A. Lange & Söhne has trimmed the case of its 1815 Up/Down down to 37.5mm, a reduction from the 39mm case introduced in the model’s second generation back in 2013. The change arrives in two new limited editions, reference 244.037 in 18k pink gold and reference 244.028 in 18k white gold, each capped at 300 numbered pieces and both fitted with a new dark blue dial. The watches were shown at the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace, held 4-6 September.
The 1815 line takes its name from the birth year of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, and the Up/Down variant has always carried a specific mechanical story rather than just a stylistic one. The power reserve display on the dial traces back to patent no. 9349, granted to A. Lange & Söhne in 1879 for a mechanism that let a pocket watch owner see, at a glance, whether the movement was wound or run down. Richard and Emil Lange solved that problem with a differential gear system compact enough not to bulk out a pocket watch’s slim case. The modern caliber L051.2 keeps that same engineering logic alive through a planetary gear system built directly into the movement architecture rather than stacked above it, which is the specific reason the case can hold its 8.7mm height despite housing a power reserve complication on top of hours, minutes and small seconds.
Case Design and the Move to 37.5mm
Cutting the case diameter by 1.5mm against the prior 39mm reference is a meaningful adjustment on a dress watch, where proportion is read at close range and against a shirt cuff. The case retains the vocabulary familiar from the 1815 family: horizontal satin-brushed flanks framing a brightly polished, concave bezel, lugs curving sharply downward where they meet the case, and a fluted crown for winding grip. Water resistance is rated at 3 bar, modest but standard for a piece built around thin-case engineering rather than sport-watch sealing. The sapphire crystal covers both the front and the display-style caseback, the latter secured with a screw-on design that lets the movement remain visible without compromising the case’s structural closure.
At 37.5mm by 8.7mm, the case sits in territory that reads as neither oversized nor delicate. Worn on the wrist, the density of gold construction keeps the piece from feeling insubstantial despite the smaller footprint, a detail that matters for anyone assuming a size reduction automatically means a lighter presence.
Dial Layout and Finishing
The dial is solid 925 silver finished in dark blue, a departure from the black dial more commonly associated with 1815 references. Its layout is built around a recessed central area, a signature of the Up/Down model, with the power reserve indicator placed in a snailed silver sub-dial at 8 o’clock rather than centered on the face. That sub-dial carries a black segmented track around its edge, black Arabic numerals, a double-segmented red zone marking the depleted AB (down) position, and a blued-steel hand. Small seconds sits opposite, also snailed with a black railway-track pattern and its own blued-steel hand, giving the dial a balanced, asymmetric composition rather than a strictly symmetrical one.
Around the periphery runs a white railway-style minutes track marked with small dots at the hours and triple dots at the quarter hours, a detail lifted from Lange’s historic pocket watches. White pad-printed Arabic numerals stand against the blue background, read by lancet-shaped hands matched to the case metal, white gold on the 244.028 and pink gold on the 244.037.
Movement Architecture
Visible through the sapphire caseback, caliber L051.2 measures 30.6mm by 4.6mm and is built from 245 parts with 29 jewels, seven of them set in gold chatons secured by blued screws. The German silver three-quarter plate carries Glashütte ribbing, the winding wheels are decorated with solarisation, and the balance cock is hand-engraved, all finished and the movement assembled twice by hand, in keeping with Lange’s standard manufacturing process. It runs at 21,600vph, or 3Hz, with a 72-hour power reserve, the manual-winding format for which the Up/Down’s dial-side indicator was always designed to compensate.
Each case pairs with a hand-stitched alligator strap on a prong buckle in matching gold: reddish-brown leather with the pink gold case, blue leather with the white gold case. With both references limited to 300 pieces, availability will be the determining factor for interested buyers, and the resized case marks a clear signal of how Lange is calibrating its manufacture identity toward a broader range of wrist sizes without altering the mechanical substance underneath.
