Steel Life

Meet Odysseus, A. Lange & Söhne’s first – and long-awaited – series-produced stainless steel collection Alvin Wong

- Alvin Wong

Ironically, some of the most elusive A. Lange & Söhne timepieces are neither the most technically complex, nor the most gilded. Rather, the most sought-after Lange unicorns are watches crafted in stainless steel. According to Hodinkee, these rare Langes have been fetching record prices at Christie’s auctions; a blink-and-miss-it cast that comprises a Double-Split from 2006; Lange 1s produced between 1996 and 1997; and the 1815 ‘Homage to Walter Lange’, which went under the hammer for CHF700,000 in 2018.

Against this backdrop, it would seem – from a populist perspective, at least – that the one missing piece in A. Lange & Söhne’s jigsaw is a stainless steel something. But, of course, Lange isn’t the sort to frivolously feed a bubble, or worse, dilute its own watches’ collectability, by introducing limited edition steel variants into existing collections. That being said, Lange is also the sort of brand that listens to what its customers want. And the brand would have us believe that it has been hearing the clamour for a new stainless steel watch for a long time.