Sports, like so many things in life, are a matter of taste and talent. One person may choose to compete in the Ironman challenge while another considers chess to be a sport. The latter is in good company because the International Olympic Committee agrees with him.

Eager to woo adherents of both viewpoints, A. Lange & Söhne advertises its new Odysseus, our test watch, as a “sporty, elegant watch for very active people.” The elite manufacture has given this new watch plenty of features that make it more robust and enlarge its field of activity. Choosing stainless steel as the material for its case already helps quite a bit because this alloy is much less susceptible to scratches than the precious metals gold and platinum, which Lange has used exclusively in its watches. And unlike Lange’s typical crocodile-skin straps, this model’s stainless-steel bracelet doesn’t mind a dip in a lake. Furthermore, wearing this watch while enjoying activities that raise a sweat doesn’t mean you’ll have to pay €290 plus VAT (around $375 total) to replace a stained but otherwise high-quality leather strap.

A Supple Stainless-steel Bracelet with a Sophisticated Clasp
High temperatures or physical exertion can also cause your wrist to swell slightly, but that’s not a problem for Lange’s Odysseus thanks to the clever adjustment system in its clasp. The circular logo on the buckle can be pressed down, thereby lengthening the strap in fine increments to add a maximum of 7 mm. Simply push the strap back into the buckle to shorten it. This practical mechanism works very well and we used it more often than we’d initially expected.

Alongside stainless steel as the material for the case and bracelet, the case’s increased resistance to pressure qualifies this watch to participate in a wider range of activities. The Odysseus is the first Lange watch that can withstand pressure of 12 bar, which corresponds to water pressure at a depth of 120 meters. Strictly speaking, the pressure resistance to a depth of 30 meters that Lange typically provides isn’t even suitable for a shower or a swimming pool. Thanks to its screw-down crown, the Odysseus can easily survive a dive from the deck of a sailboat. A sporty watch should be easy to read, both in the light and in the dark. The Odysseus meets this requirement with luminous material on its hour hand, its minutes hand and its large indexes; only the small seconds hand remains dark.

With all of these new features, is the Odysseus still recognizable as a Lange watch? There’s no cause for concern here because the manufacture has retained important characteristic features. This applies to the lance-shaped hands and to the seconds hand with its skeletonized counterweight, to the typeface used for the calibrated scales and, to a certain extent, to the case, for example, the shape of the lugs and the polished bezel. Of course, Lange’s big date display also contributes to recognizability. The large width of the bracelet at the lugs and the comparatively delicate hand for the small seconds admittedly take some getting used to, but all in all, Lange has adroitly combined new and old design features.

The Blue Dial — a Work of Art in Itself
The dial is a work of art: both the wreath of hour indexes and the subdial for the seconds are grooved, while the inner part of both the main dial and the subdial have rough surfaces. The bar-shaped hour indexes are made of white gold and each one not only slopes downward toward the center of the dial, but also has an M-shaped cross section and is filled with luminous material along its midline. The satin-finished minutes scale runs along the flange — a practical solution, and a somewhat unusual one for Lange. The red numeral 60 on the flange adds a dash of sportiness and also recalls the red numeral 12 that Lange used on rare anniversary models with enamel dials.

Also new, the day of the week appears in a window positioned directly opposite the double aperture for the big date. Like the dial, the disks for these two displays are blue — a small but important detail that’s all too often ignored. And when it’s overlooked, the mismatched color scheme detracts from the harmony of the design. In addition, the typeface chosen for the displays is the same one that spells out the brand’s name on the dial.

Lange not only developed the mechanism for the day-of-the-week display; it also redesigned the mechanism for the big date because the latter is now located near the edge of the dial, instead of closer to the middle as before. To achieve the largest possible display area, the big date indicator puts the digits into a ones ring and a 10s disk instead of in the previous cross shape. Furthermore, the ones ring is now larger and runs around the periphery of the movement, so it’s marked with the digits 0 to 9 twice.

