Reply With Quote
The origins of the A. Lange & Söhne watch making company go back to 1830 when at the age of 15 Ferdinand A. Lange was accepted as an apprentice by Joahann Friedrich Gutkaes one of the foremost watch and clockmakers in Saxony. [Hence the 1815 range honouring Lange’s date of birth]Originally Posted by jaytip
After completing his apprenticeship Lange travelled through France, England and Switzerland picking up ideas and making detailed notes of complex watch movements.
In 1845 he established his first production workshop for pocket watches in the village of Glashütte. He chose this area because he wanted to draw on the skills and craftsmanship of the metalworking community who had lost their livelihoods when the mining industry in the region declined.
Ferdinand Lange died in 1875 and the business was continued by his son Richard who inter alia discovered the rate-improving characteristics of an alloy with an admixture of beryllium which is used to this day for high end watch springs.
In 1948 the watch making manufacturing was nationalised and the name A Lange & Söhne disappeared from the dials.
On the 7 December 1990 following the fall of the Berlin Wall Walter Lange reregistered the A Lange & Söhne brand and started production in Glashütte.
Lange make relatively small numbers of watches and worldwide the annual output is around 8,000 pieces.
The watch/car analogy is a contentious area full of danger. However, as far as I am aware GO and ALS are entirely separate companies and therefore the Toyota Lexus comparison is not correct. Quite which car manufacturer Lange is analogous to is best left to others to debate.
