A. Lange & Söhne awarding the “Best of Show” at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2023

From 19 to 21 May 2023, the Grand Hotel Villa d'Este on Lake Como opens its doors to rare classic cars. A. Lange & Söhne will award the Best of Show

The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is considered one of the world’s most exclusive events for rare historic vehicles. The international automobile competition, during which some of the rarest classic cars will be showcased on the shores of Lake Como, will take place from 19th to 21st May this year.

A partner of the event since 2012, A. Lange & Söhne will once again donate the “Best of Show” award, a special 1815 Chronograph model in white gold that A. Lange & Söhne has created especially for the winner of the competition.

Housed in a 39.5 mm x 11.9 mm case, this unique piece features a solid pink gold dial recalling A. Lange & Söhne’s legendary pocket watches with Arabic numerals and railway-track minute scale. The brown subsidiary dials for the seconds and the minute counter stand out against the bright background. 

On the back side, we find a hand-engraved hinged cuvette where the “CONCORSO D’ELEGANZA VILLA D’ESTE” signature frames the coat of arms as well as the founding year 1929 and the current event year. 

The sapphire-crystal caseback reveals the hand-finished mechanism of the hand-wound calibre L951.5 featuring column-wheel control, a snail for the precisely jumping minute counter, and a refined flyback function. Beating at 18,000 vibrations per hour (2.5 Hz), the watch delivers readings of stopped times with the accuracy of one-fifth of a second. 

As part of the awards ceremony on Sunday evening, Lange CEO Wilhelm Schmid will present the winning watch to the overall winner. 

“Like the works of art on wheels exhibited here, the timepiece combines classic design with masterful mechanics”, explains Schmid. “It is a sign of our admiration for automotive works of art that were way ahead of their time, and their owners, who passionately take care to preserve the timeless elegance of the mechanics”. alange-soehne.com

In front of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este during the 2022 Concorso: on the left, the “Best of Show” winner; on the right, a current production Bugatti.