At the Concours of Elegance 2022, A. Lange & Söhne will present a one-of-a-kind version of the 1815 Chronograph that will be auctioned off in Geneva by Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo on November 6, 2022. The proceeds of the unique timepiece, featuring a solid-silver dial and a hand-engraved hinged cuvette, will go to The Prince’s Trust, a youth charity set up by HRH The Prince of Wales.
A. Lange & Söhne has been a partner of the Concours of Elegance since 2018. This year, it will take place from 2 to 4 September in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace on the outskirts of London. The high-calibre beauty pageant is a venue not only for rare automobiles but also for the exclusive mechanical timepieces crafted by A. Lange & Söhne. For the Glashütte manufactory, the Concours of Elegance provides the ideal backdrop for introducing a very special watch: the unique version of the 1815 Chronograph with a hinged cuvette. This exclusive timepiece will be auctioned off on 6 November 2022 at the Geneva Watch Auction XVI for the benefit of The Prince’s Trust. The charitable organization was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales in 1976 and supports young people aged 11 to 30 to develop essential life skills, get ready for work, and access job opportunities. “We are proud to have the opportunity to support the important work of The Prince’s Trust,” said Wilhelm Schmid. The Lange CEO is convinced that each child, regardless of their upbringing and social background, should have a fair chance of self-fulfillment and a happy future.
Since it was introduced in 2004, the 1815 Chronograph has stood for the alliance between classic design and progressive technology. With artisanal perfection and refined details, its design is fully focused on optimized legibility. Thus, the dial with Arabic numerals, the railway-track minute scale, and the slightly shifted subsidiary dials are reminiscent of the of A. Lange & Söhne’s historic pocket watches.
Crafted explicitly for this year’s Concours of Elegance, the 1815 Chronograph ‘Hampton Court Edition’ features for the very first time an 18K white gold case measuring 39.5 mm in diameter paired with a black dial with sandstone-colored numerals and scales. The tachometer scale on the peripheral —which enables the calculation of average speeds— emphasizes the historic connection between motorsport and time measurement.
The rhodié-colored subsidiary dials for the small seconds and the minute counter contrast well with the black dial. Good legibility is also assured by the rhodium case-matched gold hands for the hours and minutes as well as by the rhodium steel hands for the chrono seconds, the subsidiary seconds, and the minute counter.
The hinged cuvette case back is hand-engraved with the logo of the Concours of Elegance, concealing the Lange calibre L951.5 manual wound movement launched in 2010 and composed of 306 parts. It is assembled twice and features a column-wheel control, a precisely jumping minute counter, and a flyback function. This movement provides a power reserve of 60 hours when fully wound. A large cam-poised balance wheel driven by a freely oscillating hairspring crafted in-house assures excellent rate accuracy. Beating at a frequency of 18,000 vph, the watch displays stopped times to an accuracy of one-fifth of a second.
The sapphire-crystal case back reveals the lavishly hand-finished chronograph mechanism. A subtly composed choice of different materials and surface decorations emphasizes the three-dimensionality of the open movement architecture. This highlights the details of the complex switching processes as well as the artistically hand-engraved balance cock with Lange’s iconic whiplash spring. Thanks to its floral motif, this small but magnificently decorated part of the movement makes every Lange timepiece recognizable —the engraver’s personal signature also makes the 1815 Chronograph ‘Hampton Court Edition’ a unique piece.
The watch is equipped with a hand-stitched black alligator leather strap with an 18K white gold pin buckle. We’ll be reporting on November 6th, 2022, the results of the auction with the final price that this A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph 'Hampton Court Edition' unique piece sold for at the Phillips auction in Geneva, Switzerland.
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