The Saxon manufacture .A. Lange & Söhne is a “monastery” of knowledge that creates innovative mechanisms that are manufactured entirely in-house.
It all started in 1845 when Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded his watch factory in the town of Glashütte in Saxony. His pocket watches quickly gained worldwide fame and his sons later carried on his legacy through numerous innovations and developments.
Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Walter Lange, the great-grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, dared to make a new start. In 1990, he established the new manufacture as the old facilities had been destroyed by bombing in 1945, the last day of the war, and the watchmaking had ceased operations for many years. “At that stage, we didn’t have much,” Walter Lange recalled. “We had no watches to sell, no employees, facilities or machinery. We only had the vision of the best watches in the world and we wanted to make them again in Glashütte.” Four years later, he presented his first collection and the rest is history.
Today, the company’s headquarters have been moved to the same historic building where the watchmaker was founded, and Lange’s great watchmakers continue to practice their craft, as they once did for the royal court in Dresden. Aesthetic perfection is everywhere – in the well-designed cases with their beautiful curves, the large date and day windows, the impressive lancet-type hands. And the craftsmanship doesn’t stop at the exterior: the watches are equipped with amazing movements that are manufactured in-house and, in accordance with the A. Lange & Söhne philosophy, are always assembled twice to function perfectly.
The collections that make history
The Lange 1, a symbol of the house’s bold new beginning, was presented by Walter Lange and his partner, Günter Blümlein, at the Dresden Palace on October 24, 1994. It is an extraordinary combination of tradition and innovation, a watch that embodies knowledge and legacy of an entire watchmaking dynasty. Its design, on the other hand, explores new avenues, with the characteristic asymmetric dial and the iconic large date, inspired by the famous clock of the Semper Opera in Dresden. The Lange 1 family has presented exquisite watches such as the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar and the Little Lange 1 Moon Phase that captures the magic of the moon and the starry sky on its dial.
The name of the 1815 watch family is a tribute to the year of birth of Ferdinand A. Lange, the man who established precision watchmaking in Germany. A hallmark of the first 1815, the railway-style minute scale, legible Arabic numerals and blued steel hands – rich details on a distinctive dial inspired by the era of great train journeys.
The collection includes exceptional watches such as the collectible 1815 Thin Honeygold “Homage to F. A. Lange”, made of honeygold, the exclusive gold alloy that Lange uses only in its rare creations. But also masterpieces like the Tourbograph Perpetual “Pour le Mérite” of 2017, which brings together all the great achievements of watchmaking art: fusée-and-chain transmission system, tourbillon, chronograph, rattrapante function and perpetual calendar.
Mechanical perfection
Micromechanical ingenuity is the priority in the Saxonia family of watches, named after the state of Germany that has consistently pioneered technical progress – after all, it was also where the first German steam engine was built in 1839. The pursuit of mechanical perfection is evident in timepieces like the Saxonia Triple Split, the world’s only rattrapante chronograph that can measure additive and comparative time intervals of up to 12 hours.
The constant search for perfection is also expressed by the Zeitwerk watch family, consisting of highly complicated jumping hour watches, and Richard Lange, a collection of high craftsmanship watches dedicated to the great watchmaker and founder’s son, Richard Lange. Finally, in 2019 Lange presented the Odysseus, opening a new chapter in the house’s history. The company characterizes it as sporty-elegant and is designed for those who love action and sports. Capable of withstanding pressures of 12 bar, and thus water-resistant to a depth of 120 meters, the Odysseus is the first waterproof Lange, with a stainless steel case and screw-down crown.
Since the re-establishment of the company in 1990 until today, A. Lange & Söhne has not stopped innovating and developing its almost 50 unique movements, respecting a tradition of two centuries. With over 250 international awards and prices starting at €25,600 for the Saxonia Thin and reaching unprecedented heights – such as the 852,500 Swiss francs (€900,457) for which the 1815 “Homage to Walter Lange” sold at auction in 2018 , the Saxon watchmaker has established itself as one of the most exclusive brands worldwide.
