Thanks to a friend, I had the chance to handle an 1815 Moonphase yesterday.
The 1815 Emil Lange is without any doubt one of the most beautiful Lange which was ever released.
The watch was launched in 1999 and sold till 2000. It's a LE with 250 PG / 150 PT pieces. At that time, the retail price was 13,200 USD for the PG version and 18,200 USD for the PT version. As you can imagine it, it's better to forget these prices if you want to get this watch...
The watch is quite small (36mm) if you consider the current sizes of the simple high-end watches (Saxonia : 37mm, 5196 : 37mm) but it's of course the same diameter than the classic handwind 1815. Even if it seems to be small, the watch has a strong presence on the wrist due to the incredible beauty of the dial.
Why the dial is so beautiful ? It's beautiful because it's a subtil mix of the purety of the 1815 with the originality of the indexes, of the presence of the stars and of the Big Dipper.
You can spend hours watching this dial. The contrats between gold and the black dial gives you the feeling to watch a night sky full of stars!
But this watch has a big feature... the Lange team didn't add a mere Moonphase complication to the classic 1815. Even if they used the caliber L941.1 as a base, the Moonphase of the 1815 Emil Lange has a stunning accuracy.
Let's imagine it: only one day of the difference from the lunar cycle after 1,058 years! How Lange managed this? An usual Moonphase system uses a disk with 2 Moons printed on it which has a full rotation every 59 days.
Here the disk used has 3 Moons and has a full rotation every 88 days and 15 hours. The Moonphase gear train is linked to the hour wheel. This system allows the watch to be so close to the lunar cycle.
Let's have a look at the caliber L943.1. It has a diameter of 27,5mm and is 3,85mm high. The frequency is the same than the 1815 one : 21,600.
I have to confess that it's a big pleasure to wear this watch: it was difficult for me to give it back to my friend...
This watch has the little something which always catches your eyes.
This watch is a true masterpiece due to its originality and due to the technical features. As always with the German Manufacture, Lange will never release a watch which would be quite similar to a previous limited edition. So the people who missed this 1815 Emil Lange regret it now.
But I would be very happy to see again this Moonphase system in another context.
I would like to thank a lot the owner of this watch for the time he spent with me and for his patience.
A last shot to show you how classy is this watch:
Fr.Xavier