The A. Lange and Söhne Lange 1 and the Rebirth of German Watchmaking After Reunification
When the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, Walter Lange, the great-grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange who had founded the original A. Lange and Sohne in Glashutte in 1845, saw an opportunity to revive the family business. The Soviets had expropriated the company in 1948, and for four decades German precision watchmaking in Glashutte had existed only as state-run production.
Walter Lange re-registered the company on December 7, 1990, and partnered with Gunter Blumlein of the IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre parent company. Together they assembled a team of watchmakers and engineers who spent four years developing an entirely new collection. On October 24, 1994, Lange unveiled four watches that stunned the industry and signalled German watchmaking's return to the pinnacle.
The Lange 1, with its distinctive off-centre dial arrangement and outsize date display, was the collection's star. Designed by Reinhard Meis, it broke with Swiss convention by placing the hours-and-minutes dial at nine o'clock, a power reserve indicator at three, and a large two-disc date display at one-thirty. The asymmetric layout was polarising but became one of the most distinctive faces in modern horology (https://www.alange-soehne.com).
The Lange 1's movement, calibre L901.0, exemplified German watchmaking's distinctive approach. A three-quarter plate in untreated German silver, hand-engraved balance cock, blued screws, and a swan-neck regulator created a movement aesthetic entirely different from Swiss Geneva stripes. Every Lange movement is assembled twice: first to test function, then disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled to final specification.
A. Lange and Sohne was acquired by Richemont in 2000 but maintained its independence in Glashutte. Annual production is estimated at roughly 5,000 watches, making it one of the smallest luxury watch manufacturers. This scarcity, combined with exceptional finishing, has driven secondary-market appreciation for early references.
The Lange 1 has evolved through multiple generations, each refining movement finishing and case proportions. The current Lange 1 in pink gold with a silver dial remains the quintessential expression. The Lange 1 Daymatic adds an automatic movement, while the Grand Lange 1 scales up to 41 millimetres for those preferring a larger presence.
For the collector who values finishing and movement artistry above brand ubiquity, A. Lange and Sohne represents the apex of Germanic precision. The Lange 1 is the entry point and the icon: a watch whose asymmetric dial taught the world that there was more than one way to arrange a watch face, and that the best watchmaking was not exclusively Swiss.
