it. Also, it has the more genlike feel because of the brushed sides, the tourbillon cage design and the seconds hand on it.
Here compared to the gen on wrist:
Some more pictures of the rep on wrist:
Size compared with the Breguet 7057 Tradition, which is considered a thin watch:
Most of the thickness is below the lugs (in the wrist), which makes the watch look thinner when it's worn:
Case size comparison with the 40mm Breguet Tradition 7057:
Movement:
The decoration is fine. Off course it’s anything near what an A. Lange & Söhne movement feels like. I have once had the privilege to take a close look at an F.P. Journe Chronometre Souverain and a simple RG A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia thin (minute and hour hand only) pieces. When lying beside each other and in the hand the Saxonia felt like it had much better craftmanship, even the Journe movement being in gold. It was just better executed. So a rep can’t off course compete with this level of craftmanship, but at least on pictures they look more or less like it.
Major flaws
- Case diameter is 1,5mm more than gen
- Case thickness is about 2 mm bigger than gen (and hence dial is sunken)
- Brushed sides of the lugs
- Short second’s hand
- Slightly different tourbillon cage (acceptable, not so visible on wrist)
Same beautiful shimmery textured dial and three dimensional looking applied Arabic numerals. Better tourbillon cage design with a second’s hand and more gen-like sabre. Better looking tourbillon cage-dial ratio. More compact gen-like look of the watch.
Slightly thicker than the previous version.
Version 1:
Version 2:
Conclusion
For those of us who love A. Lange & Söhne, there are more compromises, than options. And we just have to accept this fact. As Lange is neither a big nor commonly popular brand. Rarely do we get "which is the best sub"-like questions in the A.L.&S. section. And we won't see a V9 Noob any time soon. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see that there was even released a second version of this watch. So how do I see this timepiece?
I would say, if there was a timepiece I was to wear while listening to Mendelssohn’s Violin Concert in E minor, Op. 64 live, this would be it.
Thanks a lot for reading the review!
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