The 1815 Tourbillon 730.079F joins two very different forms of excellence in a single Platinum watch: a white grand feu enamel dial made by hand through some thirty separate steps, and a tourbillon that can be stopped and whose seconds hand returns to zero for setting, a combination A. Lange & Söhne pioneered. Presented in September 2018, four years after the 1815 Tourbillon made its debut at SIHH 2014, it was limited to 100 pieces and offered through Lange boutiques, each case individually numbered from 001/100 to 100/100. Enamel dials are rare in the Lange collection, and their appearance on this model placed one of the oldest decorative crafts in watchmaking alongside some of the manufacture's most modern micromechanics. The result is a watch that reads as purely classical at first glance, with its glossy white surface and pocket-watch numerals, yet conceals a tourbillon engineered to overcome the practical limitation that most tourbillons share: the impossibility of setting them to the exact second. For collectors of the 1815 family it remains one of the most refined interpretations of the model, a watch in which craft and engineering are given equal importance.
The Platinum case measures 39.5 mm in diameter and 11.3 mm in height, slim for a tourbillon, with polished and satin surfaces and the notched lugs of the 1815 family. Its weight gives a subtle sense of substance on the wrist without any outward display. The dial is made of enamel fired over a copper base, a traditional technique in which layers of finely ground glass are applied and fired repeatedly until they form a deep, perfectly smooth white surface. Around thirty manual operations are needed for each dial, and any flaw in the final firing means starting again. Black Arabic numerals and the railway-track minute scale are printed on the enamel, and in a nod to historic Lange pocket watches the numeral 12 is printed and fired separately in red. At 6 o'clock an aperture reveals the one-minute tourbillon beneath its black-polished bridge, the only visible hint of the complexity inside, and the seconds scale surrounds it. Blued steel hands complete the classical composition, their deep colour contrasting with the brilliant white. A black alligator strap and a Platinum deployant buckle keep the palette strictly monochrome, letting the enamel and the tourbillon remain the focus.
The two patented mechanisms of the 1815 Tourbillon work together whenever the crown is pulled. A fine lever stops the balance, and with it the tourbillon cage, while a heart cam returns the small seconds hand to its zero position at 12 o'clock. The owner sets the hours and minutes, waits for the full minute on a reference time signal, and pushes the crown home to start the watch in exact synchrony. The stop-seconds mechanism for a tourbillon was patented by Lange in 2008, and the zero-reset function first appeared in the Langematik in 1997; the 1815 Tourbillon was the first Lange watch to combine them. During normal running, the tourbillon completes one rotation every minute, turning the escapement to average out the effects of gravity. The hand-wound movement consists of 262 components and runs for 72 hours when fully wound. Seen through the sapphire caseback, its three-quarter plate of German silver, engraved tourbillon cock, screwed gold chatons and polished steel parts show the full range of Glashütte finishing, and every movement is assembled twice before it is cased.
Lange's first collection after its revival in 1994 included the Tourbillon 'Pour le Mérite', and the tourbillon has remained one of the manufacture's most carefully developed complications ever since. The Cabaret Tourbillon of 2008 brought the patented stop-seconds, and the 1815 Tourbillon of 2014 added the zero-reset, launched in Rose Gold for the regular collection and in a limited Platinum edition. The white enamel version of 2018 was the first to give the model a dial of fired enamel, and in 2025 Lange followed it with a black enamel edition of 50 pieces, also in Platinum. Enamel has a long history in Saxon and Swiss watchmaking, particularly on pocket watches, where its permanence and depth made it the preferred material for fine dials. By applying it to the 1815 Tourbillon, the manufacture connected its most technical tourbillon with that tradition. The 730.079F therefore occupies a special place: the first enamel-dial 1815 Tourbillon and, with its red 12 and numbered case, one of the most historically resonant pieces in the family.
The 730.079F appeals to collectors who value both craftsmanship and technical invention and want to see them combined rather than separated. Its white enamel dial offers a purity and depth that printed metal dials cannot match, and because enamel does not fade or change with time, it will look exactly the same generations from now. With 100 numbered pieces, it is a rare watch, and its presentation through Lange boutiques adds to its exclusivity. It will interest collectors of enamel dials, collectors of tourbillons who want one that can be set properly, and those who admire the 1815 family's historical references, from the railway-track scale to the red 12. On the wrist, its Platinum case and black strap give it a formal, understated character suited to evening wear and important occasions. For a collection built around Lange's high complications, it brings a rare artistic dimension; for a collector who owns a single exceptional watch, it combines Saxon craftsmanship and ingenuity in their most refined form.
