A. Lange & Söhne Datograph "Baguette" Diamond Bezel 815.036

Datograph "Baguette" — 815.036

Don't I just love when A. Lange & Söhne gets wild. It happens rarely, and very much in secrecy, far from the eyes of the general collecting community, but at times a piece finds its way to the market only to dazzle and shame whoever calls Lange quiet, traditional and under the radar. Here is an example from the early days, the Datograph with baguette diamond bezel.

A. Lange & Söhne's dance with baguettes, rubies, gemstones, etc. goes all the way back to 1995, actually. Blümlein was an adventurous man, for sure. Despite all the seriousness of the Saxonia, the Arkade or the Lange 1, he set sapphires, rubies and diamonds into bezels, indices and even full-on bracelets and dials. The Arkade with the full diamond baguette bracelet still haunts me to this day... Then he took it up a notch and dressed what can only be the soulmate of a German factory floor manager in a 1980s Mercedes: the Datograph with baguette diamonds. And somehow, it just works. Although my photography does not do it justice, this is a sight to behold.

To carry and place such weight, the Datograph put on a muscle of 1 mm and grew to 40 mm in diameter. A small price to pay for 56 baguette-cut diamonds. The contrast between that serious, Roman numeral dial and the loud overall look takes some training, but it dazzles eventually. Lange made these pieces mainly for the Asian markets, Japan and Singapore mostly, where they found great homes. These were catalogue models back then, where you could just ask and get one. Today, baguette-cut pieces are mostly available on request only, or in runs of five pieces, and unfortunately mostly on the highest-end pieces. The last catalogue-style piece came 10 years ago with the Datograph Up/Down, an example of which was sold at Langepedia.com not long ago.

This is reference 815.036, produced in extremely low quantities, close to single digits, and it has now found a tremendous home.