December 7, 2020 marks the 175th anniversary of A. Lange & Söhne's founding and the 30th anniversary of its revival. Looking back at the time and the years since, we explore the many achievements that laid the foundation for how the company overcame difficulties, flourished twice, and achieved the success it enjoys today.
Translation by Yoshie Okamoto
[Article published in the May 2021 issue of Khronos Japan]
The Indomitable A. Lange & Söhne
A. Lange & Söhne is one of the most well-known watch brands in the world today. A 2019 survey conducted by the German editorial team at Kronos Germany in collaboration with Pars Marketing GmbH in Schweig, near Nuremberg, found that A. Lange & Söhne was the most popular brand among luxury watch enthusiasts in German-speaking countries. How did A. Lange & Söhne achieve its current status? What accomplishments did it achieve in the 19th and early 20th centuries?
So how did the new A. Lange & Söhne, after its revival in 1990, meet the high expectations of luxury watch enthusiasts and enhance the reputation it enjoys to this day?
idea
Both A. Lange & Söhne and the Glashütte watch industry trace their roots to the watchmaking that began in the Kingdom of Saxony in the 19th century. Ferdinand Adolph Lange was born in Dresden in 1815 and apprenticed to Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkes in 1830 (who had served as court watchmaker to the Kingdom of Saxony since 1842). After completing his watchmaking apprenticeship under Gutkes, F.A. Lange embarked on a multi-year journey to Switzerland and France to further his studies. During these years, the young F.A. Lange developed a grand vision. The Kingdom of Saxony was devastated by the Napoleonic Wars, and people in the Erzge Mountains, in particular, were suffering from poverty. Having learned a completely new method of watchmaking in Switzerland—the so-called wholesale cottage industry—F.A. Lange began to ponder the possibility of establishing a work-sharing watchmaking industry in his native Saxony, so that people could find work and earn a living. Once this manufacturing method is established, watchmakers will no longer need to make all the parts for a single watch from scratch; instead, they will be able to obtain parts from specialized parts craftsmen who work at home.
The young F.A. Lange was particularly impressed by the fact that "more than 8000 craftsmen in the canton of Neuchâtel alone made a living from watchmaking." In 1843, F.A. Lange sent a report reporting this fact to the Saxon government council in Weissenbach. F.A. Lange's report caught the attention of the Saxon government for several reasons. In the 1830s, railways were being built in Germany, and the network was rapidly expanding. On April 8, 1839, Germany's first long-distance railway opened between Leipzig and Dresden, creating a surge in demand for highly accurate, portable, and affordable watches. The prospect of eliminating reliance on imports was an attractive goal for the government. In addition, establishing a watch industry would create new jobs. Following the example of Swiss cottage industries based on wholesalers, F.A. Lange submitted a business plan to train 15 young watchmakers. Each one would specialize in a particular process and become independent as a watchmaker after completing their apprenticeship.
Establishment of the workshop
After several rounds of negotiation, F.A. Lange's business plan was approved, and he received a loan of 5580 thaler to set up the workshop and 1120 thaler to purchase tools. Glashütte was chosen as the site. Other impoverished areas, such as Altenburg, Klingenthal, and Johanngeorgenstadt, were also considered. The final decision to establish Glashütte was made thanks to the efforts of a man often forgotten in history: Gustav Adolf Lehmann, a magistrate in Dippoldiswalde. Lehmann was determined to establish a watch industry in Glashütte, and lobbied the city council to provide financial support for F.A. Lange's establishment and the training of young craftsmen. At the same time, Lehmann convinced F.A. Lange that instead of remaining in Dresden as originally planned, he should move to Glashütte himself and personally train the young craftsmen.
On December 7, 1845, the inauguration ceremony of F.A. Lange's workshop and watchmaking school took place in Glashütte. F.A. Lange brought his colleague Adolf Schneider with him from Dresden. Schneider taught the students mathematics and how to draw blueprints, and as workshop manager, he oversaw every aspect of the production process, especially when F.A. Lange was away on extended business trips. Many of Glashütte's most famous watchmakers, such as Julius Assmann and Moritz Grossmann, who later founded the watchmaking school, apprenticed under F.A. Lange for several years before going independent.
Prosperity
The first few years of the workshop's existence were fraught with difficulties. F.A. Lange's eldest son, Richard, later recalled that despite government assistance, funding was still insufficient, and his father had to invest his own and his wife's savings in the business, and subsequently repeatedly borrow money from his own name to keep it afloat. In 1848, three years after the workshop's opening, 17 watches were finally completed. However, it would be many more years before the initial target of 600 watches per year was reached.
However, FA Lange was extremely diligent and never gave up, constantly striving to improve even the smallest details. After opening his workshop, FA Lange immediately adopted the metric system. He also developed and improved numerous machine tools, striving to make thinner movements. At the time, the movements made by FA Lange were significantly thicker than those made in Switzerland, and a thinner structure was essential to gain an advantage in the market.
Around 1860, F.A. Lange introduced the two-thirds plate. In this design, all gears except the fourth wheel were placed under a large bridge plate that covered roughly two-thirds of the movement, with the escape wheel and balance wheel retaining their own separate bridges. This construction was quite different from the typical Swiss movement style, which divided the bridges into several sections. Around 1865, the escape wheel bridge was also integrated into the two-thirds plate. This was the birth of the so-called three-quarter plate. It was one of roughly 30 patents that F.A. Lange and his sons would obtain over the years, and remains a hallmark of Glashütte watches to this day.
