CR
[Moderator]
4036
If I liked it, I would've kept it AFTER clearing up one "provenance" issue ....
You mention 2 "nonstandard" aspects of this watch: the dial and the hands. I find the dial to be curious/concerning, but not the hands.
It's common for a primary or secondary purchaser to request certain "nonstandard" case/dial/hand combinations, and Lange will accommodate such requests at their discretion. Hands and dials can be changed by some or all Lange-authorized watchmakers around the world. There's generally no need for the factory to do this, at least not nowadays. So, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see a Lange with a standard reference number and "nonstandard" hands (or perhaps, less commonly, a "nonstandard" dial). To make matters more confusing, Lange's price lists contain many fewer descriptors than Lange's catalogs. For example, the ref. no. you cited as being on your former warranty card -- 101.032 -- is listed in recent price lists as "rose gold, argente dial, croc strap." According to the Lange the price list, that description is wholly consistent with your former watch, because the price list (unlike the catalog) doesn't mention the color of the hands or dial markers.
All of that being said, using YG dial markers on an RG watch seems inconsistent with what Lange typically allows for its "exceptions" to the standard combinations. [I'm assuming this is what you mean by mentioning the "101.022" reference number -- that you had a silver dial with YG markers.] I'd want to ask the factory about this one, just to be sure they'd service it without requiring a dial replacement. It's not impossible that Lange allowed this case/dial combination, though -- I'm told Lange was much more accommodating in its earlier days, especially when "special customers" were involved.
If the dial swap on your former watch was indeed unauthorized, then I wonder, where did this dial come from? And where did the old dial go? Is the "alter ego" to your former watch out there somewhere -- a YG Lange 1 with silver dial and applied RG markers (and who knows WHAT color hands)??!! Lange parts are tightly controlled -- they distribute them only to Lange's very few authorized watchmakers -- which makes me very curious to know the details of any "unauthorized" parts swaps.
I would not worry about the blue steel (vs. YG) hands. Unless I'm mistaken, different hands never change the reference number of the watch. Here are 2 examples (pics at bottom):
YG Langematik w/date, silver dial, with either standard YG hands or nonstandard blue steel hands has ref. no. 308.021
Lange 1 MOP, guilloche dial, with either standard WG hands or nonstandard blue steel hands has ref. no. 110.030
Lange will service, and has serviced, both of these watches without any problems.
Also note that Lange sometimes changes its mind by later "disallowing" particular combinations, making them arguably more desirable and worth a slight premium.
So what Lange are you going to get (or have you gotten already), Ken?
