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HOROLOGY / A Lange & Sohn
from B500 Notable
by b500magazine
HOROLOGY
A class of its own A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Rattrapante
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The conceptualisation and production of top-flight chronographs, especially of split-seconds chronographs, is regarded as one of the most difficult challenges in precision watchmaking. It takes considerable skill, experience and patience to assure the precision and reliability of the complex mechanism.
Since the relaunch of A. Lange & Söhne, several timepieces defined new standards in this field. In 2004, for the first time in the history of precision watchmaking, A. Lange & Söhne created a double Rattrapante chronograph that extended the range of intermediate time measurements from 60 seconds to 30 minutes: the double split. Presented in 2018, the triple split benchmarked the current state of the art in Rattrapante function developments.
With the addition of a third, separately stoppable hand pair, the chronograph and Rattrapante functions can be used for measurements that last up to 12 hours. To this very day, both timepieces are unique in precision watchmaking.
Now, the new 1815 Rattrapante comes into the focus as a classic interpretation of the split-seconds mechanism, indeed as a singular complication. It makes its appearance in a platinum case with a diameter of 41.2 millimetres. Lange’s engineers succeeded in limiting the height of the case to 12.6 millimetres despite the technical complexity of its 365-part manually wound calibre.
Given its horological intricacy, this masterpiece is limited to a global 200-piece edition.