The one I'd keep
By Marco Bellini, Zurich ·
When the Lange 1 came out in 1994, the older watchmakers I later trained under in Biel had opinions about it, and most of them were rude. A Saxon name back from decades behind the Wall, with a dial layout that looked like somebody had dropped the hands in the wrong place. Then they opened the caseback and stopped talking.
The L121.1 is the current form of that idea and it's a better caliber than the original. 72 hours, a balance spring Lange makes itself, and the big date that made the watch famous, two discs side by side behind a double window. The power reserve indicator on the right is not decoration on a hand-wound watch. It is the reason you wind on Monday instead of finding out on Tuesday that it stopped.
What I like most is how the big date is made. Two discs, one for the tens and one for the units, and at midnight on the ninth or the nineteenth both have to move together, which takes a lot of energy at once. In a cheaper design that shows up as a sluggish change or a date that hangs halfway. Lange stores the energy through the day and releases it at once, so the numbers jump cleanly. You don't see that from the dial side. You only know it is there because the date is never caught between two numbers, and because somebody spent a long time making sure it wouldn't be.
Finishing is what you expect from Glashütte at this level. Untreated German silver plate with Glashütte ribbing, screwed gold chatons, the balance cock engraved by hand. Every engraver's hand is a little different from the next one's. I like that. It means a person was there.
Now the criticism. 38.5 mm by 9.8 mm is a good size, but the gold case is heavy and smooth and it slides around on leather unless you wear the strap snug. 30 m means wash your hands carefully. And 43,000 to 46,000 USD is a lot for time, date and a reserve indicator. You are paying for the layout and the finishing, not for complexity. Be honest with yourself about that before you sign.
If I could own only one German watch, this. The Datograph is more movement. This is more watch.