A. Lange & Söhne: The Glashütte Watchmaking Revival

By Zach Charles, Editor, Time on the Move

The history of A. Lange & Söhne is, in a precise sense, two histories separated by 45 years of forced absence. The first begins on 7 December 1845 in Glashütte, a small town in the Erzgebirge mountains of Saxony. The second begins on the same date in 1990 , when Walter Lange — great-grandson of the founder — re-registered the company in the newly reunified Germany. Both histories converge on a single proposition: that the finest possible watch movement is made in Glashütte, in the tradition of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, to standards no outside institution has ever required of the manufacture.

Ferdinand Adolph Lange and the Founding

Ferdinand Adolph Lange was born in Dresden on 25 February 1815 . He was apprenticed from 1829 under Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes — the court clockmaker in Dresden, responsible among other things for the city's famous Five-Minute Clock on the Semperoper. After completing his apprenticeship in 1835, Lange spent two further years working as Gutkaes's assistant, then travelled through Europe to study watchmaking in France and England.

He returned to Saxony with a specific purpose: to establish a watchmaking industry in Glashütte, a depressed mining town where unemployment was severe. In 1845 , the Saxon government agreed — Lange received state support, and on 7 December 1845 , A. Lange & Cie was established in Glashütte with 15 apprentices drawn from local mining families.

The significance was not purely commercial. Lange introduced systematic training, consistent component manufacture, and documentation standards that had not existed in Glashütte before. He was, in the modern sense, a manufacturer — not a craftsman producing unique objects but a systematic organiser of skilled labour around a common standard of quality.

In 1868 , when his son Richard joined the firm, the name became A. Lange & Söhne — "A. Lange & Sons."

Ferdinand Adolph Lange died on 3 December 1875 .

The GUB Era — Nationalization and Loss

In 1948 , three years after the end of the Second World War, the Soviet occupation authorities expropriated all private watchmaking enterprises in Glashütte. A. Lange & Söhne ceased to exist as an independent company. In 1951 , all Glashütte watchmaking enterprises were consolidated into GUB — Glashütter Uhrenbetrieb — a state-owned enterprise employing approximately 2,000 people, producing watches under the Glashütte Original and other state-approved designations.

The Lange name survived only in historical records and in the memory of the Lange family. For four decades, no watch left Glashütte bearing the A. Lange & Söhne signature.

The Re-founding — 7 December 1990

German reunification in October 1990 changed the legal landscape. Walter Lange — Ferdinand Adolph Lange's great-grandson — had spent the GUB decades in West Germany, watching from a distance. Günter Blümlein — the executive responsible for IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre at LMH (Les Manufactures Horlogères) — recognised the opportunity immediately.

On 7 December 1990 — exactly 145 years to the day after the original founding — Lange Uhren GmbH was re-registered in Glashütte. The date was deliberate and documented.

The re-founding was not simply a brand revival. Glashütte under the GUB had been producing watches on Soviet-era equipment. Lange Uhren GmbH had to rebuild from the foundations: new manufacture facilities, new tooling, new training programmes, and entirely new movement designs — because no GUB movements met the standard Walter Lange and Günter Blümlein intended.

24 October 1994 — Four Watches, One Announcement

The development period lasted four years. On 24 October 1994 , at a presentation in Dresden, A. Lange & Söhne unveiled its first four watches simultaneously:

1. Lange 1 — the asymmetric flagship; outsize date, power reserve, subsidiary seconds
2. Saxonia — the pure round dress watch in the German tradition
3. Arkade — an arched-case dress watch, later discontinued
4. Tourbograph — a flyback chronograph with tourbillon; the immediate statement of grand complication intent

123 pieces total were presented at the event. Each watch was a production piece, not a prototype. The four models announced Lange's complete design vocabulary at launch: the outsize date, the three-quarter plate, the hand-engraved balance cock, the German silver movement.

The impact was immediate. Watches had not been made under the A. Lange & Söhne name for 46 years. The four 1994 watches announced that German haute horlogerie — with its own distinct tradition, its own movement architecture, its own finishing standards — was returning.

Richemont Acquisition — 2000

In July 2000 , Richemont acquired A. Lange & Söhne, IWC, and Jaeger-LeCoultre together from Mannesmann (which had inherited the LMH group following the Vodafone takeover). The total transaction value was approximately CHF 3.02–3.08 billion. Richemont outbid Swatch Group and LVMH.

Günter Blümlein, who had guided both the re-founding and the Richemont transition, died in 2001. Walter Lange remained connected to the manufacture until his own death in 2017.

The Richemont acquisition gave the manufacture financial resources and group infrastructure, but Lange's design, finishing, and production standards remained independent of group homogenisation. A. Lange & Söhne produces approximately 5,000–5,500 watches per year from its Glashütte manufacture with approximately 770 employees .

The Distinctive Movement Architecture

The Lange movement is immediately identifiable by four features absent from, or different in, Swiss manufacture movements:

1. Three-quarter plate (Dreiviertellplatine): A single large plate — machined from German silver — covers three-quarters of the movement, replacing the Swiss system of separate bridges. The aesthetic effect is dramatic: a nearly continuous silver surface, striped with the Glashütte decoration, interrupted only by the gold chatons and the hand-engraved balance cock.