The mechanism for the day of the week and the big date is propelled by the hour wheel, which completes one full circle every 12 hours. Its motion is transmitted to the 24-hour wheel, which requires one full day to finish each 360° rotation. The 24-hour wheel directly advances the day-of-the-week indicator. At the same time, it also propels a program wheel that guides the proper progress of the ones ring and the 10s disk. The program wheel powers the gear train of the ones ring so that it advances by one increment per day. An exception occurs when the 31st day of an expiring month transitions into the first day of a new month, in which case a missing tooth in the program wheel assures that the gear shift is skipped once. The program wheel also propels the gear train of the 10s disk every 10 days. Only when changing from the 3 to the empty field does switching take place after two days rather than 10. To correct the date, Lange has integrated two pushers into a component that’s likely to be mistaken for a crown protector: the upper pusher advances the date and the lower one resets the day of the week by one day. These pushers, disguised as crown protectors, are easy to operate and each has a precise pressure point. It’s extremely unlikely that they would be triggered unintentionally. The special design also makes it possible to switch both indicators forward or backward by turning the crown clockwise or counterclockwise beyond the midnight position. The mechanism cannot be damaged by incorrect use. In total, the calendar system consists of 99 components.

A New Movement, from Automatic Winding to The Balance
Lange didn’t merely redesign the calendar function; the entire movement was engineered specially for the Odysseus by the Glashütte-based company. Caliber L155.1 Datomatic with unidirectional winding rotor builds up a 50-hour power reserve. With a diameter of 32.9 mm, it’s the right size for this watch and, in addition to automatic winding, it offers other features that are appropriate for a sports watch movement. For example, it’s the first Lange caliber with a balance paced at the speedy frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour. Thanks to this faster pace, shocks and vibrations exert less of an effect on the accuracy of the movement. To minimize air turbulence at this higher frequency, the engineers designed a smooth balance wheel with four countersunk regulating screws rather than relying on a classic screw balance or a balance with regulating weights on top of its wheel.

Lange also designed the bearing of the balance wheel for optimum robustness. Instead of a cock, which is borne on only one side, the balance of the Datomatic is supported by a bridge, which is screwed on both sides. Lange’s typical swan’s neck fine adjustment for the beat has been replaced by a similar construction in which a vertical eccentric screw replaces the horizontal one.

When it comes to embellishments, Lange has upheld its time-honored practices. The balance’s bridge is manually engraved with floral motifs, its edges are beveled and polished, and its screws are blued. There’s a three-quarter plate and at least one bearing jewel in a screwed gold setting, which accepts the pivot of the escape-wheel’s shaft and thus defines the heart of the watch in a very traditional way. Only the striped pattern has slightly wider stripes than usual. Every detail embodies horological artistry at the highest level, just as one would expect to encounter in a Lange timepiece.

A Genuine Lange Watch with an Expanded Field Of Application
The rate values are equally impressive. The Odysseus that we tested gained only 1 second per day on the wrist. Our timing machine reconfirmed the accurate timekeeping and calculated an average daily deviation of +1.1 seconds with a fully wound mainspring. The amplitude and thus also the accuracy decrease significantly after 24 hours, but this is less relevant for an automatic watch. What is important, however, is the wearing comfort. When it comes to metal bracelets, you sometimes have to make compromises, but Lange’s new bracelet lies very smoothly on the wrist and doesn’t pinch any hair. In addition to the quick adjustment mechanism mentioned earlier, the bracelet can also be shortened easily. Two recessed pushers on the back and toward the outside of each link can be pressed to remove individual links.

Lange modified the design of the bracelet and the clasp. The ingenious extension system in the buckle and the construction of the bracelet were developed by IWC for its Pilot’s chronographs. (Lange and IWC are both part of the Richemont Group.) The workmanship is perfect throughout the watch, with the sole exception of milling marks that weren’t polished off on the inner sides of the clasp’s hinges. Beveled and polished edges are a distinguishing feature of high-quality watches. Lange accordingly bevels and polishes the edges of parts in the watch’s movement, case and bracelet. These shiny planes contrast beautifully with satin-finished surfaces and add a distinctive sporty touch to the five rows of links that comprise the stainless-steel bracelet.

