Dr.kol's 1000th post offers a fascinating comparative review of two distinct yet equally compelling timepieces: a Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse and an A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1, both in white gold with blue dials. This article delves into his personal insights on these iconic watches, exploring their shared attributes and unique characteristics from a collector's perspective. His detailed comparison provides valuable context for understanding the enduring appeal of these high-horology pieces.
TWO VERY DIFFERENT WATCHES
with many similarities. Both of the watches are:
* Manufactured by a Top Brand
* Made of white gold
* With blue dial
* Very rare versions
* In my opinion real bargains
* Iconic representatives of the Manufacturer
* As New share the same price range
Can you already guess what I am speaking about?
Both watches are also very different:
* The other is round, the other is ellipse shaped
* The other is from Germany, the other from Switzerland
* The other with display back, the other with solid back
* The other has time only, the other has small seconds, power reserve indicator and large date
* The other is automatic, the other manual winding
* The automatic is just a little bit over half of the thickness of the manual one
What is important to me is that I love both of them and they are mine!
Are you already sure what I am speaking about?
Tonight I will load many pictures to you all in order to give my modest contribution to our Community:
The watches:
I love slim watches but I do not consider Lange too thick either:
When I can, I am always getting the watch with a folding clasp. The one of Lange is very Germanic; heavy and well made. In the past Patek made special folding clasps for Golden Ellipse and I was lucky - the Geneva Salons still had one piece left. In the case of Golden Ellipse I prefer the folding clasp to the original buckle which I find too big and clumsy for the watch.
I have always loved the fact that it is possible to get matching cuff links to nearly all Patek watches
I do not get bored watching these blue dialed beauties. If you are already bored, please jump out and read the next post. More pictures are following:
PRE-OWNED:
I had Lange 1 and Golden Ellipse in my shopping list for a long time. However, I had a big problem: I wanted to have both watches with BLUE DIAL and made of WHITE GOLD. Unfortunately such watches were not available brand new.
So I decided to go for the pre-owned ones but I wanted to get both watches in exceptional condition with all documents and boxes. Here is the Certificate of Origin of my Patek
And the corresponding document of Lange
With my Golden Ellipse I got the official price list from 1992. I noticed that I paid for the watch just the same than what it costed 20 years ago!
The original owner also wanted to get the VAT back. I love watches which come also with historical documents
We DON'T SPEAK about money here so I'm telling in a SOFT way how expensive it was to acquire the watches...
I got both watches factory serviced. The full service of Golden Ellipse was about 15% more expensive than the service of Lange 1. For both watches I bought also new original blue straps and the costs were about the same. Lange's folding clasp was costing 40% more than the special Golden Ellipse folding clasp. In this case Lange's pricing is not sensible: their white gold folding clasp is about 60% more expensive than a similar Lange's part either in yellow gold or red gold. This stupidity must be in order to support the pricing of the platinum clasp which is costing over 2.8 times the price of the same thing in colored gold!
Anyhow, after the purchases of the watches, making the servicing, buying the clasps and new straps I had a look at the current price lists:
Lange 1: the total costs including everything were 44.8% of the current list price of the white gold model.
Golden Ellipse: the total costs were 50.9% of the list price of the white gold Golden Ellipse.
To summarize: both watches costed totally about 93% of the current list price of a new Lange 1 in white gold.
But this project was not about savings: I SIMPLY WANTED JUST THESE TWO VERSIONS OF THE WATCHES!
If you are not totally bored, perhaps you would like to see a couple of wrist shots:
I love both watches equally. They are very different but my love is as deep in both cases.
WHICH ONE WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
Thank you all that you have tolerated me now for over 1,000 posts.
Best, Kari
