The Best Launched A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph with Black Dial

When you are considering a top-end chronograph replica watch, you would thing of the white metal, black dial. The Datograph Up/Down, a staple of high-end chronograph hit on that, and the platinum case and black dial coupled with arguably the sexiest damn movement in all of watchmaking made it to be an extremely classical model. But the Datograph isn’t so good for all. On the contrary, some prefer its slightly thinner, slightly more slender little brother, the 1815 chronograph. To me, as one of those people, and an original 1815 chronograph in white gold remains part of my major collection to this day. I am, not shockingly, wearing it as I write this story.
This watch features almost the same chronograph caliber as the Datograph, but is 1.5mm thinner because it does not feature the outsized date complication – it’s essentially a Datograph without the date. And that concept was taken one step further today as replica A. Lange & Söhne unveiled an 1815 chronograph with a black dial.
But this isn’t just a black dial version of the current 1815, but a black pulsation dial, or a tweak to the boutique edition 1815 which was first introduced in September of 2015. Now that watch, to be honest, was inspired by the very first 1815 chronograph from 2004, which had a pulsation dial in silver with a white gold case and a black pulsation dial with the rose gold variant. This is the first time Lange has offered a black pulsation dial in a white metal case, and the combination is one that is difficult to ignore. Franking speaking, what makes the piece even more compelling is the other side to the watch, which has been described by our own Kevin Rose as “A little city back there.” The caliber is simply elegant and graceful, and I am sure that nobody would dispute the claim that this chronograph is among the finest ever produced. With this new fake watch, nothing has changed, and you’ll still have the wonderful view from behind. 
But while this new black dial chronograph surely gives you Dato vibes, this dateless Datograph remains very much an 1815 family member. We don’t have the power reserve indicator or the applied hour markers. The case is gold, not platinum, and the size remains 39.5mm instead of 41mm. It is a very compelling offering indeed, and one that will surely attract the attention of many high-end chronograph buyers because, well, how could it not? Besides, it’s much cheaper than any competitive in-house watch from Patek .
In my opinion, an even more interesting comparison for this new model would be to the original 1815 chronograph, which I also happened to be wearing while viewing this watch for the first time. The replica watches are all but identical physically – both 39.5mm in diameter by 10.8mm thick and both in white gold. The watch tends to sit higher on the wrist than the sub-11mm depth might indicate because of the lip that encases the sapphire caseback. It’s not too thick on the wrist, but it’s certainly not svelte either. Naturally, it is thinner than the Datograph Up/Down.