A. Lange & Söhne
- Founded
- 1845
- Based in
- Glashütte, Germany
- In our catalog
- 6 watches from $23,500 to $122,000
A. Lange & Söhne is the answer to anyone who thinks the best watches all come from Switzerland. Its movements are built in a small town in Saxony, assembled twice by hand, and finished to a standard that even the old Geneva houses treat as a benchmark. The look is German in the best sense: clear, slightly formal, and very well thought through.
History
Ferdinand Adolph Lange set up his workshop in Glashütte in 1845, partly as a way to bring work to a poor mining valley in the Ore Mountains. He trained local people as watchmakers and suppliers, and within a few decades the town had become the center of German precision watchmaking. His sons joined the business, hence "& Söhne".
The story nearly ended in the 1940s. The main building was bombed on the last day of the Second World War, and in 1948 the company was expropriated by the East German state and folded into a collective, VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe. For more than forty years the Lange name simply disappeared.
After reunification, Walter Lange, the founder's great-grandson, teamed up with industry veteran Günter Blümlein and registered Lange Uhren GmbH on 7 December 1990. The first new collection arrived in 1994 and included the Lange 1 and the Saxonia. Since 2000 the company has been part of the Richemont group, but it still designs and makes its own movements in Glashütte.
Signature models
- Lange 1: The 1994 launch model and still the house signature, with its off-center dial, outsize date and power reserve indicator laid out so nothing overlaps.
- Datograph Up/Down: A flyback chronograph with a jumping minute counter and a movement many collectors consider among the most beautiful ever made.
- Zeitwerk: Shows hours and minutes in jumping numerals across the dial, powered by a constant-force mechanism. Launched in 2009.
- Saxonia Thin: The entry point, a pure two-hand dress watch with a slim hand-wound movement.
- Odysseus: The 2019 steel sports watch with an integrated bracelet, a rare thing from this house.
- 1815: Named for the founder's birth year, with railway-track minutes and Arabic numerals inspired by old Lange pocket watches.
What it's known for
Lange movements use untreated German silver for the three-quarter plate, gold chatons held by blued screws, and balance cocks engraved by hand, so no two are identical. Every movement is assembled once, taken apart, cleaned and assembled again. The outsize date, with its two separate number discs, was inspired by the five-minute clock in Dresden's Semperoper and has become a Lange trademark.
Price and positioning
Lange sits in the very top tier alongside Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. Prices begin in the low twenty thousands for a Saxonia and climb past $100,000 for the Zeitwerk and Datograph, with grand complications far above that. Almost everything is in gold or platinum; steel is the exception and usually comes as a limited edition or as the Odysseus.
A. Lange & Söhne watches in our library
- A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Thin ($23,500 to $25,500)
- A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 ($43,000 to $46,000)
- A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus ($43,000 to $46,000)
- A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph ($62,000 to $66,000)
- A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk ($102,000 to $108,000)
- A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Up/Down ($116,000 to $122,000)