A. Lange & Söhne is celebrating its 2016 watches with striking portraits of its current timepieces. The models SAXONIA MOON PHASE, GRAND LANGE 1 MOON PHASE “Lumen”, DATOGRAPH PERPETUAL TOURBILLON and RICHARD LANGE JUMPING SECONDS are presented suspended from strings at four historic locations. The result is a collection of images full of simplicity and elegance which provide a taste of Dresden’s magnificent allure and create a link between the past and the present.
Dresden is a city of cultural diversity and spectacular architecture. The stage for all of this was set in the baroque period during the 18th century, when the cosmopolitan and future-oriented Elector Frederick Augustus I of Saxony began to redesign the city. Thanks to his maladie de porcelaine, or passion for porcelain, he amassed an impressive collection, whose pale sheen competes with the glow of the majestic marble that decorates the rooms in Dresden’s Zwinger palace.
One of the Elector’s favourite places was Pillnitz Castle, which he had rebuilt in the baroque style and extended. He was particularly fond of spending time in its extensive park. His great-grandson had the English Pavilion built in the north-western part of the garden. Its interior gives off a beautiful glow thanks to its pale marble, which comes from Saxony.
The Semperoper opera house is considered one of the finest in Germany and has a special connection to A. Lange & Söhne. The famous five-minute clock above the stage was built by the Saxon court watchmaker Gutkaes and his student, Ferdinand Adolph Lange. The clock is what inspired the Lange outsize date. Meanwhile, the foyer, with its majestic stucco marble columns, radiates regal opulence and festive splendour. The columns were created using a complicated fresco technique that was more expensive than using the natural material, even in Semper’s time.
The Academy of Fine Arts on the Brühlsche Terrasse – known as the Lipsiusbau – is used for teaching and exhibitions and was erected in the late 19th century. In the eight-cornered exhibition hall known as the Oktogon the monumental splendour of historicism unfolds under a glass dome.
A. Lange & Söhne has now created a dialogue between four of its new 2016 models and these historic locations. The models SAXONIA MOON PHASE, GRAND LANGE 1 MOON PHASE “Lumen”, DATOGRAPH PERPETUAL TOURBILLON and RICHARD LANGE JUMPING SECONDS are presented against different backgrounds. The timepieces are pictured suspended from delicate strings togeth-er with parts of their respective mechanisms. The photography project is an homage to the manufactory’s Saxon roots and to this unique cultural landscape, which has always exerted a great allure by combining the unknown with the familiar.
