Teddy Baldassarre
A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Guide
The Lange 1 from German luxury watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne is an internationally recognized icon of modern watchmaking and the undisputed flagship of the Glashütte-based manufacture’s collection. And even though the Lange 1 has only been on the scene since 1994, the watch, and the company that makes it, trace their roots much further into history. From the pioneering watchmaker who jump-started a national industry in the 19th century, to his descendant that forged a new beginning for his family business in the 20th, to the evolution of a legendary watch into new and complex forms in the 21st, this the story of A. Lange & Söhne and the Lange 1. Ferdinand Adolph Lange & the Rebirth of Glashütte Few in the long history of watchmaking have had a more profound and lasting impact on a nation’s horological destiny than Ferdinand Adolph Lange had on that of Germany, whose industry is famously rooted in the town of Glashütte in Saxony. It was Lange (1815 - 1875), a native of nearby Dresden and a classically trained master watchmaker, who laid the foundations on which the struggling former mining town would build itself into Germany’s watchmaking center with the establishment of the original A. Lange & Cie. manufactory in 1845. Lange’s vision was not just for his own company but for the entire state of Saxony. When the apprentices that trained at his company had mastered their craft, he encouraged them to start their own factories and hire and train their own employees...