2. German silver (Neusilber): The three-quarter plate and bridges are made from German silver — approximately 60% copper, 20% nickel, 20% zinc. No actual silver content. The alloy originated in Saxony in the early 19th century, adopted by Lange watchmakers because of its machining properties and its distinctive appearance.

3. Hand-engraved balance cock: Every balance cock in every Lange watch is engraved by hand, freehand, by one of six master engravers. Each is different. The process takes approximately one hour per cock. The floral motif follows tradition but is never mechanically reproduced.

4. Screwed gold chatons: Lange uses 18-carat gold chatons — small ring-settings for the jewel bearings — secured with blued steel screws. The Lange 1 has 8; time-only pieces like the 1815 have 4. Automatic models, by design, have none.

The Outsize Date

The Große Datum (outsize date) is A. Lange & Söhne's most recognisable mechanism. Two discs — one for the units digit, one for the tens digit — are visible through two apertures in the dial. The units disc is circular; the tens disc uses a cruciform cross that presents each digit in the aperture.

The critical feature is the advance mechanism: the date changes instantaneously , in a single snap, driven by precision-cut programme wheels. Both discs are driven by separate programme wheels with 0.15 mm clearance between them. The instantaneous jump — rather than the gradual creep visible in some other manufacturers' large date displays — required considerable engineering development.

The outsize date appears in the Lange 1, the Datograph, the Saxonia Outsize Date, and various other references throughout the collection.

Pour le Mérite Chain

The Pour le Mérite designation in A. Lange & Söhne identifies models incorporating a fusée-and-chain transmission — a mechanism that equalises the torque delivered by the mainspring throughout its unwinding. As a mainspring unwinds, it delivers less force; the fusée's conical shape compensates, delivering constant torque to the gear train.

Lange's fusée-and-chain is extraordinary in its construction: the chain consists of 636 individual parts , is 152 mm long and 0.5 mm wide , and weighs only 0.12 grams — yet is strong enough to lift 2 kg. Each chain is assembled by hand.

The Pour le Mérite designation appears on the Richard Lange Tourbillon Pour le Mérite, the Tourbograph Perpetual Pour le Mérite, and similar grand complication pieces.

The Manufacture Today

A. Lange & Söhne has produced 72 calibres in its 30 years since re-founding — a rate of approximately 2.4 new calibres per year in a manufacture of 770 people producing 5,000–5,500 watches annually. No calibre is shared with any other brand. Every movement is individually cased, regulated, disassembled, cleaned, reassembled, and regulated again before delivery — a two-step process that adds weeks to production time and is not required by any external certification.

The manufacture remains in Glashütte.

A. Lange & Söhne Model and Technology Guides

Each A. Lange & Söhne collection and key technology has its own in-depth history on Time on the Move:

• A. Lange & Söhne 1815: Named for the Birth Year of Ferdinand Adolph Lange
• A. Lange & Söhne Datograph: The Flyback Chronograph with Jumping Minutes Counter
• A. Lange & Söhne Double Split and Triple Split: Rattrapante Engineering
• A. Lange & Söhne Grand Complications: The Tourbograph and Pour le Mérite
• A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1: The Outsize Date and the Asymmetric Dial
• A. Lange & Söhne Manufacture: Three-Quarter Plate, German Silver, and Glasütte Stripe
• A. Lange & Söhne Richard Lange: Observatory Precision Watches
• A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia: Ultra-Thin Dress Watches from Glasütte
• A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk: Digital Jumping Numerals and Constant-Force Escapement

Frequently Asked Questions

When was A. Lange & Söhne founded?
7 December 1845, by Ferdinand Adolph Lange in Glashütte, Saxony, as A. Lange & Cie. The name became A. Lange & Söhne in 1868 when his son Richard joined the firm.

Why was A. Lange & Söhne absent for decades?
In 1948, Soviet occupation authorities expropriated all private watchmaking enterprises in Glashütte. The firm was absorbed into GUB (Glashütter Uhrenbetrieb) in 1951, a state-owned enterprise. No watches were produced under the Lange name until the re-founding.

When was A. Lange & Söhne re-founded?
7 December 1990 — exactly 145 years after the original founding — by Walter Lange (great-grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange) and Günter Blümlein (IWC/JLC executive at LMH). Four watches were unveiled at a Dresden presentation on 24 October 1994.

What is the three-quarter plate?
A single large plate of German silver covering three-quarters of the movement — a distinctly German movement architecture that replaces the Swiss system of individual bridges. Combined with the hand-engraved balance cock and screwed gold chatons, it makes the Lange movement immediately identifiable.

Who owns A. Lange & Söhne?
Richemont, acquired in July 2000 alongside IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre for approximately CHF 3.02–3.08 billion.

Related Articles

• A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1: The Asymmetric Flagship
• A. Lange & Söhne Datograph: The Chronograph Reference
• A. Lange & Söhne 1815: The Classical Collection
• A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk: Digital Time Display
• A. Lange & Söhne Grand Complications: Tourbograph and Beyond