A. Lange & Söhne / 1815
A. Lange & Söhne 1815
Collection profile · 1995
A. Lange & Söhne’s 1815 is the Saxon manufacture’s classically styled family, named after Ferdinand Adolph Lange’s 1815 birth year and shaped by 19th-century Glashütte pocket-watch cues such as Arabic numerals, chemin-de-fer minute tracks, subsidiary seconds and manually wound movements.
Collection shots
Pronunciation & name
eighteen fifteen
Why it matters
The 1815 matters because it is Lange’s purest expression of traditional German watchmaking: restrained design, historical Glashütte cues, hand-finished manual calibres and a platform that stretches from simple three-hand dress watches to some of the brand’s most admired chronographs and calendar complications.
Key references
Collection timeline
- 1995 — The 1815 family makes its first documented appearance in the revived A. Lange & Söhne era, with period and secondary sources pointing to 1995 as the best-supported launch year.
- 2017 — Lange expands the line with the 1815 Annual Calendar and introduces the limited 1815 “Homage to Walter Lange,” featuring a stoppable jumping seconds hand inspired by a historic Lange invention.
- 2025 — A. Lange & Söhne unveils a new 34 mm 1815 with newly developed calibre L152.1, a 72-hour power reserve and slimmer, more discreet proportions.
News
- The new 1815 2025 — Lange introduced a smaller 34 mm 1815 with a newly developed L152.1 calibre, 72-hour power reserve and refined dress-watch proportions. ↗
- 1815 TOURBILLON 2024 — Lange returned attention to the 1815 family with a fresh 1815 Tourbillon release, underscoring the collection’s role as a home for classical high complications. ↗
- Hands-On Review - A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Rattrapante Platinum 2022 — Monochrome covered the platinum 1815 Rattrapante limited edition, highlighting the collection’s credibility in ultra-high-end split-seconds chronographs. ↗
- 1815 “Homage to Walter Lange” 2017 — A commemorative 1815 with stoppable jumping seconds paid tribute to Walter Lange and revived a historical Lange-style seconds complication. ↗
- 1815 Annual Calendar 2017 — The 1815 line gained a manually wound annual calendar with analogue calendar displays and moon phase, broadening the family beyond time-only and chronograph models. ↗
Fun facts
Collector note 1
The 1815 Up/Down’s power-reserve concept references an A. Lange & Söhne patent granted on 18 May 1879 for showing whether a watch was wound or unwound.
Collector note 2
The 2025 34 mm 1815 runs on calibre L152.1, described by Lange as the 75th manufacture calibre developed since the brand’s modern re-establishment.
FAQ
Why is the collection called 1815?
It is named after 1815, the birth year of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, founder of the original A. Lange & Söhne manufacture.
What design cues define the 1815 family?
Typical cues include Arabic numerals, a railway-track minute scale, subsidiary seconds, lancet-style hands and styling inspired by historic Lange pocket watches.
Is the 1815 a dress-watch collection only?
Mostly yes in spirit, but the family spans from restrained three-hand models to serious complications such as chronographs, annual calendars, tourbillons and rattrapantes.
What are the best-known 1815 models today?
Among the most visible current or recent anchors are the 1815, 1815 Up/Down, 1815 Chronograph and 1815 Annual Calendar, with notable special pieces like the Homage to Walter Lange and 1815 Tourbillon.
More from A. Lange & Söhne
- Lange 1 — A. Lange & Söhne’s defining modern classic, the Lange 1 pairs an off-centre dial, outsize date, power-reserve display and Saxon movement finishing in a design first launched on 24 October 1994 and still central to the brand’s identity.
- Saxonia — A. Lange & Söhne’s Saxonia collection is the brand’s broadest expression of understated elegance: a family that pairs minimalist German design with increasingly sophisticated mechanics, from slim two-hand dress watches to outsize-date models, moon phases, annual calendars and the Datograph line. Named for Saxony, it also connects the modern manufacture to its regional roots in Glashütte.
- Zeitwerk
— Revolutionary jumping-numerals display — digital time in a mechanical watch, introduced 2009. - Odysseus — The A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus is the manufacture’s sporty-elegant watch family, introduced in 2019 with an integrated bracelet, 120-metre water resistance, outsized day and date displays, and a dedicated self-winding Datomatic movement developed specifically for the line.