The Odysseus is therefore a genuine Lange watch — and readily recognizable as such —thanks to the movement’s technology and the typically high quality of the workmanship and embellishments. Furthermore, the manufacture from Glashütte has significantly expanded the range of applications for its watches with this first serially produced model in stainless steel, which offers a case made from a robust mater-ial and with greater pressure resistance, in combination with an excellent metal bracelet equipped with a quick-adjustment mechanism. These features are well worthwhile — not only on a sailing trip, but also on a summer day beside an invitingly cool lake.

SPECS:
Manufacturer: A. Lange Uhren GmbH, Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 1, 01768, Glashütte, Germany
Reference number: 363.179
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, big date, day of the week
Movement: In-house Caliber L155.1, automatic, 28,800 vph, 31 jewels, Lange hairspring, Glucydur balance, Kif shock absorption, fine adjustment via four regulating screws, the beat can be finely adjusted via an eccentric and a swan’s neck spring, 50-hour power reserve, diameter = 32.9 mm, height = 6.20 mm
Case: Stainless steel, sapphire crystals rated 9 on the Mohs scale above the dial and in the back, water resistant to 120 meters
Bracelet­­­­ and cla­­sp: Stainless steel, secured deployant buckle with integrated mechanism to finely adjust the bracelet’s length
Rate results (Deviation in seconds per 24 hours, fully wound/after 24 hours):
On the wrist +1.1
Dial up +0.4 / +2.2
Dial down +3.3 / +3.4
Crown up -1.3 / -6.8
Crown down +2.5 / -4.0
Crown left +0.4 / -6.3
Greatest deviation 4.6 / 10.2
Average deviation +1.1 / -2.3
Average amplitude:
Flat positions 278° / 238°
Hanging positions 245° / 196°
Dimensions: Diameter = 40.5 mm, height = 11.1 mm, weight = 146.0 g
Price: $28,800

For a close look at the newest version of the Odysseus, in white gold with an integrated, sporty rubber strap, click here.

The live and in-person three-day event will once again take place at midtown Manhattan’s Gotham Hall and will welcome an eclectic and impressive group of more than 30 participating watch brands, as well as collectors, connoisseurs, industry VIPs and influencers, and other members of the worldwide watch community. This year’s edition will span three days, from Friday, October 20, through Sunday, October 22, with an exclusive cocktail party and watch show on opening night, followed by full day shows, panels, and presentations throughout the rest of the weekend.

For 2023, participating brands include A. Lange & Söhne, Armin Strom, Arnold & Son, Bell & Ross, Blancpain, Bovet, Breguet, Bremont, Carl F. Bucherer, Chopard, Chronoswiss, Cyrus, Czapek, Frederique Constant, G-SHOCK, Gerald Charles, Glashütte Original, Greubel Forsey, H. Moser & Cie., HYT, Laurent Ferrier, Louis Erard, MB&F, Moritz Grossmann, Norqain, Oris, Parmigiani Fleurier, Perrelet, Reservoir, RGM, Speake-Marin, Voutilainen, and Zeitwinkel. The event is presented in partnership with the renowned jeweler and exquisite timepiece retailer Wempe.

Industry panels will be presented on Saturday and Sunday at 12pm and 2pm and are included in price of admission. 

• Watch Brand Collaborations: Moderated by Renowned Collector Jeff Kingston
• The Return of the Dress Watch: Moderated by Jeff Kingston
• Time for Sustainability: Moderated by WatchTime Editor-in-Chief Roger Ruegger
• A New Day – Trends in Collecting for Men and Women: Moderated by WatchTime’s Senior Editor Bilal Khan and Publisher Sara Orlando

WatchTime and its partners are incredibly excited to welcome you back this October for this fantastic and important event. Tickets are available now, here, along with more info on WatchTime New York 2023 and its participating brands.

Time & Location

Oct 20, 5:30 PM – Oct 22, 4:00 PM

Gotham Hall, 1356 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA

Ticket Details

Two types of tickets are available for admission to WatchTime New York 2023: Friday Night VIP 3-day weekend admissions and general admission single day tickets. The Friday Night VIP Weekend admission is an all-inclusive offering with access to WatchTime New York’s opening night cocktail reception and re-entry on Saturday and Sunday at no extra cost. General admission permits access on either Saturday or Sunday, but not the Friday cocktail reception.

