A. Lange & Söhne

A state-backed start in a mining town

Ferdinand Adolph Lange trained in Dresden under the court watchmaker Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes and worked near Paris before proposing, from 1843, that the Saxon government back watchmaking in the impoverished Ore Mountains. The state lent him the money to train fifteen apprentices, and on December 7, 1845, he welcomed them to his workshop in Glashütte.^1, 7, 8

He split the work among specialists, measured in millimetres instead of the old Paris line, and developed the three-quarter plate that became a mark of Glashütte movements. He was the town’s mayor from 1848 and died in 1875.^1, 5, 8

His son Richard became a partner in 1868, when the firm took the name A. Lange & Söhne, and Emil joined in 1871; together they ran it after their father’s death. In 1873 the company moved into the building that is still its headquarters. Among Richard Lange’s patents was a balance-spring alloy with beryllium, filed in 1930.^2, 8, 9

Lost in 1948, rebuilt after 1990

A bombing on the last day of the war in 1945 destroyed the main production building, and in 1948 the company was expropriated in the Soviet zone. In 1951 it was merged with the town’s other firms into VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe, and the name left the market for four decades.^2, 5, 8

After the Berlin Wall fell, Walter Lange, the founder’s great-grandson, who had left Glashütte in 1948, planned a new company with the watch industry manager Günter Blümlein. Lange Uhren GmbH was founded in Glashütte on December 7, 1990, 145 years to the day after the original workshop opened; the turn in the town is told under Glashütte after reunification.^{2, 3, 8, 13}

Its watches returned on October 24, 1994, with a collection of four, among them the Lange 1 with its outsize date. In 2000 Les Manufactures Horlogères, the holding that owned 90 per cent of Lange alongside IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre, was sold to Richemont. In December 2001 the company moved back into its historic headquarters.^{2, 3, 4, 12, 13}

A. Lange & Söhne says Blümlein’s concept took the brand back to the top of precision watchmaking, and the town owes much of its renewed standing to him. Blümlein died in 2001 and Walter Lange in January 2017.^3, 8, 13

Where A. Lange & Söhne leads

• Founded by · , PersonFerdinand Adolph Lange

  Ferdinand Adolph Lange opened the workshop in Glashütte in 1845 with a government loan to train local apprentices.^1, 8

• Founded by · , PersonGünter Blümlein

  A. Lange & Söhne says the watch industry manager Günter Blümlein was the co-founder who planned the 1990 revival with Walter Lange.^2, 13

• Founded by · , PersonWalter Lange

  The founder’s great-grandson Walter Lange re-founded the company in Glashütte in 1990, 42 years after his family was expropriated.^2, 3

• Made · , SpecificationThe B-Uhr

  One of the five makers of the observation watch.^15, 16

• Owned by · , GroupRichemont

  A. Lange & Söhne has belonged to Richemont since Richemont bought its holding company, Les Manufactures Horlogères, in 2000.^12, 17

• Based in · , PlaceGlashütte

  The company was founded in Glashütte in 1845, re-founded there in 1990, and works from the building it moved into in 1873.^1, 2, 8

• Part of · , HistoryThe mechanical revival and the independents

  The Glashütte name brought back in 1990, its watches in 1994.^2, 8

• Part of · , TraditionOrigin labels

  WatchTime says A. Lange & Söhne welcomed the 2022 ordinance that made the Glashütte origin rule law.¹⁸

• Part of · , TraditionPilot’s watches

  A. Lange & Söhne was one of the five makers of the German air force’s observation watch in the Second World War.^19, 20

• Part of · , TraditionThe Glashütte tradition

  Lange’s founding in 1845 began watchmaking in Glashütte, and it says the three-quarter plate its founder developed is still part of its movements.^1, 8

• Part of · , EventThe luxury-group consolidation

  Lange came to Richemont in 2000 with the holding that also owned IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre.¹²

• See also · , CompanyGlashütte Original

  Both descend from Glashütte’s pre-war firms: Lange’s works were merged in 1951 into the state company that became Glashütte Original.^5, 8

• See also · , CompanyIWC Schaffhausen

  From 1991 the two companies, with Jaeger-LeCoultre, shared a common holding, Les Manufactures Horlogères, and they passed to Richemont together in 2000.¹²

• See also · , CompanyLaco

  Monochrome describes Laco and Lange as the two observation-watch makers with German movements of their own.¹⁹

• See also · , CompanyMoritz Grossmann

  The founder, Christine Hutter, worked at A. Lange & Söhne and Glashütte Original before founding the company.^21, 22

• See also · , CompanyNomos Glashütte

  NOMOS’s shop in Glashütte is in the building of Lange’s 1845 workshop.²³

• See also · , CompanyStowa

  Stowa and A. Lange & Söhne were two of the five firms that built the German air force’s observation watch.^{19, 20, 24}

• See also · , GroupVEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB)

  The seized Lange works were merged in 1951 into VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe, the state company that made the town’s watches for four decades.^5, 8

• See also · , EventGlashütte after reunification

  Refounded on 7 December 1990 as Lange Uhren GmbH; its watches returned in 1994.^2, 3, 25

• See also · , EventThe Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition

  David’s second report answers a letter from A. Lange & Söhne that, Watkins writes, disputed the danger.^26, 27

• See also · , EventThe Second World War

  With Wempe it built the standard naval chronometer from 1942, WatchTime says.²⁸

Elsewhere in Watch Vault

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