A. Lange & Söhne

Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded his workshop in Glashütte in 1845, in a Saxon mining town whose silver had run out and whose population was destitute. He did not join a watchmaking industry there; he built one, training local labour and introducing the metric system to movement production.

The house developed the traits that still define it: the three-quarter plate, which braces the gear train under a single expanse of untreated German silver; hand-engraved balance cocks, each one different because each is cut by a person; and screwed gold chatons securing the jewels.

In 1948 the Soviet administration expropriated the company and folded it into the state combine that became Glashütte Uhrenbetriebe. The name vanished from watchmaking for forty-two years.

Walter Lange, great-grandson of the founder, re-registered the marque in December 1990, weeks after reunification, in partnership with Günter Blümlein. Four years of development followed with nothing to sell. The 1994 relaunch presented four watches, among them the Lange 1 — off-centre dial, outsize date borrowed from the Semper Opera's five-minute clock — which established the modern house in a single object.

Richemont acquired the brand in 2000. Output remains deliberately small, in the low thousands annually, and every movement is still assembled twice.

A. Lange & Söhne holds 1 model, from £80,000 to £80,000. Half cost less than £80,000, and a quarter less than £80,000. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.

1845

Ferdinand Adolph Lange opens his workshop, founding the Glashütte watch industry.

1868

The company becomes A. Lange & Söhne as his sons join.

1948

Soviet authorities expropriate the firm; the name disappears.

1990

Walter Lange re-registers the marque with Günter Blümlein.

1994

Relaunch collection debuts, led by the Lange 1.

2000

Richemont acquires the house.