In 2019 A. Lange & Söhne launched their first (manually-wound) luxury sports watch called the ODYSSEUS, which didn’t just introduce bracelets to a brand not known for them, but also brought a production stainless steel watch into the brand. Now, the ODYSSEUS line is joined by an automatic chronograph.

The ODYSSEUS CHRONOGRAPH comes in a 42.5mm sized stainless steel case. As per its brethren, the case is a mix of brushed finishing and chamfered edges. Water resistance is 120m. Also, the bracelet has a simple wrist/ bracelet extension capacity which is designed so it can be done with one hand.

The inner surface of the black main dial is textured, with two central chronograph hands. The applied markers made from white gold. There is a palladium-coloured flange ring with a printed two-part minute scale framing the dial. The scale for the fractions of a second is positioned on the outer circumference. Printed in red, The number 60 at 12 o’clock and the red chrono seconds hand are printed and red.

The new L156.1 DATOMATIC which was developed just for this new watch, is the brand’s first automatic chronograph movement. With 516 parts, it beats at 28,800VPH and has a power reserve of 50 hours.

To retain the dial design of the ODYSSEUS watch family, Lange developed a movement that positions both chronograph hands in the centre. The red hand is anodised aluminium. There are no conventional bicompax totalisers as there are in traditional chronographs, and the distinctive large date and day of the week are present.

The two wedge-shaped pushers on the flange of the case have a dual function – in the screwed-down crown’s normal position both pushers at 2 and 4 o’clock are used to control the chronograph functions: start, stop and reset. When the crown is pulled out to the first position, the date and day of the week can be set.

The dynamic function of the chronograph hands resets both centrally positioned chronograph hands to zero. When the reset-to-zero button at 4 o’clock is actuated after a time measurement, if the minute counter has not yet reached the 30-minute mark, both hands will advance to zero in an anti-clockwise direction. If the minute counter has passed the 30-minute mark, both hands will advance to zero clockwise. The minute counter jumps back to its starting position in the conventional way. The red chrono seconds hand completes a full revolution for every minute required to reach the full hour.

You can see the new movement through the open case back. It is mostly hand finished and has a skeletonised and partially black rhodium-plated central rotor with a 950 platinum oscillating weight. The bridges and plates are German silver, and the hand-engraved balance bridge is has a wave pattern.

The A. Lange & Söhne ODYSSEUS CHRONOGRAPH is limited to 100 pieces. Price is on request.

Categories: A. Lange & Söhne, German watches, Hands-on, Limited Editions, Watch Profile, watches, Watches & Wonders Geneva 2023