On December 7, 1845, in the quiet Saxon town of Glashütte, Ferdinand Adolph Lange opened a small workshop that would transform both his region and the future of German watchmaking.
On December 7, 1845, in the quiet Saxon town of Glashütte, Ferdinand Adolph Lange opened a small workshop that would transform both his region and the future of German watchmaking.
December 7, 1845
On December 7, 1845, in the quiet Saxon town of Glashütte, Ferdinand Adolph Lange opened a small workshop that would transform both his region and the future of German watchmaking.
Under the name A. Lange & Söhne, he set out not only to create precise timepieces, but also to build an industry in a valley marked by poverty. From that first winter day, Glashütte began its journey toward becoming the spiritual home of German haute horlogerie.
Lange’s design style was defined by clarity and engineering logic. His pocket watches favoured clean white dials, fine Roman numerals, elegant but restrained hands and perfectly balanced subdials. On the reverse, he gave movements a distinctive architectural order. The three quarter plate in German silver became his signature, covering most of the movement in a single sweeping element that improved stability and made servicing more predictable. Screwed gold chatons, heat blued screws and hand engraved balance cocks were not decorative afterthoughts, but functional choices that happened to create a uniquely German aesthetic.
Lange's influence was never limited to his own bench. After perfecting his craft in Dresden and Paris, he came home with cosmopolitan ideas for a rural valley. Lange invested schools and training workshops generously, believing that future watchmakers were his finest creation of all. He insisted on uncompromising standards, effectively founding an industrial ecosystem. Over time, other workshops and brands appeared in Glashütte, all orbiting the gravitational pull of his philosophy precision first, beauty as the natural result of well resolved engineering.
History was not kind. War, expropriation and the division of Germany caused the original company to disappear. Yet in a poetic twist, the brand was revived on the very same date it was born. On December 7 in the late twentieth century, A. Lange & Söhne was formally brought back to life, reconnecting Glashütte’s contemporary watchmaking to Ferdinand Adolph Lange’s nineteenth century ideals and proving that a true legacy can survive even political and economic upheaval.
Today, when collectors admire off centre dials, crisply framed big date displays and movements finished to obsessive standards under sapphire casebacks, they are also admiring Lange’s lasting influence. The idea that a watch can look sober at first glance yet reveal deep sensuality in its details comes directly from his approach.
