The definitive book on the Glash'tte (Saxony) based A. Lange Dynasty of Watchmakers
A.Lange & Söhne - Great Timepieces from Saxony: Volume I: A Momentous century - The Glash'tte Watch Industry 1845 -1945, Volume II: A. Lange und Söhne, the Watchmakers from Dresden; by Reinhard Meis, translated into English by Allan Downing. English language edition published 2011 by Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge Suffolk, UK (simultaneously with the original 2011 by Callwey Verlag, M'nchen, Germany). ISBN# 978-1-85149-684-6. 902 pages (Vol.1: 462, Vol.2: 446), hardbound, black cloth, dust jackets, the two volumes in one solid slipcase. Approx. 3000 illustrations, mostly color photographs. Appendix: Reproduction of Patents. Index to subjects and names. Available from www.amazon.com and other internet sellers. List price US$ 495, but discounted copies usually available.
The German watch brand of `A. Lange und Söhne', based in the small town of Glashütte (Saxony), is not widely known among American watch collectors, but unquestionably represents the only historic German watch brand that unequivocally stands for luxury and highest quality. Among German watch collectors historic Lange watches are cult objects. They owe their reputation primarily to the pocket watches produced from the 1870s to World War I, when Emil and Richard Lange, the second generation, i.e. the sons of Adolph Lange (1815-1875) ran the firm. The brand continued to make interesting watches during the era between the first and Second World War, but completely collapsed in the 1940s.
In 1974 Kurt Herkner wrote (in German) a comprehensive history of watchmaking in the town of Glashütte, which focused on the corporate history of the Lange enterprise and its off-shoots. A second, expanded edition of Herkner's book (1988) and a companion volume covering early 20th century wristwatches, soon were out of print, causing second-hand, well-used copies to trade for $500 and up among Lange aficionados at a time when everybody believed Lange was an extinct brand.
This situation unexpectedly changed after the sudden fall of communism in Eastern Germany, after Walter Lange (* 1924), a great grandson of Adolph, and a watchmaker by training, who had fled to Western Germany in 1948, returned to Glashütte in 1990, relaunched the brand and reregistered the `A. Lange & Söhne' trademark. The Swiss based IWC brand became an early financial backer of the new enterprise, and by 2001 the brand had become part of the global Richemont conglomerate of luxury products brands.
By the mid-1990s, the respected German watch historian Reinhard Meis had decided to break the stranglehold of Herkner on publications on the history of Lange, and in 1997 `A. Lange & Söhne. Eine Uhrmacher-Dynastie aus Dresden', (ISBN 978 2 7667 1286 8) became the standard reference text on the brand, quickly followed by an English language edition published by Antiquorum Auctioneers: `A. Lange & Söhne, The Watchmakers of Dresden, (ISBN: 2 940019 2