It marked the beginning of a tremendously successful period for the company wherein Richard focused on the technical development of the watches, while ace salesman Emil took the message of Lange across Germany and Europe – one that resounded with powerful aristocratic and ruling families across Europe. The production gradually expanded and in 18, Lange’s two sons – Richard and Emil – joined their father’s business. The Lange manufacture served both as a watchmaking school and a watch manufacture. In 1845, he set up his watchmaking business employing 15 locals, each of whom was assigned a specific task ranging from producing screws and tools to positioning the dials and fitting the cases. Lange & Sohne 1815 Rattrapante Perpetual Calendar Handwerkunst But with limited funds at his disposal, he began to write to the state government to seek monetary assistance.Īfter nearly two years, the government agreed to loan Lange 5,580 thaler (an equivalent of $870,000 in today’s currency) on the condition that he leaves Dresden and set up the business in a nearby small town of Glashütte in the Erzgebirge Mountains, south of Dresden, which was at the time a mining community that became impoverished after the depletion of the regions’ ore mines. At around that time, Lange received his master craftsman’s diploma, married Gutkaes’ daughter, and began searching for opportunities to branch out on his own. The success of the Semperoper clock project (that clock still exists today) meant that Gutkaes was appointed as court watchmaker the following year. Lange at the time had recently returned from his travels to France and Switzerland where he had spent time learning about the artistic crafts and technical nuances of watchmaking. Gutkaes designed it with the help of his students, including Lange. In 1841, he was commissioned to design the five-minute clock at the Semperoper, one of the finest opera houses in Europe. Gutkaes, an accomplished watchmaker, was regularly commissioned by the ruling royal family of Dresden to create bespoke timepieces. Soon after, he apprenticed with master watchmaker Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes. However, following the separation of his parents when he was still a child, FA Lange was educated in a technical school in Dresden by a wealthy family friend. That’s because Ferdinand Adolph Lange’s father was a gunmaker, and back in the early 1800s it was the norm for sons to take over their father’s business. Lange & Söhne would be a gun manufacturing business today, rather than a watchmaker. Lange & Söhne has not only survived despite a four-and-a-half-decade cessation beginning at the end of World War II, but also thrived to become one of the world’s finest watchmakers. We travelled to Glashütte to understand how A.
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