German Watchmaking at Its Finest: A Day in Glashütte with A. Lange & Söhne
Join Watchonista contributor Cait Bazemore on her discovery of the beauty and passion behind German watchmaking with one of the top Maisons in the country.
By Cait Bazemore
Contributor
Italy, France, Great Britain – working more than a decade in the watch industry, I’ve had my fair share of stops around Europe. By this point, I consider Switzerland – the epicenter – my second home. But admittedly, there’s one country whose watchmaking I had been neglecting: Germany. Of course, NOMOS is a Glashütte-based brand that had been on my radar. The Maison’s clean and colorful aesthetic matches my style, and its price point matches my budget. Still, I didn’t know much about the German watchmaking city or its history.
Last month, you might recall a series of stories (Part I & Part II) I wrote about my experience enjoying a month on the wrist with a model from another Glashütte pillar: A. Lange & Söhne. After the privilege of spending five weeks with the Lange 1, I was smitten, and I knew I needed to delve deeper into the country and its approach to the craft.
Fortunately, dreams do come true because I soon found myself in the heart of the historic German watchmaking town that is home to NOMOS, Glashütte Original, and, of course, A. Lange & Söhne – the trifecta of Deutschland’s finest horological masters.
Here, I had the pleasure of visiting the sacred ground of A. Lange & Söhne’s manufacture, where my affection for the Lange 1 and the brand as a whole grew tenfold.
Origins of Our Journey and the Brand
A scenic drive from a major city to the European countryside is one of the standard perks of visiting a manufacture (yes, it’s as picturesque as it sounds). This journey started in Saxony’s capital, Dresden, the quaint sister city to our destination (Glashütte), which was devastated by bombings at the end of WWII.
As a reminder, A. Lange & Söhne’s history almost ended in the mid-1940s. It’s then century-old facilities were effectively destroyed, and soon after, all that was left of the Maison’s machinery and archives was seized by Soviet forces occupying the area. Decades later – after the Berlin Wall fell and Germany began the process of unification – the Lange family persisted, returning to its hometown of Glashütte to revive the brand with none other than the Lange 1 in 1994.
Whether you’ve heard this story before or you’re learning it now for the first time, it bears revisiting because you need to understand the pride and perseverance that continues to exude from the team at A. Lange & Söhne. From those who have been with the Maison through its rebirth to the newest members of the company, the dedication to upholding the history of the brand and watchmaking region is clearly a badge of honor, and that type of energy is infectious. Spend a day with A. Lange & Söhne, and it’s hard not to develop an immense amount of respect for the Maison and its timepieces.
Movement Finishing and the Art of Self-Care
The highlight of the tour was, far and away, A. Lange & Söhne’s movement facilities. In this area in particular, the brand has accomplished a lot in short order because, while it’s been 31 years since its rebirth, in that time, A. Lange & Söhne has developed 75 in-house calibres.
Fun Fact: The Maison is also one of only a few brands that produces its own hairsprings in-house, giving them the creative license to conceptualize unique versions of the component that will best serve the movements the brand wants to create.
The Maison employs nine different finishing techniques on movements: ribbing (or Glashütte striping), flat polishing (or mirror polishing), circumferential polishing, circular graining, solarization, chamfering (or anglage), straight graining, perlage, and straightforward engraving.
During the tour, I had the opportunity to see how each is executed and even take a seat at the workbench and try my hand at a few techniques – ask me to go hands-on with a watchmaking craft, and I’m in heaven.
To execute each individual finishing, the artisans use a combination of machining and proprietary tools, many of which are rendered in an exclusive wood material. You might be surprised to learn that the most challenging of all the techniques is engraving.
Engraving for aesthetic purposes is relatively straightforward, but engraving on a functional component of a calibre is a whole different ballgame. In particular, the precision to execute straight lines requires even more dexterity when compared to curved ones.
I’m always curious to understand the creative process behind every craftsperson responsible for bringing a watch to life. So, I asked one of the engravers to tell me his secret to success, and his answer surprised me: the art of self-care.
A work routine looks like a healthy balance of laser focus and breaks – 30-60 minutes at the bench and 20-30 minutes of relaxation. A. Lange & Söhne provides access to massage therapists for its artisans to ensure they can keep a comfortable posture, and the design of the facilities is drenched in natural light and lush greenery, providing the perfect landscape for a meditative gaze to give the eyes a reprieve from the loupe.
The engraver described himself as an athlete training for the art of watchmaking, emphasizing how in-tune you must be with your body – particularly your hands – to do this work, day in and day out.
Future Dreams
For those of you who have followed my writing, you may know I have a particular affinity for the métiers d’art technique of enamel. I fell in love at a one-day workshop several years back and have gone to pursue three week-long apprenticeships in the craft.
A. Lange & Söhne brought enameling in-house just over a decade ago, in 2014, with the Lange 1 Tourbillon Handwerkskunst, which featured a dial with the most difficult shade of enamel to execute: pure black. The Maison doubled down earlier this year with another black beauty: the Minute Repeater Perpetual, which is equal parts technical and artistic with its noir enamel dial.
At present, A. Lange & Söhne has never opened the doors of its enamel atelier to anyone outside the brand to protect its proprietary materials, tools, and in-house developed enameling processes and techniques.
I made my dreams come true once, landing myself in the heart of German watchmaking mere weeks after my month-long journey with the Lange 1. So, I’m tossing a penny in the metaphorical fountain of the universe, hoping that I might get a peek behind the curtain one day.
For more information about the brand and its selection of elegant and artful timepieces, check out the A. Lange & Söhne website.