Lot 124

A. Lange & Söhne

DUFOURGRAPH

A very rare Glashuette wristwatch, with Lange oversize date and chronograph with flyback function - with original box, guarantee card, operating instructions, booklet, cleaning cloth and puzzle

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Among the die-hard collectors of A. Lange & Söhne timepieces, the DATOGRAPH reference 403.031 is affectionately known as "Dufourgraph". It is the first ever Datograph model in rose gold with a black dial and it is the timepiece the legendary watchmaker Philippe Dufour chose for himself, praising it for its movement architecture, its finishing, and its design, and touting it as the best serially made chronograph in existence. Reference 403.031 was in production for two years only, from 2003 to 2005.
After an extensive development phase, the DATOGRAPH was launched in 1999 and features the in-house flyback chronograph calibre L951.1. Until this point in time, the development of top quality, traditional chronograph movements had progressed sluggishly for many years. Patek Philippe, for example, only introduced its own chronograph calibre in 2005; the top brands usually fitted their timepieces with chronograph movements made by Lemania. The proprietary calibre L951.1 enables easy reading of the measured time because the minute hand of the chronograph only moves after exactly one minute has passed. The concept had been used in a small number of pocket watches and A. Lange & Söhne had used a smaller version of the mechanism in one of their wristwatches. The DATOGRAPH is capable of timing a span of up to 30 minutes and is accurate to the fifth of a second. The flyback function allows zero-resetting during the timing by the push of one button only – once the pusher is released again, a new measurement can start immediately, omitting the usual steps of stopping and zero-resetting.