A. Lange & Söhne - Living is learning...
All the graduates began to work in the manufactory the day after receiving their diplomas. They benefit from a wide variety of entry-level job options within the manufactory's different ateliers. Exciting perspectives for their unfolding careers await them in departments devoted to the assembly of complications, to service, or to product development, for instance.
Patience was likely the most important character trait that Dresden native Ferdinand A. Lange brought along to Glashutte in 1845. It is where he trained 15 young men to become watchmakers, among them a plasterer, a quarry worker, and several straw braiders. He expected patience of them as well, even after they had completed their official apprenticeships, because "there is always so much to learn every day," as he stressed in a letter to the Saxon Ministry of the Interior in January 1852.
Patience and eagerness to learn are also among the strengths of the seven youngsters who at A. Lange & Söhne accepted their diplomas on 9 July 2014. "Both assets will play an important role during on-the-job familiarisation," said manufactory director Tino Bobe in a conversation with the graduates. The apprenticeship, he noted, is only the first step in a learning process that does not end when the training phase is completed. Watchmakers not only need artisanal skills and technical knowledge, they must also acquire routine by intensively training the different steps involved in assembling a movement. "In my experience, it takes about 12 to 18 months for a staff member to attain roughly 80 per cent of the capacity of a colleague who has been pursuing the same activity for five years," Tino Bobe pointed out.
"It's delightful to see how experienced staff members help their young colleagues out by revealing tricks that simplify one or the other assembly step," notes Tino Bobe. The graduates are encouraged to preserve their curiosity and willingness to keep learning. And in moments when they might be tempted to just give up, there is one trait that helps most: patience.