Limited to 50 pieces, the Datograph Perpetual 410.136E was presented by A. Lange & Söhne in October 2026 to mark twenty years of the Datograph Perpetual, the 2006 model that was the manufacture's first wristwatch to combine a flyback chronograph, a perpetual calendar and its outsize date. For the anniversary Lange changed two things that set this edition apart from every Datograph Perpetual before it. Case and bracelet are both Platinum, the bracelet a five-row design developed for this watch, and the solid silver dial is finished in glossy Black and set with baguette-cut diamond hour markers. It is the first Datograph Perpetual delivered by the manufacture on a metal bracelet, and it returns a full Platinum bracelet to the Datograph family, whose earlier bracelet versions were made with the German jeweller Wellendorff and have since become sought-after collector pieces.
The Platinum case measures 41 mm in diameter and 13.5 mm in height, the same proportions as the White Gold model in the permanent collection, with a polished, stepped bezel and satin-brushed flanks. Rectangular pushers at 2 and 4 o'clock start, stop and reset the chronograph, a pusher at 10 o'clock advances all calendar displays together, and recessed correctors in the case band set the weekday, the month and leap year, and the moon phase separately. The dial is solid silver in deep, glossy Black, with baguette-cut diamonds as hour markers and the 4 and 8 o'clock positions left open to make room for the subdials. Lange's outsize date sits at 12 o'clock in its framed double window. The left subdial combines the running seconds with the day of the week and a small day/night indicator, and the right subdial combines the jumping 30-minute chronograph counter with the month, with an inset display for the position in the leap-year cycle. At 6 o'clock a blue moon disc with golden stars sits between them, and a tachymeter scale runs around the edge of the dial. The silver-toned subdials stand out sharply against the Black ground. The hour, minute and calendar hands are White Gold, the central chronograph seconds hand is rhodium-plated steel, and the running seconds and minute counter hands are blued steel. The five-row Platinum bracelet alternates satin-brushed and polished links, finished with polished chamfers along its edges and mounted flush to the lugs, and it closes with a Platinum folding deployant buckle engraved with the Lange name.
Inside is a hand-wound movement of 556 parts, 223 of them devoted to the perpetual calendar, that runs for 36 hours when fully wound at 18,000 semi-oscillations per hour. It retains the classic Datograph chronograph architecture, controlled by a column wheel, with a flyback function that resets and restarts the chronograph with a single press of the lower pusher and a minute counter that jumps exactly at the end of each minute. The perpetual calendar recognises months of 28, 29, 30 and 31 days and the leap-year cycle, so the date will not need correcting until 2100, and Lange states that the moon phase deviates from the true lunar cycle by only one day in 122.6 years, provided the watch runs without interruption. Through the sapphire caseback the movement shows the layered arrangement of levers and bridges that has made the Datograph movement famous, with plates and bridges of untreated German silver, Glashütte ribbing, four screwed gold chatons, blued screws and a hand-engraved balance cock. Like every Lange movement it is assembled twice, first to be adjusted and then, after being taken apart and cleaned, for final assembly.
A. Lange & Söhne's first chronograph, the Datograph, appeared in 1999 and quickly established the manufacture among the leading chronograph makers. The Datograph Perpetual followed in 2006 in Platinum, adding a perpetual calendar to the same movement and becoming one of the manufacture's first grand complications of the modern era. It was later made in Rose Gold, and in 2015 a White Gold version with a Grey dial arrived, the 410.038E. The family has since grown to include the Datograph Up/Down, the Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon and a number of special editions, among them the pieces that marked the Datograph's twenty-fifth anniversary in 2024. Bracelets have been rare throughout: the Platinum Datographs once offered on Wellendorff bracelets, such as the references 453.135 and 403.435, are among the most collected Lange watches of the period. The bracelet on the 410.136E is an entirely new design rather than a revival of those Wellendorff bracelets, and its pairing with a Black dial and diamond markers gives the Datograph Perpetual a character it has not had before in its twenty years.
The 410.136E appeals to collectors who want the Datograph Perpetual in its most complete form. With only 50 pieces, a Platinum case and bracelet and a diamond-set Black dial, it is among the rarest versions of the model, and the first that can be worn on a metal bracelet straight from the manufacture. Its perpetual calendar keeps track of dates for decades, its flyback chronograph offers genuine utility, and its outsize date remains easy to read against the Black dial. It will interest collectors of the Datograph family, admirers of Platinum watches on bracelets, and those who followed the Wellendorff-era bracelet Datographs and have waited for the manufacture to return to the form. At 41 mm the case wears comfortably despite everything it contains, and the bracelet gives it a presence quite different from the strap models. For a collection built around Lange's grand complications, it is an anniversary piece that marks a clear new chapter for one of the manufacture's defining watches.
