A. Lange & Söhne has marked the 20th anniversary of the Datograph Perpetual with a version that looks back without feeling like a straight reissue.
The new limited edition revives the platinum case and bracelet associated with the early model, then sharpens the effect with a black dial and baguette-cut diamond hour markers.
It’s a quietly unusual move from Glashütte, pairing one of Lange’s most serious complications with just enough jewellery-watch presence to change its character.
At a glance
- A. Lange & Söhne has introduced a 50-piece Datograph Perpetual anniversary edition in platinum.
- The watch combines a black dial, baguette-cut diamond hour markers and a platinum bracelet.
- It celebrates 20 years since the 2006 Datograph Perpetual, the brand’s first watch combining a chronograph and perpetual calendar.
A platinum bracelet returns to the Datograph Perpetual
The original Datograph Perpetual arrived in 2006 with a platinum case and silver dial, with a bracelet offered as an option.
That first version was discontinued in 2011, making the return of the bracelet one of the defining details of this anniversary reference.
Bracelets were once more common across Lange’s catalogue, but they’ve largely receded from the brand’s dressier modern watches.
Today, the Odysseus is the most obvious bracelet-led Lange, which makes a platinum-bracelet Datograph Perpetual feel deliberately uncommon.
The new bracelet keeps the idea of multiple rows of smaller links, but its geometry has changed.
Where the earlier bracelet used curvier forms, this one has a squarer profile that sits closer to the current Lange design language and the Odysseus family.
Diamonds meet a black Lange dial
The other major change is on the dial, where baguette-cut diamonds replace the usual metal hour markers.
Diamond-set Datograph models have appeared before in Lange’s history, but this is the first Datograph Perpetual to receive diamond hour markers.
Against the black dial, the stones read less as decoration for its own sake and more as a graphic accent.
They add light to a watch that remains fundamentally technical, with the familiar outsize date at 12 o’clock, twin counters at 4 and 8 o’clock, and moon phase at 6 o’clock.
The layout remains one of the Datograph Perpetual’s signatures because it doesn’t follow the conventional three-register perpetual calendar chronograph formula.
Instead, the watch keeps the twin-counter character of the Datograph while layering calendar information into the sub-dials.
The calibre L952.1 remains the main event
Inside is the manually wound calibre L952.1, a movement long associated with the Datograph Perpetual.
It runs at 18,000 vibrations per hour, or 2.5 Hz, and offers a 36-hour power reserve.
By contemporary standards those numbers are traditional rather than aggressive, but the appeal of this watch has never rested on spec-sheet modernity.
The movement combines a flyback chronograph with a perpetual calendar, giving the wearer the ability to reset and restart a timing operation without first stopping the chronograph.
The calendar is also designed with practical adjustment in mind.
A pusher at 10 o’clock advances all calendar indications together, while recessed correctors allow individual indications to be set separately after a longer period off the wrist.
Lange has also built in safeguards, with the rapid-correction pusher operating only when the crown is pulled out and becoming disabled between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Details & Specifications
| Brand | A. Lange & Söhne |
|---|---|
| Model | Datograph Perpetual |
| Reference | 410.136E |
| Case size | 41 mm x 13.5 mm |
| Case material | Platinum |
| Dial | Black with baguette-cut diamond hour markers |
| Movement | Calibre L952.1, manually wound |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, seconds, flyback chronograph and perpetual calendar |
| Power reserve | 36 hours |
| Frequency | 18,000 vibrations per hour, 2.5 Hz |
| Bracelet | Platinum bracelet |
| Limited edition | 50 pieces |
This anniversary Datograph Perpetual is likely to speak to collectors who value Lange’s technical discipline but want a version with a more distinctive surface character.
It’s still the same complex, classically engineered perpetual calendar chronograph underneath, only now with a platinum bracelet and a flash of diamonds that make it harder to mistake for any other Lange.