• Friday Night VIP Cocktail Reception, October 20th: 5:30pm-8:30pm
• Saturday General Admission, October 21st: 11am-5pm
• Sunday General Admission, October 22nd: 11am-4pm

Friday Night VIP tickets are priced at $189, here, with single day general admission tickets priced at $39, here. Use code EARLYBIRD at checkout for $10 off VIP weekend admission, and code EARLYBIRDBOGO for two GA tickets for the price of one! Both promo codes expire on June 30.

Industry panels will be presented on Saturday and Sunday at 12pm and 2pm and are included in price of admission.

To learn more, visit WatchTime’s event site, here.

Even if the Odysseus isn’t to your taste, this new release prompts me to write some of the most beautiful words composed in the English language: the debut of a new Lange movement. While first three Odysseus models all utilized the L155.1 Datomatic caliber, this chronograph edition debuts the L156.1 caliber which also happens to be Lange’s first automatic chronograph. As you can likely guess, the L156.1 builds on the L155.1 so rid yourself of any connections or associations you may be making with the L.951.5 caliber found in the 1815 manual wind chronograph, L.951.6 seen in the Datograph Up/Down, L001.1 seen in the Double Split, L.132.1 found in the Triple Split, or L101.2 seen in the 1815 Rattrapante. Allow me a moment while I catch my breath… Lange sure has made a lot of chronograph movements, haven’t they? And that’s not even all of them.

Well, the L156.1 caliber is something new altogether. Notice how there are no sub-dials with chronograph registers? Rather than the typical method of showing elapsed time through sub-dial registers, the Odysseus Chronograph has a central “lozenge” shaped hand that ticks along with each of the elapsed 60-minutes (makes even a 30-minute chronograph seem a little anemic in comparison, no?). As for the basics, it operates at 4 Hz and has a 50-hour power reserve. As for finishing, you’ve got the classic warm German silver plates and bridges coupled with a hand-engraved balance bridge, gold chatons with blued screws, and a black-rhodiumed central rotor with platinum centrifugal mass. 

As for the case, it is 41mm wide and 14.2mm thick (with 120 m of water resistance) with matching stainless steel bracelet. The aesthetics are “classic Odysseus” at this point which is impressive considering the addition of chronograph functionality. The pushers blend into the Odysseus design language seamlessly but, of course, these aren’t typical chronograph pushers. The 2 o’clock pusher activates and stops the chronograph, which is simple enough. However, the 4 o’clock pusher activates the reset-to-zero function which moves the minute counter back to 12 o’clock but the red chronograph hand does rapid revolutions for each minute elapsed. If less than 30-minutes, the chronograph hand moves anti-clockwise and if it has surpassed 30-minutes, it will move clockwise. To the eye, this just looks like the minute counter hand reverting back to 12 o’clock a bit slower than the red chronograph hand. Seeing something so elaborately tedious occur at such a rapid clip just makes me fall in love with incredible watchmaking all over again.

There is also a dual-function system that is activated when the crown is pulled out. Now, the pushers can be used to adjust the date and day of the week rather than operate the chronograph. 

The dial is done in black brass with graining on the central disc and circular guilloché pattern circling around the outer ring. This same combination is miniaturized and repeated for the seconds sub-dial which is an excellent and thoughtful touch. The hour, minutes, and seconds hands as well as appliqués are all done in white gold while the 60-minute counter is done in rhodium steel and red chronograph seconds hand is done in aluminum. I find the Odysseus dial layout to be just beautiful with the large day and date apertures creating a wonderfully eccentric design. Along with the asymmetric and stylized case, the whole package is so confidently divisive. 

The A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus Chronograph is priced at $145,000 and limited to just 100 pieces as a boutique exclusive.

To learn more, visit A. Lange & Söhne here.

Watches have become noticeably more colorful during the past decade. As recently as 2010, luxury watches were still mainly an achromatic affair — with white or black dials and silvery steel cases, at most there was a singular red hand. But this situation soon changed. Colorful dials and bracelets became more frequent, and materials like rubber invited designers to play with color. In the second half of the decade, watches at first became blue, and later, more and more models appeared in green. Both trends continue to this day. But in 2021, a completely different hue moved into the limelight: gray.

