German continental silver hunting cased keyless lever watch Circa 1915

Silver full hunter Glashütte watch by A. Lange & Söhne
–
A German continental silver hunting cased keyless lever watch, circa 1915. The watch features a frosted gilded 2/3 plate movement, signed A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte, b/Dresden, with a gold lever, steel escape wheel, and some jewels set in screwed chatons, a bimetallic compensation balance, precision swanneck regulation, and a diamond endstone. It has a white enamel dial, signed A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte, I/SA, with a sunken centre, recessed subsidiary seconds, Arabic numerals, an outer minute ring, and blued steel moon hands. The polished continental silver case includes a plain polished gold cuvette, gold hinges, and a lever for handsetting beneath the bezel, with covers signed A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte, and numbered covers and cuvette.
–
Diameter: 55 mm
–
Signed: A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte, b/Dresden
–
Movement is running. The visible surfaces appear to be generally in good condition. The hands are setting smoothly. The dial has a couple of scratches in the centre, and there are a couple of small scratches on the left side of the dial next to the subsidiary seconds; it’s difficult to determine if these are hairlines or just scratches. The case is stamped 0.900 and has German control marks. The case shows small and light marks and scratches throughout. There is a scratch beneath the pendant on the case back.
–
Ferdinand Adolph Lange was the founder of A. Lange & Söhne. He was born in 1815 as the son of Johann Samuel Lange. Early in life, his parents separated and he was adopted by a foster family. Luckily this family offered him a chance at proper education and in 1829, he joined the Technical University of Dresden. Lange’s master was Christian Friedrich Gutkaes, the maker of the famous five-minute clock in the Dresden Opera House and the court watchmaker later on. Lange finished his apprenticeship with honours and went on to work with Gutkaes as his assistant for more than two years.

In 1837, Lange decided he wanted to learn the watchmaking craft from the best of the time, and this decision took him to Paris, Switzerland and England. He spent four years with the master watchmaker Winnerl, a student of Breguet, in Paris. Lange returned to Dresden in 1841 and took over his now father-in-law Gutkaes’ business in 1842. He had the ambition to bring prosperity to the once rich, now unfortunate Erzgebirge region, Glashütte, he wanted to build a watchmaking industry and create jobs. He received funding from the high council of Saxony and on December 7th, 1845, Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded A. Lange & Cie. He started with fifteen young men who were obliged to work with him for at least five years and following Lange encouraged his apprentices to found their own specialized firms in Switzerland. He set up a watchmaking cluster in the region along with his colleagues Julius Assmann, Adolf Schneider and Moritz Grossmann. At the time, there was a specialist for every part, producing individual pieces of the highest quality. Ferdinand Adolph developed numerous mechanisms, from the remontoir to dead-seconds and repeaters and he introduced the metric system to watchmaking. Eventually, it took Glashütte watchmaking 20 years to develop.

After two successful decades, and as the mayor of Glashütte Ferdinand Adolph Lange retired in 1868. He enjoyed his spacious house built adjacent to the factory, which today serves as the headquarters of the modern A. Lange & Söhne. He gave the reigns of his legacy to his sons Richard and Emil Lange, subsequently, the company’s name was changed from A. Lange & Cie to A. Lange & Söhne. Under their management A. Lange & Söhne expanded tremendously. Ferdinand Adolph Lange died in 1875. In 1948, the post-war Soviet administration nationalized the company’s property and the Lange brand ceased to exist. However, in December 1990, following German reunification, the founder’s great-grandson Walter Lange, together with watch industry executive Günter Blümlein, restored the company with the assistance of several Swiss watch manufacturers, including the International Watch Company (IWC) and Jaeger-LeCoultre. Again operating from Glashütte, the company presented its first range of wristwatches in 1994. Today, A. Lange & Söhne wristwatches are sold globally. Lange, like IWC, is now a member of the Richemont group.