A special case turns the Lange 1815 into a collector’s piece
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Oeding-Erdel Jewellers in Münster: For the very first time, a new-era Lange watch features a “cuvette” – in a special edition of only two sets of 38 watches.
In the old days, even crowned heads occasionally had to wait for a Lange timepiece. Nowadays, patience is still required at times, especially when exclusive editions of unsurpassed quality are involved. The paragon of exclusivity is embodied in those rare Lange models crafted in very small editions to crown special events – such as the centennial of a jeweller with whom “A. Lange & Söhne” has particularly close ties. Oeding-Erdel in Münster/Osnabrück is one of them.
This company’s birthday wish came true in close co-operation with the manufactory: the 1815 “Cuvette”, a most extraordinary timepiece. With its lucid face and subsidiary seconds dial, this classic Lange is reminiscent, more than any other model from the eminent manufactory in Glashütte, of the halcyon epoch of pocket watches. Moreover, the “1815” was launched as a homage to Ferdinand Adolph Lange, the legendary founder of the manufactory. This highly talented yet modest man was born in the Saxon capital of Dresden in 1815.
Nothing could better befit a timepiece that symbolises so much horological history than a further distinctive detail from that era: the “cuvette”. This is the term that was used to designate the inner dust cover of precious Lange pocket watches. Today, in the age of sapphire-crystal casebacks that reveal the full splendour of horological craftsmanship, the “cuvette” has another unusual and particularly charming function – that of screening the glazed back from view: it conceals the lavishly decorated technical work of art until someone deliberately lifts the cover. This small gesture embodies a certain degree of expectant curiosity, not unlike the feelings experienced when opening the door of a particularly spectacular salon or the lid of a chest replete with sparkling treasures. The engraving on the inside of the “cuvette” divulges the special occasion for which this watch was created. Only two sets of 38 exemplars of the 1815 “Cuvette” were crafted, half of the edition in pink gold, the other half in white gold. Each watch is an absolute collector’s piece.
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/2043/langesoehne0701172ip5lj5.jpghttp://img413.imageshack.us/img413/9391/lange1815cuvettedetail6ez1.jpghttp://img206.imageshack.us/img206/5380/lange1815cuvettedetail5xq0.jpghttp://img146.imageshack.us/img146/7112/langeusoehnekartongt0.jpg
