HOMAGE TO WALTER LANGE

The fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification offered Walter Lange a historic opportunity: On 7 December 1990, in his home town of Glashütte, which he had been forced to leave in 1948 after his family was expropriated, he founded Lange Uhren GmbH and brought back to life the inheritance left to him by his ancestors.

Instead of retiring like other people in their mid sixties, Walter Lange once again turned his vision of creating the world’s best watches into reality.

On 24 October 1994, the first A. Lange & Söhne collection of the new era exceeded all expectations and resurrected the watchmaking legend. The news that the illustrious name of A. Lange & Söhne had been reborn caused a paradigm shift: The art of watchmaking had found a second home, outside of Switzerland. Finally, time had come home.

Walter Lange’s pioneering efforts paved the way for re-establishing Glashütte as the German capital of watchmaking.

To commemorate the company founder Walter Lange, who passed away in January 2017, A. Lange & Söhne has extended the 1815 watch family with one unusual timepiece:

REFERENCE 297.078

The 1815 “Homage to Walter Lange” features a jumping sweep-seconds hand with a start-and-stop function that dates back to a 150-year-old invention conceived by his great-grandfather Ferdinand Adolph Lange.

A UNIQUE TIMEPIECE

The 40.5-millimetre case of the 1815 “Homage to Walter Lange” is made of stainless steel. This single piece features a black enamel dial inspired by the design of historic pocket watches with the traditional railway-track minute scale and polished hands.

The newly developed movement carries the special calibre number L1924. This refers to Walter Lange’s year of birth. In addition, the first three numbers of the reference number, 297, allude to his date of birth, 29 July.

AS UNIQUE AS THE MAN WHOSE NAME IT CARRIES

With this, the new timepiece corresponds to what Walter Lange might have imagined as the perfect timepiece: Externally, it is reduced to the essentials, but, on the inside, it presents something special – a simple but technically exciting complication.

On 13 May 2018, the unique 1815 “Homage to Walter Lange” in stainless steel was auctioned off by Phillips in Geneva for CHF 852,500 / USD 852,414 / EUR 713,627 (hammer price, plus buyer’s premium). This is the highest result that a Lange watch has ever achieved at an auction. “Our company founder Walter Lange, to whom we dedicated this timepiece, would have been very happy about this result – and so are we,” said Lange CEO Wilhelm Schmid. All proceeds will go to Children Action. The Swiss-based aid foundation supports disadvantaged children all over the world.

In addition to the unique steel version of the 1815 “Homage to Walter Lange”, limited editions are available in yellow, white and pink gold. The unusual limitation numbers recall milestones of Lange’s watchmaking history.

Throughout his life, Walter Lange never stood still. Even though his early years were personally and professionally marred by World War II, he followed the family tradition and became a watchmaker. Committed to perfection, Walter Lange passed on his passion for craftsmanship, which has been present at his company in recent years. Therefore, even today, each timepiece is still built with the same dedication and desire to improve its precision as in the past. It is mainly due to Walter Lange’s courage and vision that A. Lange & Söhne exists today.