A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus 363.179

Imagen: A. Lange & Söhne, web oficial

The storyWhy this reference matters

The date was no accident. Lange had been reborn on 24 October 1994 and picked the same day, a quarter of a century later, to show the Odysseus. It was the sixth watch family in the catalogue and it delivered three firsts at once: the modern brand's first steel case, its first 120-metre water resistance and its first integrated metal bracelet. After twenty-five years making nothing but gold and platinum dress watches, Glashütte had never seen anything like it leave that factory.

Inside is the L155.1, christened Datomatic for what it does — date and automatic winding. 312 parts and 31 jewels, a central rotor with a platinum mass, a transverse balance bridge to take knocks better and 50 hours of reserve at 4 Hz. Sports watch or not, the finishing is still house standard: hand-polished bevels, perlage and black-polished steel. And the two windows — day at nine, date at three — snap over rather than crawl.

The detail that has caused the most argument sits on the right-hand flank. The day and date correctors are not loose buttons on the side: they hide inside the crown guard block, at two and four o'clock, conical and sealed. The clasp keeps another trick, a fine adjustment of up to seven millimetres worked by the pusher in the logo, which lets you tighten or loosen without tools when the temperature moves.

SpecificationsThe numbers, in one table

IdentificationHow to tell it apart

Three dial details confirm a steel Odysseus: the red 60 at the top of the minute ring, the grained centre surrounded by an hour ring in azurage guilloché, and the two metal-framed windows with the day at nine and the date at three. Below the centre, small seconds with a scale of its own. No red 60, or windows without frames, and it is not this reference.

Careful not to mix up versions. The 363.179 is steel with a dark blue dial. The 363.117 is grade 5 titanium with an ice blue dial, limited to 250 pieces; there is a white gold Odysseus as well. All share the 40.5 mm diameter and the 11.1 mm height, so the difference shows in the dial colour, in the weight and in the sandblasted finish of the titanium.

The steel bracelet is integrated and part of the design: there are no conventional lugs to take a twenty-millimetre strap bought somewhere else. Screw-down crown, screwed sapphire back and those two conical pushers sunk into the crown guard complete the picture. Any listing showing a steel Odysseus on a leather strap deserves one more question.

CollectingWhat collectors check

The clasp first. The seven-millimetre fine adjustment is a sprung mechanical part used every day, so work it several times: it has to extend and retract with no play and no odd noises. Then the links and end pieces of the integrated bracelet, the area that takes the most punishment and hides a scratch worst, because the polished bevels and the brushed surfaces meet exactly there.

Being a steel watch finished to haute horlogerie standards, the Odysseus punishes repolishing. Look for the bevel between the brushed flank and the polished part of the case still running as a clean straight line. On the dial, check that both windows change together at midnight and that the correctors do their job without anything having to be forced.

Full set, sapphire back with no marks around it, boutique invoice. Only Lange touches the L155.1, so a service done elsewhere is a problem. And a word about the market: for years the steel version has been the hardest watch in the whole catalogue to buy over a counter, which attracts hurried listings and descriptions copied from another reference.

Common questionsWhat people ask us about this reference

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Close relativesThe ones it gets confused with