A. Lange & Söhne - Ferdinand Adolph Lange
Ferdinand Adolph Lange, the son of a gunsmith, was born in Dresden in 1815. There was nothing to suggest that he would one day become the brilliant watchmaker who was to found one of the most prestigious manufactures.
When his parents separated, Ferdinand A. Lange was taken in by a family who found him an apprenticeship with a famous court watchmaker, Gutkaes. He was a brilliant student and also followed classes at Dresden's Polytechnikum institute. In a rare development at that time, he then left to improve his knowledge, travelling with a student of Breguet to the places where the watchmaking art was the most advanced - England and France. It was thanks to this that he would later create the anchor escapement.
Anxious to bring a new economic boom to the town of Glashutte, Ferdinand A. Lange received a state loan to allow him to build a watchmaking manufacture. In return for this loan, he undertook to train fifteen local apprentices.
In 1868, Ferdinand A. Lange went into partnership with his eldest son, Richard. They renamed the firm "A. Lange & Söhne".
The firm survived the First World War by manufacturing navy chronometers. In the Second World War it was less fortunate: the Manufacture was destroyed and expropriated by the Communist regime.
Exactly 145 years to the day after the arrival of his great-grandfather, in 1990Walter Lange returned to Glashutte following the reunification of Germany. In order to restore the family heritage, he founded "Lange Uhren GmbH" and registered the trademark "A Lange & Söhne".
Nine years later, the manufacture became a part of the Richemont Group.