Limited to 125 numbered pieces, the Datograph Up/Down 405.028 was presented at Watches and Wonders 2024 to celebrate twenty-five years of the Datograph, the chronograph with which A. Lange & Söhne transformed its reputation in 1999. It broke with the model's established livery in two ways. It was the first Datograph Up/Down cased in White Gold, and it was the first to wear a blue dial, a colour that had previously appeared on the Datograph only on a single unique piece from the first generation. Until 2024 the Up/Down had been offered with black dials in Platinum and Rose Gold, and those versions remain in the collection; the anniversary edition sits beside them as a cooler, more contemporary interpretation. The watch keeps everything that made the Datograph a reference point for mechanical chronographs: a hand-wound movement developed entirely in-house, a flyback function, a minute counter that jumps exactly on the minute, Lange's outsize date and, in the Up/Down version, an indicator showing how much energy remains in the mainspring. It is at once a celebration of the model's history and one of its most distinctive expressions.
The White Gold case measures 41 mm in diameter and 13.1 mm in height, with a polished bezel and caseback ring and a satin-brushed case band. Rectangular pushers at 2 and 4 o'clock control the chronograph, and the crown at 3 o'clock winds and sets the watch. The dial is made of solid silver finished in a matte blue, and it retains the Datograph's famously balanced layout. At 12 o'clock, the outsize date appears in its double window. At 9 o'clock, a subdial shows the running seconds, and at 3 o'clock another records up to 30 elapsed chronograph minutes; both subdials are finished in a pale rhodium tone that stands out crisply against the blue. At 6 o'clock, the Up/Down indicator shows the remaining running time, its hand entering a red zone on the third day as a reminder to wind. White Gold baton markers and hands, a tachymeter scale around the edge and blued steel hands in the subdials complete the composition, which is both technical and elegant. The watch is worn on a blue alligator strap with a White Gold prong buckle, echoing the colour of the dial.
The hand-wound movement consists of 451 parts and runs for 60 hours when fully wound. It is a classical chronograph construction controlled by a column wheel and engaged by a horizontal clutch, and its most celebrated features have defined Lange chronographs since 1999. The flyback function allows the wearer to press the lower pusher while the chronograph is running, returning the hands to zero and immediately starting a fresh measurement. The minute counter does not creep but jumps forward by one full minute exactly as the chronograph seconds hand completes its revolution, making elapsed times unambiguous. The Up/Down display is driven by a differential that registers winding and running simultaneously. Through the sapphire caseback, the movement reveals one of the most admired chronograph architectures in modern watchmaking: bridges of untreated German silver, a balance cock engraved by hand and fitted with a whiplash spring for fine adjustment, thermally blued screws and four screwed gold chatons. Like every Lange movement, it is assembled twice, a demanding process for a chronograph with so many interacting levers and springs.
When the Datograph appeared in 1999, it was the first chronograph from the reborn A. Lange & Söhne and it combined, for the first time in a wristwatch, a flyback chronograph with a instantly jumping minute counter and an outsize date. Its movement, developed from scratch, quickly gained a reputation among collectors and watchmakers as one of the most beautiful chronograph movements ever made. In 2012 the manufacture introduced the Datograph Up/Down, with a larger 41 mm case, a longer running time and the added state-of-wind indicator, and the model has remained the core of the Datograph family ever since, alongside the Datograph Perpetual and the Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon. For the twenty-fifth anniversary in 2024, Lange created this White Gold and blue edition and, at the same time, a Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon in Honeygold. The 405.028 therefore occupies a special position: a limited edition that celebrates a quarter-century of one of the manufacture's defining watches while offering a colour combination never before seen on the regular Datograph.
The 405.028 appeals to collectors who admire the Datograph and want a version with a distinct identity. Its blue dial and White Gold case give it a fresher, more contemporary character than the black-dialled regular models, while preserving the layout and mechanics that made the Datograph famous. With only 125 pieces, it is significantly rarer than the standard versions, and its anniversary status gives it a clear place in the model's history. It will interest collectors of chronographs who value movement architecture as much as dial design, and those who follow Lange's anniversary editions. The 41 mm case is comfortable on most wrists, and the blue and silver palette makes the watch as suitable for daytime wear as for formal occasions. For a collection built around mechanical chronographs, it represents one of the most important models of the modern era in one of its most attractive forms; for a Lange collection, it marks an important milestone in the manufacture's history.
