704.025 A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Tourbillon

Imagine walking into the office of Günter Blümlein in 1997 and proposing a massive alteration to the Lange 1 that would fundamentally alter the harmony of its dial: adding a tourbillon. Nonetheless, someone actually had the brass to suggest improving upon the Lange 1. The wildest part is that it worked. The Lange 1 Tourbillon released in 2000, the first complicated Lange ever (if you deem a Tourbillon that), in 150 platinum examples, 250 pink gold examples, and a follow-up release of 165 examples in honey gold in 2010. They are all quite desirable. 

This Find features photography of a few separate 704.025 examples which have auctioned recently, the actual example coming up at Phillips is linked below. 

While often a footnote, the philosophy of the L1T was uber important. The inherent harmony of the Lange 1, ie a golden ratio between dial component centers, must be preserved. And the proportions had to remain unaltered. That's easy to say, but harder to execute. As a result, the L1T has a tourbillon carriage that spins in reverse, which was the only way to accomplish that placement, so the running seconds was necessarily separated.

The shape of the carriage arms is directly nodding to a 1910 Lange pocket watch. Its bridge is black polished, not hand engraved, and concludes with a diamond jewel for the carriage. You get the engraving on the back. There are 378 components required for the L961.1, one of few Lange movements which is just as dramatic front-side. Where later examples used a sapphire disc, the earliest L1T in platinum and pink gold have a positive curve over top of the tourbillon to hid the date disc. This a charm point of the early calibres for many. Auctions have been near 100K USD pretty consistently for some time for the early 704.025. And, frankly, that seems fair to me. This is not a modern classic. It's a niche bit of Teutonic excellence that's a little more lively dial side, beautifully executed. 

This example appears lovely. Its case has seen a light polish, no doubt, but it's not aggressive. The watch has proof of origin included with sale, though not its full set.