A. Lange & Söhne was founded by Ferdinand Adolph Lange in 1845 in Glashutte, Germany. Over the next century, A Lange & Söhne watches were among the most popular watches in the world. However, the watch company went into a 40 year lull after World War II. The company was given life again in 1990 when the great-grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, known as Walter Lange, reinvented the company due to the German reintegration.
In 1898, Emperor Wilhelm II appointed A. Lange & Söhne to develop a timepiece that would be given to Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire. This prestigious honor demonstrated the watch manufacturer’s reputation for producing high-quality watches.
On May 8th 1945, which was the last day of World War II, the primary workshops of the watch manufacturer were ravaged during a bombing attack. In 1948, the East German state overtook A. Lange & Söhne and captured most of the Lange family. Walter Lange escaped and fled Germany to avoid involuntary work in uranium mines.
In 1951, East Germany combined A. Lange & Söhne with other watch manufacturers in Glashutte, which were known as VEB Glashutter Uhrenbetriebe.
After the reunification of Germany in 1990, Walter Lange returned to Glashutte. On December 7th 1990, the A. Lange & Söhne brand was reestablished. Four years later, the watch manufacturer released its first model since the re-opening of the company. The Lange 1 was the first wristwatch in the world to include an outsized date. The Lange 1 was inspired by the design of the Semperoper opera house in Dresden, Germany.
In 2001, the building that was established in 1873 was reopened after many years of restoration. This was the building that was nearly destroyed after the bomb attacks in 1945. This was a pivotal mark in the watch company’s history.
2003 marked the year the watch company created the balance spring, which was completely manufactured in-house by the Technology and Development Center. Four years later, the first A. Lange & Söhne boutique was opened in the Dresden Neumarkt district.
The watch company launched the unique Lange Zeitwerk watch in 2009. This was the first watch that featured a mechanical jumping numeric display. In 2010, A. Lange & Söhne released the 165 Years: Homage to F.A. Lange collection. This trilogy of watch models included the Tourborgraph Pour le Merite, the 1815 Moonphase, and the Lange 1 Tourbillon. The watches featured a novel gold alloy of hitherto, which provided hardness that could not be matched.
In 2011, the Richard Lange Tourbillon Pour le Merite was launched. This model featured a fuse-and-chain transmission and a tourbillon with a patented stop-seconds mechanism. The watch was designed to use the grand complications to improve rate stability as well as precision.
A. Lange & Söhne released the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar in 2012. This watch integrated two traditional complications with the classic Lange 1 flair. This model features an array of information in a beautifully comprehensible layout, which is due to the inventive arrangement of the calendar displays surrounding the time indication.
In 2013, the watch manufacturer released a unique limited edition watch known as the A. Lange & Söhne Grand Complication. This watch displays hours, minutes, and seconds and measures short intervals using a monopusher chronograph. The A. Lange & Söhne Grand Complication also features a Perpetual Calendar that includes moon phases, and a rare grand and petite sonnerie complication.