Datograph Up/Down

Philippe Dufour, the man many consider the greatest living watchmaker, was asked in an interview what the best chronograph ever made is. He did not name one of his own. He did not name a Patek Philippe. He said the Datograph. When the person who makes the finest hand-finished watches on earth points at a specific watch from another brand and says that is the best, you pay attention.

The Datograph Up/Down is powered by the Caliber L951.6, a hand-wound movement with 451 parts. A classic column-wheel chronograph with a flyback function, a precisely jumping minute counter, and a power reserve display that gives the watch its Up/Down designation. 60 hours of power reserve. The movement beats at 18,000 vibrations per hour, 2.5 Hz, and measures elapsed time to one-fifth of a second. The column wheel controls the chronograph start, stop, and reset functions with the mechanical precision that only a column-wheel architecture can deliver. The flyback allows you to reset and restart the chronograph with a single press rather than the stop-reset-start sequence required on a standard chronograph.

The movement finishing is Lange at its absolute best. The three-quarter plate is untreated German silver that develops a warm patina over decades. The balance cock is hand-engraved by a single artisan, and no two Lange balance cocks are identical. Four gold chatons secured with thermally blued screws hold the jewels. Every bridge is finished with Glashutte ribbing. Every edge is hand-chamfered and polished. The movement is assembled twice. First to verify fit and function, then disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled with the final finishing. Double assembly is a Lange tradition that no other manufacture practices at this scale.

The case is 41mm in platinum or rose gold, and the dial layout is what separates the Datograph from every other chronograph. The subsidiary seconds at the lower left, the 30-minute counter at the lower right, and the Lange outsize date at 12 o'clock. The subsidiary dials are recessed into the main dial, creating depth and shadow. The flyback chronograph seconds hand sweeps from the center. The tachymeter scale sits on the chapter ring. Everything is where it should be and nothing is where it does not need to be.

I already have the Grand Lange 1 and the Zeitwerk in this collection. The Datograph is here because it represents a different side of Glashutte. The Grand Lange 1 is about proportions and asymmetric beauty. The Zeitwerk is about mechanical audacity. The Datograph is about the chronograph executed at the highest level anyone has achieved. Dufour said it. The industry agrees. There is no chronograph that matches it for the combination of movement architecture, finishing, and functional design. It is the reference against which every serious chronograph is measured and the one that none of them have surpassed.