A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Rattrapante Perpetual Calendar

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There are few watches capable of stopping even seasoned collectors mid-sentence. The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Rattrapante Perpetual Calendar is one of them.

Reference 421.032FE represents Lange operating at full capacity: technically uncompromising, visually disciplined, and obsessively finished at every level. Introduced in 2013, the model brought together two of watchmaking’s most revered complications—a rattrapante chronograph and a perpetual calendar—inside the clean, historically grounded framework of the 1815 collection. The result is extraordinary, not because it looks complicated, but because it doesn’t need to.

Housed in a 41.9mm pink gold case, this example pairs warm metal with an argenté solid silver dial that feels unmistakably Lange. The familiar 1815 signatures are all here: railroad minute track, Arabic numerals, beautifully balanced subsidiary registers, and a layout inspired by the manufacture’s historic pocket chronographs. But beneath that calm surface lies immense mechanical depth. The split-seconds chronograph allows simultaneous timing events to be measured independently, while the perpetual calendar accounts automatically for varying month lengths and leap years—requiring no correction until the year 2100. Even the moonphase display is engineered with staggering precision, accurate to one day every 122.6 years.

And then there’s the movement.

Visible through the sapphire caseback, the manually wound Caliber L101.1 is among the great visual spectacles in modern watchmaking. Twin column wheels, hand-finished chronograph levers, black-polished steelwork, sharp inward angles—every surface reveals another level of craft. Lange chronographs already sit in rarefied territory; adding a rattrapante mechanism and perpetual calendar only heightens the sense that you’re looking at something fundamentally special.

Fitted to a brown Lange alligator strap with a signed pink gold deployant clasp and accompanied by its full set, this is the kind of watch that reminds you why high horology still matters.

True complexity is making the impossible look effortless.

For Germany, Reunification represented a renaissance of sorts for a country that had been rent asunder by the Cold War. And for A. Lange & Söhne, whom fate had situated on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain, it was indeed a rebirth.

Lange was founded in Glashütte in 1845, and its first century was truly a golden age. The brand imbued its products with a care and an attention to detail that brought worldwide renown. Its pocket watches, in particular, gained high marks in competition and saw use on the railroads of Europe.

But the coming of World War II and the subsequent Soviet occupation saw that golden age come to an end. The Soviet authorities expropriated the company in 1948 — the factory was shuttered, and the once-shining name of A. Lange & Söhne nearly faded into obscurity. That is, until 1990, when Walter Lange — great-grandson of the founder, Ferdinand A. Lange — resurrected his family’s old company and brought it to prominence once more.

Armed with Ferdinand Lange’s journal, Walter Lange sketched a watch that would adapt his great-grandfather’s designs to modern tastes, while still keeping an eye firmly on tradition. In the journal, Walter discovered sketches of a clock that Ferdinand designed with his mentor Johann Gutkaes. Commissioned by the Elector of Saxony for the Semperoper House in Dresden, the “Five Minute Clock” was nothing short of revolutionary.

With legibility as their primary concern, Johann Gutkaes and Ferdinand Lange designed a clock that, with its rectangular construction and two counter-rotating drums — one to show the hours, the other the minutes — was essentially the world’s first digital clock. Over one hundred years later, it was that clock that would inspire the modern manufacture’s first watch post-Reunification.

In 1992, Walter Lange filed a patent for a big date window, similar in style to the clock in the opera house. Two years later, it would appear on the Lange 1. Without question the firm’s flagship model, it features a big date function as its hallmark. Though found in watches like the Zeitwerk or the Langematik Sax-O-Mat, it’s in the Lange 1 that the big date is used to the greatest effect. Alongside other details such as asymmetrical sub-dials depicting the hours and sub-seconds, and the A. Lange & Söhne signature with its famous ampersand, it shows a clarity of vision that is wholly Lange.

Subsequent models — no less innovative — have only further cemented the brand’s footing as one of the most refined and fascinating watchmakers in business today. From the ludicrously complicated Zeitwerk to the elegant Saxonia to the recent Odysseus dive watch, Lange & Söhne is committed to pushing the horological envelope and reestablishing Germany as foremost amongst the world’s centers of watchmaking innovation.

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Condition

Since our pieces are vintage or pre-owned, please expect wear & patina from usage and age. Please read each item description and examine all product images.

Warranty

We back each Analog:Shift vintage timepiece with a two-year mechanical warranty from the date of purchase.

International Buyers

Please contact us prior to purchase for additional details on shipping and payment options.

All of our watches include complementary insured shipping within the 50 states.

Most of our products are on hand and will ship directly from our headquarters in New York City. In some cases, watches will be shipped directly from one of our authorized partners.

We generally ship our products via FedEx, fully insured, within 5 business days of purchase. An adult signature is required for receipt of all packages for insurance purposes. Expedited shipping is available at an additional cost. We are also happy to hand deliver your purchase in Manhattan or you may pick it up at our showroom.

Returns must be sent overnight or by priority international delivery, fully insured and paid for by the customer. A restocking fee may apply. Watches must be returned in the same condition as initially shipped.

We welcome international buyers, please contact us prior to purchase for additional details on shipping and payment options.