Deutschland · Gegründet 1845
A. Lange & Söhne
Refounded on 7 December 1990, exactly 145 years after Ferdinand Adolph Lange began.
Redaktioneller Text auf Englisch.
German manufacture in Glashütte, Saxony, founded in 1845, expropriated in 1948 and revived in 1990 by the founder's great-grandson Walter Lange. Part of Richemont since 2000. It makes a few thousand watches a year, all mechanical, with in-house movements in German silver and cases mostly in gold or platinum.
Geschichte
Ferdinand Adolph Lange, born in Dresden in 1815, trained under court clockmaker Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes and spent his journeyman years abroad, including a period in Paris working for Joseph Thaddäus Winnerl. Back in Saxony he proposed to the government that a watch industry be built in the impoverished Ore Mountains. On 7 December 1845 he founded his company in Glashütte with 15 apprentices, later helping trained workers set up as independent suppliers, the origin of the town's watchmaking cluster.
Lange used the metric system instead of the French ligne in his workshop and in 1864 introduced the three-quarter plate, still a Glashütte signature. His sons Richard and Emil joined, and in 1868 the firm became A. Lange & Söhne. Lange was mayor of Glashütte for 18 years and died in 1875. His successors made high-grade pocket watches for clients across Europe, including the 1902 Grand Complication No. 42500 with 833 parts, now on loan to the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon in Dresden.
After the First World War and the hyperinflation of 1923, sales collapsed. From the late 1930s Lange was one of the makers of B-Uhren observation watches for the Luftwaffe, and like other Glashütte firms it used forced labour during the war. On 8 May 1945 a Soviet air raid largely destroyed the main building. In 1948 the company was expropriated, and after the Glashütte firms were merged into VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe in 1951 the Lange name disappeared from dials.
After reunification, Walter Lange and watch executive Günter Blümlein founded Lange Uhren GmbH on 7 December 1990, with backing from IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre. On 24 October 1994 they presented the first four watches at Dresden's Royal Palace: Lange 1, Saxonia, Arkade and Tourbillon 'Pour le Mérite'. The first chronograph calibre, the Datograph, followed in 1999, and Richemont acquired the company in 2000. The Zeitwerk of 2009 and the steel Odysseus of 2019 widened the range. Walter Lange died in 2017, aged 92.
Gründer
- Ferdinand Adolph Lange
- Founder · 1815–1875
- Dresden-born watchmaker who founded the Glashütte watch industry in 1845, training apprentices and helping them become suppliers. He introduced the metric system and the three-quarter plate to his production.
- Walter Lange
- Re-founder · 1924–2017
- Great-grandson of the founder who fled Glashütte after the 1948 expropriation. He returned after reunification and refounded the company with Günter Blümlein in 1990.
Meilensteine
1845
Company founded in Glashütte
Ferdinand Adolph Lange opens his manufacture on 7 December 1845 with 15 apprentices.
1864
Three-quarter plate
Lange replaces separate bridges with a single three-quarter plate to stabilise the movement.
1868
Renamed A. Lange & Söhne
The company takes its current name as the founder's sons join the business.
1902
Grand Complication No. 42500
A unique pocket watch with grande and petite sonnerie, minute repeater, split-seconds chronograph and perpetual calendar.
1945
Main building destroyed
A Soviet air raid on 8 May 1945, the last day of the war in Europe, largely destroys the headquarters.
1948
Expropriation
The company is expropriated in the Soviet zone; the Lange name disappears after the 1951 merger into a state enterprise.
1990
Lange Uhren GmbH founded
Walter Lange and Günter Blümlein refound the company on 7 December 1990.
1994
First collection in Dresden
Lange 1, Saxonia, Arkade and Tourbillon 'Pour le Mérite' are presented on 24 October 1994.
2009
Zeitwerk
A mechanical watch with a precisely jumping digital display of hours and minutes; it wins the Aiguille d'Or.
2018
Triple Split
The first mechanical split-seconds chronograph able to compare two events lasting up to 12 hours.
Drei Dinge, die Sammler wissen
Beryllium in the hairspring
Richard Lange patented a hairspring alloy with added beryllium, granted in 1931. The idea became the basis of the Nivarox alloys that most of the industry still uses.
The opera house date
The Lange 1's outsize date takes its cue from the five-minute clock built by Gutkaes, Lange's teacher, for the Semperoper in Dresden.
Calibre numbers are dates
Lange calibre names encode their start: L043.1, the Zeitwerk movement, was the third project begun in 2004, first version.
Wichtige Modelle
- Lange 11994
Off-centre dial with outsize date and power reserve; the original manual-wind calibre L901.0 ran for 72 hours.
- Saxonia1994
Plain round line from the 1994 debut; the Saxonia Thin is the brand's entry model.
- Datograph1999
The first Lange chronograph calibre, a flyback with outsize date and jumping minute counter.
- Zeitwerk2009
Precisely jumping digital hours and minutes driven by a constant-force mechanism.
- Odysseus2019
Lange's first series model in steel, with integrated bracelet and day-date display.
Fragen
- Is A. Lange & Söhne Swiss?
- No. The company is based in Glashütte in Saxony, Germany, and makes its movements there. It has belonged to the Swiss Richemont group since 2000.
- How do you pronounce A. Lange & Söhne?
- ah LAHNG-uh oont ZUR-nuh. Söhne is German for 'sons'; without the umlaut it is correctly written Soehne.
- Does A. Lange & Söhne make its own movements?
- Yes. Every Lange movement is designed and made in-house in Glashütte, with plates and bridges in untreated German silver and hand-engraved balance cocks. All models are mechanical.
- Why did A. Lange & Söhne disappear after the war?
- The company was expropriated in 1948 in Soviet-occupied Saxony and later merged into the state-owned VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe. Walter Lange refounded it in 1990 after German reunification.