A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus Debuts in White Gold with Integrated Rubber Strap
In 2019, Germany's A. Lange & Söhne marked its 25th anniversary in grand style with the launch of its first steel luxury-sports watch, the Odysseus. This week, headlining its 2020 releases announced on the Watches & Wonders digital platform, the manufacture unveils the first Odysseus in a precious metal case — which also happens to be the first-ever Lange watch offered on a sporty rubber strap.
The new Odysseus takes several steps up from its steel predecessor on the luxury end, with its three-part, 40.5-mm case in white gold, with a sculpted, slightly cantilevered middle band, satin-brushed surfaces and chamfered edges. Two sealed, tapered buttons at 2 and 4 o’clock on the case middle are used for quick correction of the date and day-of-the-week indications on the dial. The screw-down crown on the 11.1-mm-thick case imparts a sport-friendly water resistance of 120 meters.
The dial of this white-gold model is gray, with a traditional hours and minutes display, on Lange's signature lancet-shaped hands; a small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock; and prominent day-of-the-week and date displays in apertures at 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock, respectively. Like its steel predecessors, which were mounted on a sophisticated integrated bracelet and bore dark blue dials, the new Odysseus offers a multi-textured structure on its face: the outer edge of the dial and subdial have an azurage surface, while the inner surfaces are grained; the argenté flange is beveled, with a printed minute scale; the notched, baton-shaped hour indices are made of white gold and have luminous coating. A red-colored numeral “60” appears at 12 o’clock on the minutes scale, and the letters and numerals of the calendar indications are printed white in a familiar Lange font.
Inside the case is the self-winding, manufacture movement, the L155.1 Datomatic (the name refers to the combination of a date mechanism with an automatic winding system), which debuted in the original Odysseus and can be seen through the sapphire caseback. The unidirectionally winding rotor has a central mass made of platinum, includes black rhodiumed elements, and is openworked to allow a view of the meticulously finished movement elements that Lange lovers have come to expect. The caliber measures 32.9 mm in diameter and is composed of 312 total parts, including the 99 parts that make up the newly developed mechanism driving the day and date displays. German silver is used for all the movement’s framing parts, the balance bridge is engraved by hand, the freely oscillating balance spring is made in-house, and a screwed gold chaton, another hallmark of the Saxon watchmaker’s movements, secures the upper bearing jewel of the escape-wheel arbor. The balance oscillates at 28,800 vph and the movement stores a power reserve of 50 hours when fully wound.
The Odysseus in white gold is also the first in the young, sport-luxury family — positioned as the sixth pillar in the A. Lange & Söhne product portfolio, along with the Lange 1, Saxonia, 1815, Richard Lange, and Zeitwerk — to be mounted on an integrated strap rather than the original's meticulously designed steel-link bracelet. The two options are hand-stitched brown leather with gray contrast stitching and, more notably, an all-new black rubber strap with comfort-enhancing "air ducts." — both with a prong buckle in white gold. The price is $40,600.
