A. Lange & Söhne in high demand
Collector’s items register huge increase in value
Early wristwatches from A. Lange & Söhne achieved remarkable results at the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction this autumn.
Various models of A. Lange & Söhne watches were also sold at a total of five auctions held by Phillips, Dr. Crott and Sotheby’s from 6 to 12 November 2020. A classic DATOGRAPH from 2009 went under the hammer at Geneva auction house Phillips’ “Retrospective: 2000–2020” auction on 8 November. The watch in yellow gold with a black dial (Ref. 403.041) sold for the equivalent of EUR 165,000, roughly four times its original retail price. Known in collectors’ circles as the “yellow jacket”, production of this edition was limited to just a few watches.
Two days earlier, a yellow gold LANGE 1 with a solid gold caseback (Ref. 101.001) changed hands at Phillips for EUR 47,090, more than three times the original sales price. With this extraordinarily high result, this watch in perfect condition far exceeded the upper end of its estimate, which stood at EUR 14,700. Unveiled at the legendary inaugural press conference of A. Lange & Söhne in Dresden on 24 October 1994, the watch was originally only available with a solid-gold caseback. This makes it interesting for collectors. A short while later, the LANGE 1 was fitted with a sapphire-crystal caseback like all other Lange watches.
