We met Wilhelm Schmid at Dubai Watch Week to discuss the principles that continue to shape A. Lange & Söhne. The conversation moved quickly to the foundation of the modern manufacture and the people who defined its direction.
“The foundation of what you see today was laid down by Mr. Walter Lange and Mr. Gunther Blümlein,” Schmid said. “The two were very instrumental for different reasons. I always call them the brain and the heart. Mr. Blümlein was the brain, and Mr. Lange was the heart.”
Blümlein brought structure and strategic vision. Walter Lange carried the family’s instincts and continuity, the part that survived even when the original workshops in Glashütte were lost during World War II. Their partnership helped shape the value system that still defines the manufacture today.
“He was the bridge into history and established the value system,” Schmid said. “As much as we change, we do not change our value systems. One of them is to never stand still, always push boundaries. It keeps us going strong in weak times and staying strong in strong times.”
A value system that does not seek reinvention
The subject of tradition followed naturally. Schmid approached it without nostalgia.
“It is not a balance, because it is not a contradiction. Values should stay, no matter how old they are. How you treat your people, how you treat each other, how you work with clients. These things do not follow a zeitgeist.”
Then he went straight to the kind of detail that reveals how the brand thinks about its work.
“I always joke around, nobody on Earth is watching their watch at midnight. So nobody will ever see whether our perpetual calendar jumps instantaneously because you are not looking at midnight. But clients do, and they want to know and understand. It is from watchmakers for people that really understand fine watchmaking.”
A full honey gold bracelet watch
One of the year’s launches required careful judgment inside the manufacture.
“That was a very difficult challenge for the design team,” Schmid said, referring to the full honey gold bracelet watch. “If you think about A. Lange & Söhne, a solid gold bracelet watch does not come to mind. But the requests from our clients were huge.”
The goal was to approach the idea with discipline rather than effect.
“I think you cannot produce a more discrete full golden watch. And that is A. Lange & Söhne. It is traditional, but it is pushing the design boundary a little bit without losing it.”
Demand without urgency
Demand often outweighs production, although Schmid addressed it in measured terms.
“If you understand what we do, I am not worried about demand,” he said. “There is an appetite for something that does not have a short product life cycle, because we live in a world where basically everything has a short product life cycle. And to some extent, a lot of people are a bit tired of that.”
He linked this to material choices.
“We do not use silicon, for example, for that reason. Because that is for mass production. It is not craftsmanship.”
He also described the nature of the brand’s buyers.
“We are pretty much at the end of the food chain. You do not walk and by accident see a A. Lange, and then it is an impulse buy. We are usually the result of a very educated purchasing decision process.”
A company shaped by loss and return
A. Lange & Söhne’s history is marked by interruption and revival, something Schmid addressed directly.
“They like the story,” he said. “How many companies have been re-founded twice? How many were behind the Iron Curtain for 40 years, and then re-established a little city in the mountains and created again the only German watchmaking hub?”
He reduced the idea to a single comparison.
“Like any good boxer, if you have never kissed the ground and came back, you are not a great boxer. That is the same with watchmaking.”
Glashütte and its craftspeople
The town where the watches are made remains central to how the company thinks.
“About 80 percent of our people live and work in Glashütte. One hundred percent of our customers do not. Connecting these two worlds will remain a challenge.”
The responsibility that follows is long term.
“Our manufactory is not very flexible. We get them very young, train them for a long time, and then they are with us for life. It is our duty to make sure there is always enough work for them 10, 15, 20 years from now.”
A closing note
His watch that day was a minute repeater perpetual calendar. He looked at it briefly and smiled.
“It is still on German time.”
Read more stories from Dubai Watch Week here.