The surprising thing is that none of these gray watches looks gray — at least, not in the sense that people often associate with gray — drab, boring or inconspicuous. These watches are different. They stride onto a watch stage that is much more colorful and diverse than ever before. Today, any color is conceivable, even for a luxury watch, both in terms of technical feasibility and public acceptance. A watch that’s gray could just as easily be green, blue or red. Against this background, the conscious decision in favor of gray becomes a statement, and the effect is totally different than it would have been in 2010.

At the same time, gray is the antithesis to the world of colorful diversity. It invites its viewer to rest, pause and take a breather. Gray has another fascinating quality: it’s not one-dimensional because not all grays are the same. On the one hand, this is due to the proportions of white and black, which make the gray look darker or lighter. On the other hand, some gray tones look almost colorful because they change to green, blue or brown, depending on the lighting.

A version of this article appears in the WatchTime Special Design Issue 2022, on sale now.

Lime Gold (Montblanc)
Montblanc relies on its own gold color, which has a green shimmer and is therefore named “Lime Gold.” It debuted this year in the 1858 Split Second Chronograph, which comes with green numerals and hands and a green nubuck alligator leather strap to match the case. The color combination goes well with the retro look of this 44-mm split-seconds chronograph. 44 mm, Caliber MB M 16.31, manual winding, limited to 18 pieces, $50,000.

Sedna Gold (Blancpain)
Described as an extra-durable alloy of gold, copper, and palladium (rather than silver), Sedna gold is proprietary to the Swatch Group, Blancpain’s parent company, and familiar to fans of another brand within the group, Omega, which has been using it on several models, including the Seamaster Diver 300M, since 2013. In 2020, Blancpain combined the patented material for the 43-mm case and bezel of the Bathyscaphe, adding a deep blue dial. 43 mm, Caliber 1315, automatic winding, $25,200.

Honeygold (A. Lange & Söhne)
A. Lange & Söhne has released limited edition models in “Honeygold” at varied intervals since 2010. Lange registered this official name as a trademark. Lange’s most recent model in Honeygold is the 1815 Thin Honeygold “Homage to F. A. Lange,” which was introduced with its two-part white enamel dial in 2020. According to Lange, the association with honey came from the warm luster of the alloy, which is also harder than conventional gold alloys. The material derives its properties from a special heat treatment as well as from the alloy’s components, about which the brand provides no information. 38 mm, Caliber L093.1, manual winding, limited to 175 pieces, $34,400.

Eon Gold (Roger Dubuis)
Roger Dubuis developed its own alloy for its movements in rose gold to provide them with resistance against tarnishing. Called “Eon Gold,” the blend also withstands saltwater. It will be used by the Geneva-based manufacture for all its new watches with rose-gold cases beginning in 2021. The new double tourbillon even features a case and bezel made of Eon Gold, which is 45 percent harder than conventional rose gold and therefore more resistant to wear and scratches. 45 mm, water resistant to 100 meters, hallmark of Geneva, limited to 8 pieces, $287,500.

Everose Gold (Rolex)
Rolex is different in many ways. One of them is that the brand gives many of its technologies their own name, thereby making them a brand as well. This also applies to the rose-gold alloy called “Everose,” which Rolex developed itself and produces in its own gold foundry. As the “Ever” implies, Everose Gold retains its color unchanged for a particularly long time. With the new Datejust 36, stainless-steel Oystersteel and Everose gold are combined to create a handsome bicolor design, which has its own name at Rolex: Rolesor. 36 mm, Caliber 3235, automatic, $11,250.

Magic Gold (Hublot)
Even if some gold alloys are harder than others, gold is inherently soft and can never be really scratch resistant — unless the alloy consists of 25 percent ceramic. Hublot has patented this combination, which requires a unique manufacturing method, as “Magic Gold.” This gives a nearly invulnerable surface to watches like the Big Bang MP-11 Magic Gold. Although the surface is polished, the material has a matte, high-tech look that differs noticeably from the appearance of purely metal-based gold alloys. 45 mm, Caliber HUB9011, manual winding, limited to 50 pieces, $89,500.

This article originally appeared in the WatchTime Special Design Issue 2022, on sale now.