A. Lange & Söhne has been a partner of the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on Lake Como since 2012. And this year, too, the Saxon watch manufacturer donated a unique 1815 CHRONOGRAPH created especially for the occasion to the winner of the “Best of Show” category.
The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, which this year again traditionally took place in May and brought together the world’s most fascinating classic automobiles on the shores of Lake Como, was all about beauty, elegance, and supreme mechanical ingenuity. Characteristics that also distinguish the special model of the 1815 CHRONOGRAPH A. Lange & Söhne traditionally donates to the owner of the “Best of Show” car. Thus, one of the highlights of the classic automobile competition was the presentation of the winning watch by Lange CEO Wilhelm Schmid to Andrew Pisker. The winner was the favourite of the jury and the audience with his Bugatti 57 S from the year 1937 and was visibly delighted with the specially made model of the 1815 CHRONOGRAPH in white gold with a solid pink-gold dial and hand-engraved hinged cuvette. The prize, donated by A. Lange & Söhne, is intended as recognition for the time and effort the owner has invested in preserving his automotive work of art for posterity.
Also, in the anniversary year of the partnership, classic cars and watches are ambassadors of elegance and mechanical ingenuity for Lange CEO Wilhelm Schmid. “The Concorso is a celebration of beauty, which is not only reflected in the shiny surfaces of the cars, but also when you look under the hood. It´s a similar kind of beauty that can be found in our timepieces,” he notes. “It makes me proud that this close connection has grown into a strong partnership that has already lasted ten years.”
A. Lange & Söhne 1815 CHRONOGRAPH
Movement: Lange manufacture calibre L951.5, manually wound, 60-hour power reserve
Case: Diameter: 39.5 millimetres; height: 11.9 millimetres, white gold, hand-engraved hinged cuvette
Dial: Pink gold with brown subsidiary dials
Functions: Hours, minutes, subsidiary seconds; flyback chronograph with precisely jumping minute counter, pulsometer scale
Limited edition: The watch for the winner of the “Best of Show” category at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is a unique piece. A series model of the 1815 CHRONOGRAPH (no hinged cuvette) is available in white gold or pink gold with a black or argenté-coloured dial made from solid silver.
About A. Lange & Söhne
Dresden watchmaker Ferdinand Adolph Lange laid the cornerstone of Saxony’s precision watchmaking industry when he established his manufactory in 1845. His precious pocket watches remain highly coveted among collectors all over the world. The company was expropriated after the Second World War, and the name A. Lange & Söhne nearly vanished. But in 1990, Walter Lange, Ferdinand Adolph Lange’s great-grandson, ventured to start over again. Today, Lange crafts only a few thousand wristwatches, mainly in gold or platinum, per year. They are endowed exclusively with proprietary movements that are lavishly decorated and twice assembled by hand. With 69 manufacture calibres developed since 1990, A. Lange & Söhne has secured a top-tier position among the world’s finest watch brands. Its greatest successes include brand icons such as the LANGE 1, the first regularly produced wristwatch with an outsize date, and the ZEITWERK, with its precisely jumping numerals. Extraordinary complications such as the ZEITWERK MINUTE REPEATER, the TRIPLE SPLIT and the so far most complicated model, the GRAND COMPLICATION, introduced in 2013 in a limited edition of six, represent what the manufactory always strives for: to drive the traditional art of watchmaking to ever-new heights. The sporty yet elegant ODYSSEUS, introduced in 2019, marked the start of a new chapter for A. Lange & Söhne.