The Luxury Brand A. Lange & Söhne
The Luxury Brand A. Lange & Söhne
A. Lange & Söhne
In 1845, Adolph Lange set out into the secluded Ore Mountains in his attempt to establish a new set of standards for high end chronographic time pieces as designed by his company, A. Lange & Söhne. It did not take much time for Mr. Lange to make a name for himself in the watch making industry or for his A. Lange & Söhne watches to be designated as some of the world’s most desirable possessions. Early on, the region including Dresden began taking root in the watch making movement. This industry was promoted heavily there because of the heavy emphasis that was placed on the exact time of day in relation to events and celebrations found on the Saxon court’s agenda. J.C. Friedrich Gutkaes was one of the many men who took part in the watch making movement in Dresden. The most famous work of J.C. Friedrich Gutkaes was his digital five minute clock. This innovation was implemented for the Semper Opera in the year 1841. While he was famous in his own right for this creation, he needed to share his fame with the young Adolph Lange, who trained under Gutkaes as his apprentice and in two years graduated his apprenticeship with honors. After traveling and learning all he could about watches and chronographic time pieces, Lange returned and became a co-owner of Gutkaes’ watch manufacturing business. Together, they constructed the celebrated timepiece created for the Semper Opera, but eventually Lange would set out on his own.
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Lange left Dresden because of the destitution illustrated in the Ore Mountains. He traveled into the mountains in order to settle in the poverty-ridden town of Glashütte. On December 7, 1845, established his precision watch making industry, A. Lange & Söhne. It was here in Glashütte that his first workshop would be run by fifteen young workers from the impoverished town of Glashütte, with the intent being to turn them into watch makers who could improve the economy of the town. With innovative and ingenious designs and production methods, Lange was quick to succeed in the goals outlined for A. Lange & Söhne and Glashütte. One such successful production method for the A. Lange & Söhne watches was the inclusion of the three quarter plate, a typical feature of A. Lange & Söhne watches even today. Also, it was Adolph Lange who introduced the millimeter as the basic measurement found in watch making. When Lange died at age 60, his sons, Richard and Emil Lange, took over his business.
A magnificent A. Lange & Söhne pocket watch was ordered by Kaiser William II as a gift for Sultan Abdul Hamid II during the time of Hamid’s visit. Today, this A. Lange & Söhne watch is on display in Istanbul. Emil Lange was able to bring the work of the A. Lange & Söhne company to the World Exposition in Paris, while his brother, Richard, was awarded over the course of his life’s work twenty-seven patents and grants. Considered to be the most important of his patents would be the metal alloy used for watch springs in the A. Lange & Söhne time pieces. The company had to face significant concerns throughout the two World Wars and, in 1948, A. Lange & Söhne was shut down by the Communist regime that had taken hold in Germany. However, this movement did not succeed in closing down A. Lange & Söhne for ever. In 1990, the two parts of Germany and the A. Lange & Söhne business were reunited. The A. Lange & Söhne watches of the new era included the Lange 1, the Tourbillion Pour le Mérite, the Saxonia and the Arkade.
