If you are a watchmaker called XY & Z, and one of your collections is called Y1, it had better be an important watch. So it is with the unmistakeable Lange 1, which began life in 1994 with the rebirth of A. Lange & Söhne. Possibly the world’s most famous yet exclusive round watch with an asymmetrical dial, the Lange 1 is the face of the brand – the first watch you think of when you hear the name A. Lange & Söhne. The importance of that year, 1994, will not be lost on you, and we thought to revisit one of our favourite models of our time with some exclusive photographs; these were generously shot for us, at our direction, by a photographer commissioned by A. Lange & Söhne for this purpose. Really, this story is just some text to run alongside these wonderful images.

Having said that, there is some heavy history here, all linked with how A. Lange & Söhne was revived after the fall of the Berlin wall. You can almost feel the echoes of that era in the iconic design of the Lange 1. Widely recognized as a contemporary horological icon, the Lange 1’s aforementioned asymmetrical dial makes it instantly recognisable, even if you look at just a cropped image of the watch or if you remove the brand name. Today, it is emblematic of Glashütte-style watchmaking but its success was far from assured.

In the early 1990s, Glashütte was far from its current stature as a hub of German watchmaking, and the Lange 1 faced scepticism as it aimed to rival Switzerland’s dominance in haute horology. Günter Blümlein and Walter Lange were undaunted as they worked tirelessly to bring A. Lange & Söhne back to life. As Blümlein remarked in a 1994 interview with one of our favourite watch writers Gisbert Brunner, “The 1994 A. Lange & Söhne wristwatches and all upcoming models are anything but epigones of watchmaking legends.” This ethos guided the brand’s revival, creating timepieces rooted in the craftsmanship of traditional watchmaking but totally in the spirit of the new era of mechanical watchmaking excellence. Not for nothing, the Lange 1 was instrumental in birthing and defining this new era.

The team behind the Lange 1 are a veritable who’s who of watchmaking at that time, including the likes of Helmut Geyer, Annegret Fleischer, Kurt Klaus, and Blümlein himself of course. They spent years refining the dial’s proportions, while also developing the movement behind that first watch, reference 101.001 with its originally hidden calibre L901.0. Exhibition casebacks were not the norm 30 years ago and A. Lange & Söhne debuted the Lange 1 with a solid gold caseback. This changed a year later with the introduction of a sapphire caseback, but – visible or not – the calibre was meticulously finished.

To honour the 30th anniversary, A. Lange & Söhne has released two special references of the Lange 1 and Little Lange 1 (a watch that debuted some years after the Lange 1). The first pairs a platinum case with a jet-black onyx dial, marking the debut of this gemstone in the collection. The second, in pink gold, features a striking blue 925 silver dial. Both models are powered by the L121.1 calibre, showcasing signature Lange features such as a three-quarter plate, untreated German silver, blued screws, gold chatons, and a hand-engraved balance cock. The detail-oriented collector will notice that the same calibre works equally well in both the 38.5mm Lange 1 and the 36.8mm Little Lange 1. Limited to 300 pieces for the Lange 1 and 150 for the Little Lange 1, these timepieces epitomize timeless elegance and technical mastery. As a quick aside, our photos here showcase only the two versions of the Lange 1.

“The Lange 1 is a timepiece that unites everything that distinguishes a refined mechanical watch: originality, timeless elegance and horological precision, down to the last detail,” explains Wilhelm Schmid, A. Lange & Söhne CEO. “When it was launched thirty years ago, it broke the existing design rules and defined its very own style. This innovative force is embodied by our ambition to never stand still.”

This article first appeared on WOW’s Festive Issue #76

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