Still on the Go – Walter Lange at 85
Still on the Go – Walter Lange at 85
Glashütte, 29 July 2009
At 66, an age when others are enjoying their retirement, Walter Lange revived the A. Lange & Söhne watch brand in Saxony, which had been founded by his greatgrandfather Ferdinand Adolph Lange. That was in 1990. Now about to celebrate his 85th birthday, he is still involved in his life's work.
“There is something you should expect not just from your watch but also most importantly from yourself: Never stand still.” This watchmaking maxim still holds good today
for Walter Lange. Although no longer active in day-to-day business, he is still keenly interested in the development of the brand that has carried his family’s name for four generations. He still represents the company at important official events in person.
The fact that there is once again an A. Lange & Söhne brand today is due to the political events of 1989 and 1990. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, history opened a historical window of opportunity for Walter Lange. His interest was not solely in reviving the tradition of A. Lange & Söhne. With vivid childhood memories of the effects of the Great Depression, he wanted above all to give the people in his former home town hope for the future.
Four years of development, qualification, engineering, and planning resulted on 24 October 1994 in the first presentation of a collection of Lange watches for over 40 years. The quartet of new product launches – including the design icon LANGE 1 – exceeded all expectations. The legendary watch brand was reborn. News of the reemergence of this distinguished name spread around the entire globe. In the synthesis of classic Lange quality features and imaginative watchmaking innovations, the unique nature and attraction of these new watches met the high aim set by Walter Lange: “We want to make the best watches in the world once again.”
After a long series of great watchmaking successes, including milestones such as the DATOGRAPH, the TOURBOGRAPH „Pour le Mérite“ and the recently launched LANGE ZEITWERK, A. Lange & Söhne has established itself as an exclusive top brand in almost fifty countries. The original small team has expanded into a workforce of 500 – and the four timepieces have now grown into eight mature families of watches.
On his 85th birthday Walter Lange can look back on his life’s work with pride as the small town of Glashütte is today the centre of German precision watchmaking again. More than a thousand people are now employed here in the watchmaking industry. It has transformed the region into a “blooming landscape” whose nucleus and motive force is the company founded by Walter Lange.