A collector’s guide to A. Lange & Söhne watches

In the world of high-end horology, there is one place outside Switzerland that produces watches fine enough to rival any of that country’s manufacturers: Glashütte, a rural German town with just 7,000 residents. It’s home to the workshops of A. Lange & Söhne, a business originally founded in 1845, which today employs some 700 people and creates around 5,000 of the world’s most complicated and beautiful timepieces each year.

‘Thanks to the way it blends traditional craft, engineering prowess and elegant styling, A. Lange & Söhne has risen to become one of the most respected watchmakers in the world,’ says Eli Fayon, a specialist in Christie’s Watches and Wristwatches department in Geneva.

The origins

When Ferdinand Adolph Lange established his first workshop, not far from his home town of Dresden, he had one aim: to make extraordinary pocket watches that could rival those he had encountered while touring England, France and Switzerland.

By the time of his death in 1875, he had achieved this goal; and when his sons Richard and Emil inherited the business, they advanced it even further, filing no fewer than 27 mechanical watchmaking patents, many of which are still in use today. A. Lange & Söhne timepieces were now being presented as gifts between heads of state: in 1898, the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, commissioned a particularly exquisite example for the sultan of the Ottoman empire, Abdul Hamid II, which is still housed in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the company was firmly established as one of Europe’s leading luxury watchmakers, but as the Second World War drew to a close, its main production facility was destroyed during an air raid. Following Germany’s surrender and the subsequent division of the country, the watch industry was forcibly nationalised in communist East Germany, and the business was effectively shuttered.

It wasn’t until 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, that Ferdinand’s great-grandson, Walter Lange — a watchmaker by training — had the opportunity to re-establish the family business. With the aid of industry executive Günter Blümlein, he reopened a workshop in Glashütte, and four years later presented A. Lange & Söhne’s new collection to the press at Dresden’s Royal Palace. His aim, he announced, was to make the company Germany’s finest watchmaker once again.

In the years following the relaunch, A. Lange & Söhne has expanded its family of watches to comprise a range of models, each available in a variety of sizes and finishes, and with various complications.

Lange 1

Unveiled in 1994, the Lange 1 is A. Lange & Söhne’s flagship watch. Audaciously large for its era, with a stately 38.5-millimetre case, it also has a radically asymmetrical dial. The original reference incorporates the time, seconds and power reserve, alongside the company’s signature outsize date display, which takes its styling cues from a clock in Dresden’s opera house.

Over the past three decades, the Lange 1 line-up has evolved to include many iterations. The early models had closed case-backs, which are the most sought-after by collectors today, while others are offered with world time, moon-phase, weekly or tourbillon complications. The watch is also available in a slimmer 36.1-millimetre version, called the ‘Little Lange 1’.

Saxonia

Named in recognition of the business’s close ties to the Saxon court during the 19th century, the Saxonia range encompasses three different branches of design: sleek dress watches, challenging complications, and the celebrated Datograph model.

The Datograph, unveiled in 1998, has all the hallmarks of A. Lange & Söhne’s legendary movements, including a German silver balance cock personalised by each watchmaker. Combined with a revolutionary approach to open architecture, the model pushes the frontiers of craftsmanship and technology.

Once described by horology legend Philippe Dufour as the best chronograph ever made, the Datograph has become one of A. Lange & Söhne’s most popular releases. Some of the most coveted versions include perpetual calendars, a flyback chronograph feature, skeletonised dials and gem-set cases.

Another sought-after model in the Saxonia range is the Langematik, which was first released in 1997. Designed as an ‘everyday’ watch, it is understated in style and small enough to slip under the cuff of a shirt. Yet inside is the maker’s first automatic calibre, which has come to be regarded as one of the best hand-finished movements in modern watchmaking.

1815

The 1815 range — named after Ferdinand Adolph Lange’s birth year — draws inspiration from the company’s rich archives, resulting in watches with heritage aesthetics and historic complications that originated in pocket watches.

They often feature large Arabic numerals and a peripheral railway-track minute scale — a nod to the era of steam-powered travel. Certain variations also have leap-year indicators, blued steel hands, or cases made from ‘Honeygold’, A. Lange & Söhne’s proprietary gold alloy, which is harder than conventional 18k gold.

Tourbillon ‘Pour le Mérite’

The designation ‘Pour le Mérite’ refers to the historic Prussian Order of Merit, established in 1740 by King Frederick II. It was awarded for exceptional military and civil accomplishment, making it one of the greatest accolades of its era.

Unveiled in 1994, the ‘Pour le Mérite’ watch represents the pinnacle of the company’s mechanical ambition. It was the first watch in the world to combine a tourbillon with a fusée-and-chain transmission, which equalises the power reserve’s torque and corrects gravitational pull to ensure consistent timekeeping.

Many ‘Pour le Mérite’ models were produced in extremely small quantities with strictly limited limited editions produced across a variety of metals. Some of the most collectable models are the stainless-steel varieties, or those with matching metal bracelets.

Odysseus

In 2019, A. Lange & Söhne moved into the sports-watch market, releasing the Odysseus model as a rival to Patek Philippe’s Nautilus and Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak.

Water-resistant to 120 metres and featuring an integrated five-link, stainless-steel bracelet, it came with an outsize date window at three o’clock, and a ‘big day’ window at nine o’clock, as well as luminous hands and a large sub-seconds dial. Subsequent releases included a chronograph complication and rubber straps. In 2022, a titanium version was released in an edition of just 250 pieces.

Richard Lange

This model is named in tribute to Adolph Lange's first-born son, Richard, who was committed to scientific progress in precision horology. He is credited with the discovery of a metal alloy for watch springs, patented in 1930, which established the fundamentals for the alloy still used today in high-end mechanical watches.

The Richard Lange is the manufacturer’s first so-called ‘observation’ wristwatch. It revives the Lange tradition of making large pocket watches to be used on scientific expeditions and in the laboratories of leading research institutes in the early 20th century.

The model ensures precision measurement by including a stop-second option: when the crown is pulled out, the second hand and the balance are stopped, thus allowing the watch to be accurately synchronised with a time signal.

Zeitwerk

The Zeitwerk collection represents A. Lange & Söhne’s radical design streak, combining technical expertise with convention-defying aesthetics: each watch has a ‘digital’ dial with jumping numerals that indicate the time, accurate to within a fraction of a second.

The Zeitwerk is also available with a date function, and as a decimal minute repeater — it was the first wristwatch ever to combine a digital-style display with this function, which was produced in a limited edition in gold or platinum.

As with other A. Lange & Söhne models, some of the most desirable Zeitwerk watches are those designated ‘Handwerkskunst’ (‘craftmanship’) references. These are the ultimate expression of the company’s talents. One Zeitwerk ‘Handwerkskunst’ model has a solid silver dial meticulously hand-engraved over the course of two weeks to achieve a subtle granulated texture.

The market

Early production pieces from A. Lange & Söhne have been seeing an increase in collector demand, says Fayon. ‘Watches from this era, particularly first-generation references of the Lange 1 and Datograph models, as well as landmark complications such as the Tourbillon “Pour le Mérite”, are now regarded as significant pieces of horological heritage and the foundations of high-end German watchmaking.’

Limited artisanal releases also attract attention, and subtle variations in the layout and construction of cases, dials and movements can make models highly sought-after. ‘The market is becoming increasingly layered,’ says the specialist. ‘Exceptional early or rare examples are commanding significant premiums, while less complicated or later production models remain comparatively accessible. We’re seeing more collectors placing an emphasis on historical importance, scarcity and condition rather than mechanical complexity.’

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Related artists: A. Lange & Söhne