A. Lange & Söhne was relaunched in 1990 by Walter Lange after 45 years of socialist-era dormancy in Glashütte, Saxony. The relaunch collection in 1994 covered the dress-watch and complication territory (Lange 1, Saxonia, Tourbillon), but a chronograph took five more years to develop. The Datograph launched in 1999 as the ref. 403.035 in platinum with a salmon dial, marking the brand's first foray into chronographs and the first fully in-house Saxon flyback chronograph movement.
The defining feature was the movement, Cal. L951.1, an integrated column-wheel flyback chronograph with an in-house architecture that nothing else on the market resembled. The three-quarter plate in untreated German silver, the hand-engraved balance cock, the gold chatons holding the jewel bearings in place, the rounded chamfered bridges hand-anglaged to a mirror polish, and the precision jumping minute counter (a feature borrowed from observatory chronometers, where the chronograph minute counter advances exactly when the second hand crosses zero) made the Cal. L951.1 a movement that watchmakers and finishing critics analyse the way wine critics analyse first-growth Bordeaux. Philippe Dufour and other independent watchmakers have publicly praised the Datograph movement as the modern benchmark for chronograph finishing.
The movement also introduced Lange's signature outsize date (Großdatum) on a chronograph, with the inspiration cited as the five-minute clock above the stage of the Dresden Semper Opera House, designed by Lange family ancestor Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes in 1841. The dial layout placed the chronograph minute counter at 4:30, the running seconds at 7:30, and the outsize date at 12. The original ref. 403 ran from 1999 to 2012.
In 2012 Lange launched the Datograph Up/Down ref. 405.035, the first major update. The case grew from 39mm to 41mm, a power reserve indicator was added at 6 o'clock, and the movement was upgraded to Cal. L951.6 with a 60-hour power reserve (up from 36). Subsequent variants added a perpetual calendar (Datograph Perpetual, ref. 410.025, 2006), a tourbillon (Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon, 2016), and the platinum "Lumen" editions with skeletonised dials and luminous outsize date numerals. Retail for the current Datograph Up/Down is approximately USD 95,000 in white gold, USD 105,000+ in platinum.
