The Odysseus Chronograph, A. Lange & Söhne’s First Automatic Timekeeper

A. Lange & Söhne presented one singular piece during Watches and Wonders 2023, the Odysseus Chronograph. It was an audacious flex, but not unwarranted, as the brand’s first self-winding chronograph is a doozy.

The Odysseus’ debut in 2019 sent the horological community into a titter as it was the German manufacture’s first foray into sports watches, and in steel no less. The handsome ticker turned heads with its contemporary and resolutely legible mien, its lancet-shaped hands and prodigious Lange date and day displays an absolute delight to read on the open and generous dial (thanks to the narrower bezel). More importantly, it heralded complicated models in this category, which brings us to the Odysseus Chronograph today.

A. Lange & Söhne’s first self-winding chronograph is powered by the L156.1 Datomatic calibre, equipped with a platinum rotor and fanciful reset function. The latter provides a novel spectacle as the chronograph hands whirl away when the mechanism is activated: the minute hand jumps to zero, while the seconds hand retraces its entire distance covered at high speed, “one full revolution for each measured minute”. Both hands move clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on whether the elapsed timekeeping has crossed the 30-minute mark.

The Odysseus Chronograph retains its desirable good looks by opting for centrally-mounted chronograph hands rather than the typical totalisers. Slightly larger at 42.5mm to accommodate the complication, the watch boasts a black textured dial with white gold appliqués and a seconds sub-dial underlaid with concentric circles, and is limited to 100 pieces.