A bit smaller than my expectation but wear beautifully & comfortably. Of course, impressive craftmanship, material quality, and a more robust movement with 72 hours of Power Reserve
Introduction
From Watches & Wonder 2025 and my previous article on “Hi-light of Novelties 2025”, I have my eyes on A. Lange & Söhne 1815 34mm. During the week of W&W, I wish I could have a chance to experience it in a metal. On that day, I even texted to the A. Lange AD asking when they are going to have this model in Bangkok. Sadly, no one replied.
Just this past weekend, I made an appointment to join an exclusive event; “Celebrating 20 Years of MB&F Creativity” by PMT The Hour Glass. I arrived at Siam Paragon a bit early. So I decided to stop by at A. Lange Boutique to check with them in person when the 1815 will be available.
Surprisingly, they have both White Gold & Rose Gold sitting on the display in front of me.
My thoughts
At the first glance, I told myself, “they are even smaller than I thought” but yet they are stunningly beautiful. While the boutique staff was explaining the story and technical specifications, I have to admit that my focus was only on the 2 beautiful watches in front of me. Until I couldn’t resist and asked to put it on my wrist.
I picked the White Gold first (because I like the Rose Gold more and I want to keep the best for last). This example comes with a blue alligator strap which I think it matches with the blue dial perfectly (the hands are also in White Gold). The all polished case makes this watch very shinny and gives a very dressy modern & sophisticated look.
I would like to emphasis on the dial. It is a matte darker tone blue (very classic blue tonality in my opinion) with a printed numeral hours markers and rail-road minutes track. Even though they are printed, they’ve done it in a high quality; very crisp and enough three-dimensional depth, which make a overall character of the watch so elegant.
Then I put the Rose Gold with a brown alligator strap on. The Rose Gold and brown tone make it very vintage look. I can imagine wearing this one with a classic menswear attire just perfectly fine. Same model but two different precious metals create a very distinguish characters.
Finally, wearability, at first 10-20 seconds, I had a question in my head that “Is this 34mm case size too small?” and then that question was gone. Afterward, the more I looked while I roll my wrist around the more I like this case size. It suits well on my 6.5 inch wrist. In additional, I would say it wears comfortably. I dare to say that I can wear it all day long without even feel it on my wrist. Of course they were made from gold, they have some helft but with only 6.4mm tall it can comfortably sit on my wrist and easily disappear under a shirt cuff.
While we were talking about the case size, the boutique staffs are kind enough to bring the current 1815 model which has case size of 38.5mm for a side-by-side comparison. As you can see from the photos, the difference is quite obvious. The bigger 1815, for me, is too big for a dress watch. It wears more like a sport or casual look.
With its smaller case, it came with a new hand wound calibre L152.1 which has diameter of 28.1 mm by 2.9mm tall BUT even longer Power Reserve of 72 hours than the older 1815 siblings. The new model has a more tactile “Winding” mechanism. I was winding both a current model and a new one for comparison. The current model is very smooth (just like my Reverso). On the other hand, the new model is very snappy and has very crisp clicky sound. I think the winding characteristic is very important for “Hand-winding” watches where the owners frequently interact with the movement more than “Automatic” watches.
Special Thanks to…
Lastly, I would like to thank A.Lange’s staffs who are very friendly and informative. They made the whole experience casually pleasing without any pressure. Anyone who would like to purchase these 1815 (not sure about other models) just put down a 30% deposit (their price is THB 910,000 incl VAT for both white & rose gold) and the watch will be ready for you in 3-month period. They also informed me that they have a special promotion from today until end of May 2025 any purchase is eligible for a bespoke watch strap from Japanese artisan.
My Last Words
With this price tag, it would take some time for me to consider buying one into my collection. All in all, this is a very good surprised release from A. Lange & Söhne from its smaller size and new robust movement. I’m totally in love with it. However, I wish they could give a higher balance frequency to 4.0 Hz and a quick release for strap changing would be nice. And I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if they release the 1815 with a 35mm case size just like my Nomos Tangente.
For now, I will keep wearing and enjoy my Tangente until that day will come.