This is the watch that relaunched Germany’s most high-end niche watchmaker, the revered A. Lange & Söhne. The century-old watchmaker stopped operations when the Soviets occupied East Germany post-WWII. But one patient descendant of the Lange clan waited for years until he could revive his family’s name and business. Following the German reunification, Walter Lange set about reestablishing the watchmaking house in 1990. To help him do it, he brought in the legendary Günter Blümlein, then head of IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre to help secure funding and develop a new product line. The result, in October of 1994, was the introduction of four watches, one of which was the Lange 1. Thanks to its asymmetric dial arrangement in a package that would otherwise be described as traditional watchmaking at its finest, the Lange 1 came to define the company’s image as one of the best and most interesting haute horlogerie houses in the world.
The hallmarks of the Lange 1—the dial arrangement, the oversize and offset date window, and the finely decorated movement and ornately engraved balance cock—are not only instantly recognizable as the brand’s signature, but always widely copied. The success of the model lies in its ability to pull from Lange’s traditional and rich watchmaking history, while also looking distinctly modern. This is a balance that very few brands have achieved, but those that do remain the most coveted makers in luxury.
From the article by Allen Farmelo, Paige Reddinger, Victoria Gomelsky, Oren Hartov, Blake Buettner