During his training in Paris, FA Lange developed close ties with watchmakers and used this network to sell his watches in the years after opening his workshop. His major breakthrough came in 1851, when he exhibited two crown-winding watches at the Great Exhibition in London, where they were met with rave reviews. The world's first crown-winding mechanism had already been designed by Jean-Adrien Philippe (who later joined Patek Philippe) in 1842 and patented in 1845. However, the crown-winding system was still unusual compared to the cumbersome but widespread key-winding systems of the time. In London, FA Lange not only sold all ten watches he had brought with him from Saxony, but also made acquaintances with numerous British and American watchmakers and retailers. America, in particular, would become one of his most important markets in the following years. One of the reasons for the success of the transatlantic trade was FA Lange's use of nickel silver for bridges and plates. Unlike brass movements, German silver did not need to be gold-plated, which avoided the difficulties associated with exporting it, such as regulations and taxes. Even today, A. Lange & Söhne uses German silver movements, which are labor-intensive to process, and this is a distinctive feature that sets them apart from other brands.
Numerous awards at industrial exhibitions in Leipzig in 1850, Munich in 1854, and Dresden in 1871 and 1875 solidified F.A. Lange's reputation and that of the watchmaking town of Glashütte. Furthermore, a series of innovations became associated with the F.A. Lange name, such as the gold Glashütte anchor escapement. While improving movements, F.A. Lange also developed various complications. In 1865, he began experimenting with a constant-force mechanism, patented the quarter repeater in the United States in 1866, and developed the jumping seconds hand in 1867.
The brand name A. Lange & Söhne
In 1868, his son Richard joined the company, and A. Lange began to mark his watches with the inscription "A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte." His second son, Emil, soon joined the company. Adolf passed away in 1875 at the young age of 60. Those around him long worried about his health. A. Lange was small, standing just 150 cm tall, not particularly strong, and suffered from repeated strokes. Despite this, he worked tirelessly, often late into the night, and constantly traveled on demanding business trips. He also served as mayor of Glashütte (1848–1866) and as a member of the Saxon parliament (1857–1875), contributing greatly to the town's development. In a tribute, the Watchmaking Art Journal cited the outstanding quality of A. Lange & Söhne's watches and the worldwide recognition that Glashütte-made timepieces enjoyed: "Not only in England and Spain, but also in Havana and all the major cities of North and South America, A. Lange & Söhne enjoyed a reputation for excellence."
His two sons took over the business, and the company continued to grow. Richard Lange, who was head of the technical department, developed the chronograph and the jumping seconds. He also introduced numerous innovations, including the jumping perpetual calendar, the fusée-and-chain winding mechanism, and the double chronograph operated with a single pusher. Soon, A. Lange & Söhne's client list included royalty and aristocrats such as King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany. King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Saxony also visited the Glashütte workshop in 1878.
The years leading up to World War I were a fruitful period for A. Lange & Söhne. One highlight was the Grande Complication No. 42500, created in 1902. It featured a grande and petite sonnerie, a minute repeater, a perpetual calendar, and a split-seconds chronograph with a foudroyante movement, making up a total of 883 components. However, A. Lange & Söhne didn't just focus on creating these high-end models. Richard and Emil continued their father's desire to constantly strive for ever-improving watch precision. In 1895, the company established a chronometer department. Another milestone came in 1935, when Emil's eldest son, Otto, was head of the technical department. Two of Lange's large deck watches were delivered to the Zeppelin factory in Friedrichshafen. During World War II, A. Lange & Söhne supplied the German Air Force with wristwatches.
Revival
On the eve of the end of the war in 1945, Glashütte was hit by an air raid, and the A. Lange & Söhne headquarters was completely burned down. In 1948, the company was requisitioned and nationalized, bringing an end to A. Lange & Söhne's more than 100-year history. The brand was not heard of again until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and East and West Germany were reunited a year later in 1990. Then, finally, that day arrived. This was a goal clearly set by Walter Lange, great-grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, and Günter Blümlein, then CEO of IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre. Blümlein, in particular, had a clear vision of the direction he wanted to take this venerable brand. In an interview with the German edition of Kronos in early 1993, Blümlein stated:
"We want to pursue a path as a luxury watch brand through and through. We want to develop everything from scratch and handcraft a limited number of watches. A. Lange & Söhne aims to be the smallest manufacture in the luxury watch segment, with its own logical and unique values and pursuit of the highest luxury."
On December 7, 1990, exactly 145 years after Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded the company in Glashütte, Walter Lange registered Lange Uhren GmbH and the brand "A. Lange & Söhne" with the Dresden District Court in the commercial register. This was "a new start," Günter Blümlein recalled in an interview with the German edition of Kronos.
"We are going ahead with the planned launch of our first collection in 1994. Preparations are progressing smoothly, and we are now in the process of mass-producing the components needed for the Lange 1."
The interview, delivered in a calm and technical manner, turned out to be a major event in the German watch industry of the 1990s. On October 24, 1994, Günter Blümlein and Walter Lange presented the first four collections for the new A. Lange & Söhne. Blümlein had a clear idea of which models he wanted to focus on. It wasn't the classic Saxonia or the ladies' Arcade. It also wasn't the incredibly complicated Tourbillon "Pour le Mérite." The fusée-and-chain mechanism, which constantly regulates the power from the barrel to the escapement, had previously only been found in pocket watches, and the Tourbillon "Pour le Mérite" was the first wristwatch to feature this mechanism. Blümlein was already convinced that the Lange 1 would become the face of the new A. Lange & Söhne.
