The Value Proposition: The Lange Saxonia Thin 37mm, The New 'Entry Level' Lange

There is one, basic, fundamental fact about watchmaking – I should add, about real watchmaking. Here it is: you get what you pay for. If you want a watch that represents a high level of taste, along with execution that represents a high level of mastery of traditional craftsmanship – hand finishing, adjusting to positions, construction, and so on – it's going to cost you.

Now, nobody is surprised (or nobody should be) that a good watch is expensive, although what a lot of folks are surprised by (especially when they first start looking at watches that really do represent fine watchmaking) is just how expensive watches by the brands who practice fine watchmaking have become, especially in the last 15 years. There are a lot of reasons behind this, and some of them are more palatable to us as consumers than others, but there's just no doubt that what it comes down to is that fine watchmaking has receded from view as an attainable goal for a lot of folks for whom it wasn't, 10 or 15 years ago. A round gold watch with a top-tier, hand-finished automatic or hand-wound movement used to be something that, say, a doctor could afford, maybe with a bit of saving. Today that watch costs anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 or more, in general. According to Forbes, base pay for a family practitioner is less than $200,000 a year. Think about it: we live in a time when there are doctors in America (and probably a lot of other places) for whom the idea of getting a really great gold watch has become a terrible idea. Which may be one reason why the new Lange Saxonia Thin 37 mm was such an unexpectedly big piece of news for such a relatively small watch, from such a relatively small company.

The Thin is an entry level Lange (to the extent that there is such a thing). This is as traditional a piece of watchmaking as you are going to get: two hands, white dial, no seconds hand, no date, and hand-wound. It's quite thin, at 5.9 mm (the same thickness as the 40 mm version) with a movement – Lange caliber L093.1 – that's 28 mm x 2.9 mm. For comparison, the Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber 849, which we wrote about in our three-part series on ultra thin watches, is 1.85 mm thick, making the Lange exactly 1.05 mm thicker. I think it's obvious that the goal here for Lange wasn't to compete for any records; rather, it was to make a simple but substantial, high-grade wristwatch that's thin enough to look and feel elegant, but substantial enough to send that most challenging of subliminal messages for any luxury product to send, which is "I'm worth it." On how well the Saxonia gets that message across, Walt Odets probably said it best (again) back in 2002, writing about his impressions on taking ownership of his own Saxonia: "At 34 mm and a slightly thick 8.5 mm or so, it looked like a biscuit and was twice the weight a gold watch its size ought to be. The buckle was twice the weight it ought to be. Even the sapphire back had more gold in it than two solid backs from anyone else."

That watch was a Saxonia with small seconds and a large date; the latter is probably responsible for most of the extra height over the new Thin. However, both watches have an absolutely classic movement configuration. If you look through the display backs of Odets' Lange Saxonia from 2002, and the new Thin, you're going to see very, very similar views. The 2002 model, however, has a true three-quarter plate movement, with all going-train elements, including the crown wheel and ratchet wheel, hidden completely under the plate. (Check out our interactive movement model in Watch 101 for a refresher on those components). The Thin, however, has the crown and ratchet wheels on the same level as the upper three-quarter plate.

Pretty much every part of the movement is so traditional as to be almost anachronistic, even allowing for the fact that a mechanical watch of any kind is pretty anachronistic. If it weren't in a wristwatch case, you'd think this was a pocket watch movement from the late 19th century. The train is laid out so that the fourth wheel is right where you'd want it to be for a seconds hand; every steel surface is black polished except for the spiral sun-ray brushing on the ratchet and crown wheels; and, of course, there are those screwed-down chatons, which are as unnecessary as they are beautiful. This deliberately classic and also rather old-fashioned movement construction has always been a major part of Lange's appeal, but it does rile some folks who think that deliberately introducing technical elements that, while attractive, actually represent a less successful technical solution than more modern ones (nothing wrong with pressed-in jewels, for instance) makes little sense. This, however, is a philosophical position rather than an aesthetic or qualitative judgement – except insofar as you find philosophies that contradicts your own aesthetically and/or qualitatively inferior, of course.

Now, this is not an inexpensive watch. In fact, this is a very expensive watch, at $14,800. However, it is also about $10,000 less expensive than the 40 mm version of the Saxonia Thin, and it's by far the least expensive watch of this quality in a precious metal case. In fact, I can't think of any watch that can really exceed it in quality not only in this price range – not even close. In general, this welcome a reduction in pricing over watches competing in quality necessitates sacrificing something – precious metal casing, some element or elements of elaboration in finishing, something. I struggle, however, to find anything that looks like a step down in quality in exchange for a more accessible price in this watch. It's interesting that in 2002, Odets paid about $13,000 for his Saxonia, with small seconds and big date; I think this has got to be the nicest watch in the world that you can get right now at close-to-2002 prices, fresh out of the boutique, which is a very, very interesting way to think about it. To paraphrase Mr. Odets (who was writing about a slightly different subject), it makes you think of a $50,000 watch in a way you usually don't. It makes you think of it as a bargain. 

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