Watchmakers are apt to celebrate anniversaries – they are timekeepers, after all – but few of them are freighted with as much meaning as the 30th birthday of the Lange 1, the not-so-simple four-hand watch (with calendar and power reserve function) that relaunched the illustrious A Lange & Söhne brand in 1994. Although the numbers don’t add up to much, those 30 years – during which Lange’s watches have risen to the first rank of haute horological products – stand on the shoulders of some of the most testing circumstances any company is likely to endure.
Founded in Glaschütte, Saxony, in 1845 by Ferdinand Adolphe Lange, the business operated in a region twice reduced to near-ruin by global conflicts in the first half of the 20th century. It was the second of these that cost A Lange & Söhne most dearly, when the East German government expropriated the factory in 1948, forcing Ferdinand’s grandson Walter to flee to the West, where he established a business distributing Swiss-made alarm clocks. The chance to return came in 1990, after the reunification of Germany, when Walter teamed up with Günter Blümlein, a German businessman who had already successfully rescued Jaeger-LeCoultre and IWC from the doldrums of the quartz crisis.
A generation earlier, the plan might have been to match the industrial scale of Swiss watch manufacturing (an advantage further enhanced by the country’s neutrality); now, the opportunity offered nothing less than the rebirth of German fine watchmaking. Thus, Lange became a small-volume, high-functioning watchmaker in the modern idiom.
The original Lange 1 was instantly recognisable from its irregular, off-centre dial configuration and large, two-disc date window, the first of its kind in a wristwatch
In a scant four years, A Lange & Söhne was relaunched with the Lange 1. Instantly recognisable from its irregular, off-centre dial configuration and large, two-disc date window (the first of its kind in a wristwatch), it featured a large, three-quarter plate and a hand-decorated balance cock in German silver, a robust alloy of copper, zinc and nickel, that would feature throughout the growing Lange collection.
To mark 30 years since the company was relaunched, four new iterations of the Lange 1 have been unveiled. Two versions, each limited to 300 pieces, in 38.5mm platinum and pink gold cases, feature black onyx and blue dials respectively; these new colour combinations are also followed through in 36.8mm Little Lange 1 cases, each limited to 150 examples. All come fitted with Lange’s proprietary L121.1 calibre, with twin mainspring barrels delivering a 72-hour power reserve.
Bill Prince is a journalist, author, and editor-in-chief of Wallpaper* and The Blend. Prior to taking up these roles, he served for 23 years as the deputy editor of British GQ. In addition to editing, writing and brand curation, Bill is an acknowledged authority on travel, hospitality and men's style. His first book, ‘Royal Oak: From Iconoclast To Icon’ – a tribute to the Audemars Piguet watch at 50 – was published by Assouline in September 2022.
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