The chronograph I'd hand to an apprentice
By Marco Bellini, Zurich ·
If you want to explain to someone how a column-wheel chronograph works, don't draw a diagram, just hand them this watch upside down, because the L951.5 lays out the whole job in plain view: the column wheel, the horizontal clutch, the levers with their polished flanks, the hammers that drop on the heart cams to reset the counters, all of it in German silver and steel and all of it finished as if the owner will look at it every day, which with this movement he will.
It's a flyback, so one press on the reset pusher while it runs zeroes the hands and starts again. The minute counter jumps instead of creeping. Both are details that cost money and that most chronographs skip.
39.5 mm by 11 mm in gold is dress chronograph size. On leather with 20 mm lugs it fits under a cuff, just. 60 hours, hand-wound.
Complaints. The dial is pure 1815, Arabic numerals and a railway track, and it's a bit plain next to what's behind it. 30 m. And 62,000 to 66,000 USD puts it uncomfortably close to a Datograph, which has the big date and the bigger name. I'd still pick the 1815. It is the cleaner design. Plenty of people will disagree, and they won't be wrong.