What in-house means for A. Lange & Söhne

Russell Sheldrake

The terms in-house and manufacture get thrown around a lot in our industry. They are buzzwords that brands can die by, and we’ve seen heavy criticism thrown at brands for using them in a misleading way, so whenever I’m given the chance to venture around a brand’s manufacturing centre I always find it fascinating to see exactly how “in-house” they are inside their own house. Having done this job for the best part of a decade now, I’ve been lucky enough to tour a number of manufactures, and while there is normally a section or a room where you are not allowed to take photos or videos, this was the very first time I had to have my phone locked away before the tour even began. So, with my precious communication device now stowed in a Germanic jail, we were off to explore the campus that A. Lange & Söhne calls home.

First, some context as to where we are exactly. Unlike most of the industry, we are not in Switzerland, but rather Germany, close to the eastern border with Czechia. So close, in fact, that we flew into Prague and drove the short distance to the watchmaking town of Glashütte that around 7,000 people call home. This was my first time visiting A. Lange & Söhne, and what instantly struck me before we even entered the building was the size of the operation. They have a number of buildings surrounding a small square that makes this place feel more like the campus of a rather luxurious university than anything else. With over 700 people working for the company and many different facets and skills being developed here, it’s clear to see how the brand needs this much space.

With different buildings serving different purposes, such as the school in which they are educating the next generation of watchmakers, we were mainly concerned with the production facility with its large windows climbing up five stories, that officially opened in 2015. On each floor, there is a different movement construction department with the level of complexity rising as you go up the building. But before we get into the movements, there is one decorative art that A. Lange & Söhne is particularly known for, so we had to first check out the engraving department.

Hand-engraved

The visual element that has marked out every Lange movement since the brand’s relaunch in 1994 has been the hand-engraved balance cock. So it’s only right that we pop our heads around the door where these unique carvings happen. The legend in the industry goes that, due to the unique nature of each craftsperson’s technique, it’s possible to tell exactly who worked on which watch just by examining the balance cock. Luckily, we were able to put this to the test as Justin Hast, a good friend of Time+Tide’s, was also on this tour with me and had his Lange 1 on him. So we threw it under the microscope, and out came this folder with the distinct pattern associated with every engraver to have ever worked at A. Lange & Söhne. After a moment of shuffling through it, we discovered that the man who worked on Justin’s watch was Helmut Wagner, one of the brand’s most prolific engravers and at one point the head of department.

Alongside those who were busy engraving balance cocks, where they get through about ten a day, there were also those working on the other hand-engraved components that appear mainly in the Handwerkskunst editions. With hand-hammered dials and customisation being done around the room, it was interesting to see these artisans work with heads glued to microscopes. Speaking with these skilled craftspeople, it was clear how passionate they were about what they were doing by how highly they would speak about other watchmakers and brands who did the same work. There’s certainly no sense here of “us vs them”.

Top down movement making

Now we move on to the real meat and potatoes (or should that be bratwurst and sauerkraut?) of this visit, and that is the previously mentioned movement manufacture building that opened its doors in 2015. It has been laid out in a very hierarchical format with the least complex, or base, movements being produced on the lower floors, and as you move up, you get progressively more and more complex. This means that the most accomplished and skilled watchmakers find themselves up in the penthouse, with views overlooking the picturesque town.

We started where all fledgling watchmakers at A. Lange & Söhne start, and that is in the Lange 1 department. The first thing that struck me as a I walked in was just how young everyone looked. It’s not often in the watch industry where I, a 29 year old, am made to feel old, but the young watchmakers here looked as though half them were yet to order their first legal beer. We were assured that everyone in there had been through the full gamut of horological education, and watching them work, you could well believe it. We were given a breakdown of the Lange 1 movement, with one having been fully disassembled for us to see. This allowed us to see all 380 oil points, and gave us an understanding of why it can take between six to ten months to produce one of these calibres. Not only were we seeing the watchmakers at the start of their journey in this company, but the Lange 1’s movement, the calibre 121.1, is also foundational for many of the other movements the German company creates, and we would see that as we moved on up the building.

Next, we were shepherded to the Zeitwerk room. Again, a long stretch of benches facing floor to ceiling windows were laid out with slightly older watchmakers hunched over them. This time, we were shown the complex regulating systems that work inside the L043.6, with its constant force escapement magnified for us under a microscope. While this functionality is mesmerising and beautiful to behold, it is also extremely functional, allowing the large power releases needed to keep the jumping hours and minutes moving on these digital display watches that have become an icon for the brand.

While seeing these tiny regulating organs whirring away is fun, it’s far more tangible to see the two massive mainsprings that are used to provide this movement with its 72 hour power reserve. When these strips of metal are unwound and outside of their barrels, they look more like ribbons than something that can be tightly wound inside of a movement component. You rarely get the opportunity to see these types of components in this way, and doing so gives you (or at least it did for me) a better understanding of just how complex and intricate these micro-mechanisms really are. It gave me a whole new respect for those who can understand, and work with them on a daily basis.

Once we had gained this new perspective in the Zeitwerk room, we were on up another floor to the very top of the building, where the most complex of movement Lange makes are put together. While this final floor was afforded the best views and the best natural light, it was also the one that felt the most calming. Everyone in there worked in near silence, and you could almost feel the talent of these watchmakers as you entered the room, with it feeling like it was a pleasant mix of an exam hall and a high-end spa. That sense of relaxed concentration and self-assuredness was clear to us as we were presented with the wonderfully complex movement that runs in the 1815 Rattrapante Perpetual Calendar.

While we chatted through the various ins and outs of the department that is able to construct these extremely complex movements, the topic came up of where watchmakers are able to go from here. They have reached the top of the mountain, so to speak, and so it begs the question, what next? Once a watchmaker has worked for Lange for a certain period of time, they are granted the time to design and make their own watch from scratch using the company’s components and tools. This is a great way to test theories and ideas that could be developed into a new brand, just as the two ex-Lange watchmakers, Johannes Kallinich and Thibault Claeys did when they established Einser Zentralsekunde.

The finished product

After we had taken in the sights of the high complication department, it was time to come back down to Earth and discover the full collection of A. Lange & Söhne inside the house Ferdinand-Adolf Lange ran the company from when he first founded it. Luckily, this building is just a short walk from the campus-style manufacture that produces the modern collection today.

Speaking of this modern collection, once we walked into what used to F-A Lange’s dining room, we saw (nearly) the entire Lange catalogue laid out for us to look at and take photos of. This is an extremely rare treat, as anyone who has wandered into a Lange boutique will tell you, it’s not often you get everything under one roof, considering how few of each watch are made, and how high the demand has historically been.

It was a wonderful way to conclude our tour, as we got to see all of the components that we had just seen being worked on come together in their final form, with this long line of Germanic-styled timepieces, with oversized date windows and asymmetrical dial layouts everywhere you looked.

What struck me as I took in this line up was what may lie in store for A. Lange & Söhne in the coming months and years. It’s clear that the watch industry is going through a tough time right now, but Lange has felt like a constant to me. No matter what, this brand will release a small number of novelties every year that stay true to the guiding principles laid out by Günter Blümlein in 1994 and realised in 1999, with small advancements that show how Wilhelm Schmid, Anthony de Haas, and their teams pay attention to the small details just as much as the big picture. But how long can the company continue to operate in this way if the market continues on its current trajectory? While it has managed to weather all of the financial uncertainties the 21st century has managed to throw at us all so far, it remains to be seen whether A. Lange & Söhne will stay the course, or shift its strategy as we end the second half of the 2020s.