Steel, and a little unsure of itself
By Marco Bellini, Zurich ·
I have trouble with the Odysseus, and it is not the movement.
The L155.1 Datomatic was developed for this watch and it is good engineering. Day and date sit at the sides of the dial and are corrected with pushers, the reserve is 50 hours, and the rotor covers less of the bridges than I feared it would. Lange finished it like a Lange. The 120 m rating is a real number from a brand that had only ever made 30 m dress watches.
The problem is the outside. At 40.5 mm by 11.1 mm on a 22 mm bracelet it wears comfortably, I'll grant that. But it wants to be a sports watch and a Lange at once, and the dial, with its two big windows and the blue, looks busier than it should. An Overseas or a Royal Oak has a clearer idea of what it is.
43,000 to 46,000 USD, in steel. Lange is asking you to pay for the movement, which is fair if you turn the watch over. Most people who buy steel sports watches never do.
Buy it if you already own Lange and need something for the lake. Everyone else: a Lange 1 and a cheap diver.