A. Lange and Söhne 401.026

The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph reference 401.026 in 18kt rose gold with a black dial is one of the finest manually wound chronographs in production anywhere in the world. The 1815 Chronograph took the classical design language of the 1815 collection -- railroad chapter ring, blued steel hands, Arabic numerals -- and added a flyback chronograph mechanism of extraordinary mechanical refinement. The black dial provides a dramatic backdrop for the chronograph's subsidiary dials: a running seconds counter at six o'clock and a thirty-minute totalizer at twelve, flanking the central chronograph seconds hand. The caliber L951.5 is a hand-wound column-wheel chronograph movement with flyback function and 60 hours of power reserve. The flyback mechanism allows the chronograph to be reset and instantly restarted with a single press of the lower pusher, eliminating the stop-reset-start sequence required by conventional chronographs. This is a feature prized by anyone who needs to time successive events, and A. Lange & Söhne's implementation is mechanically impeccable. The movement is visible through the sapphire caseback, where the column wheel, the chronograph levers, and the precise finishing of every component create a spectacle of mechanical artistry. At 39.5mm, the 1815 Chronograph wears with a purposeful yet refined presence that avoids the bulkiness that can afflict chronograph watches. Reference 401.026 in rose gold with black dial is the sportiest expression of the 1815 family, a watch that bridges the collection's classical roots and the dynamic functionality of chronograph timing. Ferdinand Adolph Lange was born in 1815, and this chronograph bearing his birth year represents the very highest level of the craft he pioneered in the hills of Saxony.