A. Lange & Sohne

Ferdinand Adolph Lange was the son in law of the clockmaker to the Saxon court, Johnan Christian Friedrich Gutakes, who was responsible for the exquisite, royal horological collection. As part of his duties to the court, Johan lived in the palace clock tower in Dresden, where he was to look after the clock that dictated the schedule of the Saxon court. In 1830, Lange began his apprenticeship under Gutakes. When his apprenticeship was complete, he went on to Paris to work for Winnerl, one of the world’s most famous chronometer makers. His education continued on in England and Switzerland as well, where he drew up precise plans to create new machine tools, movement parts, gearing calculations and conversion tables between the French ligne and the metric system.

In 1842, Lange returned to Saxony where he was made a partner in Gutakes workshop and married his daughter. In 1843, in order to help solve the poverty issue in Glashutten, he began to take in his own youth apprentices in exchange for a repayable state loan. On December 7, 1845, he built his factory in Glashutte, leading others to set up specialist workshops for parts around his factory. By 1868, Lange’s son, Richard, was brought into the business as a partner. From that point forward, the company had been renamed A. Lange & Söhne.

In 1875, Adolph Lange unexpectedly passed away, but he left a tremendous mark on the world around him. He turned a poverty stricken town into a place of financial security for thousands and a reputation for craftsmanship and diligent workers. He left a company to his heirs that was known around the world as makers of distinctive and fine timepieces whose components were manufactured according to precise mathematical calculations. Adolph’s other son, Emil, helped develop the A. Lange & Söhne timepieces into artworks of time measurement, leading him to receive numerous awards. Together, the Lange brothers produced some of the finest pocket watches the world had ever seen, the best of which being designated with a “1A.”

Emil’s sons Otto, Rudolph, and Gerhard went on to take over A. Lange & Söhne after Emil passed away in 1922. With the emergence of the wristwatch, manufacturers of pocket watches all over Germany were shutting down. But where others failed, Lange managed to persevere due to their reputation for exquisite craftsmanship.

By 1945, Rudolph’s son Walter Lange, already a master watchmaker, returned from his service in World War II only to find that the A. Lange & Söhne factory had been bombed and was nearly destroyed. They were able to continue making their watches by setting up makeshift workshops. Shortly after the main production building was rebuilt, A. Lange & Söhne was taken over by the state and all the buildings were seized. In 1951, Walter fled his home town for the West in order to escape forced labor.

After the German reunification in 1990, Walter finally returned home with the dream of reestablishing the Lange name as one of the world’s finest watchmakers. He arrived in Glashutte 145 years to the day since Adolph founded the business and started a new company, Lange Uhren GmbH. In April 2000, A. Lange & Söhne successfully repurchased and remodeled its original headquarters, finally bringing the company back home.