Description

For sale is an A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 reference 101.022 in 18k yellow gold, the watch that, more than any other in the modern era, redefined what German haute horlogerie could be. Cased in 38.5 mm of solid yellow gold and presented with its original argenté dial, blued steel hands, and the inimitable off-centre layout that has made the Lange 1 instantly recognisable for three decades, this is a first-generation example powered by the original calibre L901.0, the manual-wind, twin-barrel, 72-hour movement that launched the relaunched Lange & Söhne in 1994 and remained in production until the end of 2014.

The Lange 1 – A Watch That Restarted a Brand

On 24 October 1994, in the Royal Palace at Dresden, a small group of journalists watched Walter Lange, great-grandson of the founder Ferdinand A. Lange, present four watches that would relaunch a maison that had not produced a wristwatch in over forty years. The original A. Lange & Söhne, founded in Glashütte in 1845, had been one of Germany’s foremost makers of pocket chronometers and had effectively ceased operations after the firm’s expropriation in 1948. With reunification, Walter Lange and Günter Blümlein set about rebuilding the brand from a near-blank page; the Lange 1 was the watch they put at the centre of that effort.

What makes the Lange 1 distinctive is that it solved several problems that most watch designers do not even attempt to address. The dial layout, with its off-centre time display, outsize date (Großdatum), small seconds, and power reserve indicator, was constructed around the golden ratio so that no two indications visually overlap. The Großdatum itself was inspired by the five-minute digital clock of the Dresden Semper Opera House, an icon of Saxon engineering. And the movement was conceived from the outset to be specifically German rather than generically Swiss — three-quarter plate, German silver, screwed gold chatons, hand-engraved balance cock — visual conventions that had not been seriously revived in volume production for decades.

Calibre L901.0 – Saxon Watchmaking, Built From Scratch

The movement inside this reference is the original calibre L901.0, the foundational Lange movement and the architecture that defined the brand’s house style. It is a hand-wound, 53-jewel calibre with twin mainspring barrels delivering 72 hours of running autonomy, fitted with a swan-neck regulator and Glashütte’s distinctive three-quarter plate in untreated German silver, the alloy that gives Lange movements their characteristic warm, slightly straw-coloured patina rather than the cooler tone of rhodium-plated brass. The escapement is held in place under a balance cock that is hand-engraved by a single engraver, each one signed and individually identifiable; gold chatons hold the jewels in their seats, and every screw is mirror-polished and heat-blued.

The L901.0’s gear train was originally developed with help from the Jaeger-LeCoultre calibre 822, a piece of provenance that traces back to Blümlein’s parallel stewardship of JLC and Lange in the 1990s. The first-generation L901.0 was produced from 1994 to the end of 2014, after which Lange replaced it with the redesigned L121.1, making any honest, well-preserved L901.0 example a piece of horological history in its own right.

The Dial

The watch features a beautiful argenté (silvered) dial with the asymmetric Lange 1 layout: hours and minutes off-centre to the left, small seconds and power reserve indicator to the lower right, and the outsize date framed at the upper right beneath a fine red running line. Slim blued steel hands provide elegant contrast against the silver surface, and the printed Roman markers and railway minute track sit cleanly on a dial that has been kept in clean, well-preserved original condition.

Specifications

Brand: A. Lange & Söhne

Model: Lange 1 – Manual Reference: 101.022 Year: circa early 2000s

Case material: 18k yellow gold

Case diameter: approx. 38.5 mm (thickness approx. 9.5 mm)

Bezel: Polished gold-tone bezel

Dial: Argenté (silvered) dial with blued steel hands and oversized date

Strap: Original 18k yellow gold with folding deployant clasp

Movement: Manual-wind, calibre L901.0, twin mainspring barrels, 72-hour power reserve, 53 jewels, hand-engraved balance cock, three-quarter plate in German silver

Condition: Good vintage condition with light signs of wear consistent with age

Accessories: Watch only (no box or papers)

Warranty: 1 year warranty

Collector Appeal

The Lange 1 is the modern reference point for German haute horlogerie — the watch that re-established A. Lange & Söhne as a serious counterpart to the great Swiss maisons and that has remained, three decades after its launch, one of the most respected designs in contemporary watchmaking. A first-generation 101.022 in yellow gold sits at the heart of that legacy.

Availability

This vintage day-date automatic watch is available through Vintage Times Amsterdam.

For further information or high-resolution images, please feel free to contact:

Vintage Times

Vintage Times Amsterdam is a small watch boutique who mainly deals online and with a select group of private collectors. We are constantly looking for rare vintage timepieces and try to present the best condition available. Please don’t hesitate to get in contact for more information about this watch or other timepieces from our collection. We ship worldwide and also welcome you for a visit at our office in Amsterdam

Vintage Times

email: [email protected]

tel / app: +31 6 4 1111 044