Lange is synonymous with the German watchmaking industry, and the small town of Glashütte where they originated is as important to the German watchmaking industry as Geneva is to Switzerland, but if you push back the time to more than 30 years ago, it is difficult to imagine the next road to the revival of Lange and the vigorous development of the German watchmaking industry, and the Lange and German watchmaking industries can rise again from a depressed environment after the reunification of East and West Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall, including Lange's fourth generation Walter Lange and Günter Blümlein, a well-known entrepreneur, is definitely a major contributor.
The return of Lange to the watchmaking industry in the 1990s was inseparable from nine important decisions and events, and it was under the interaction of these events that Lange was able to quickly establish itself at the top of the watchmaking industry. Let's take a look:
Walter Lange (left) and Günter Blümlein (right) jointly revived the Lange watch.
In 1990, there were about 2,500 people employed in the watchmaking industry in the Glashütte region
During the East German period, although the Glashütte region still had the equipment and talents of the watchmaking industry, before the division of the two Germanys, the independent watch brands located in East Germany were reorganized into VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB), a state-owned institution, but in the mid-1970s, due to the impact of the quartz revolution, GOB significantly reduced the production of mechanical watches and shifted its business focus to the production of quartz watches. Walter Lange mentioned that in 1990, the entire GOB had about 2,500 employees, and measured by the productivity of watch brands in Western countries, such a small scale and focused on quartz watch making model is difficult to compete in the market.
In the years before the reunification of East and West Germany, Lange Lange was a major investor in the economy of the Glashütte region
Although the Lange family lost their business during the rule of East Germany, but their influence on the German watchmaking industry did not disappear, many local residents are still fond of Lange watches, when in 1990, after the merger of East and West Germany, Walter Lange and Günter Brüleine as the core of the watchmaking team on the one hand to receive financial assistance from the German Mannesmann (Mannesmann) Group, but also actively began to revitalize Lange's watchmaking business, during which the German watchmaker Reinhardt Mais (ReinhardMeis) was invited to help Lange & Wyher design a new watch to meet the needs of the market at that time, and because of the active rise of Lange watches, it brought new hope to the later Glashütte watchmaking industry.
▲ Lange & Söhne announced the first models to return to watchmaking on October 24, 1994.
Hyundai Lange released its first advertisement the day after launching its first watch
After four years of efforts after reorganizing the brand, Lange & Söhne officially launched the first batch of watches developed after their "rebirth" on October 24, 1994, including four classic watches such as Lange 1, Saxonia, Arkade and Tourbillon "Pour le Mérite", with a strong and unique German style, rigorous and meticulous craftsmanship, once again polishing the gold sign of its century-old watchmaking company. The next day, Lange & Söhne published the first color advertisement after the return of Lange watches to modern watchmaking in the German daily newspaper, and the advertising copy at that time now looks confident and forward-looking, and the article describes it as follows: "The economic upheaval in eastern Germany has changed: the Lange watch is back - the legend of German watchmaking has returned." ”
Günter Brühlän initially tried to work with GUB
People who appreciate German watchmaking craftsmanship are not only the people of the Glashütte region, in fact, the global watchmaking companies also know that the German craft can not be underestimated, when the East and West Germany were reunified, a group of Swiss watchmaking companies began to travel to the small town of Glashütte (including the LMH Group, which has not yet been incorporated into Richemont, which at that time held well-known brands such as IWC and Jae-LeCoultre, and its leader was Günter Brülein), in 1989, Günter Blülenn and Albert Keck, chairman of the board of directors of VDO, the parent group of the LMH Group, traveled to Germany to discuss the possibility of cooperation with the GUB, but in the end there was no cooperation due to differences in management rights.
▲ With the assistance of the IWC team, Lange & Söhne was able to familiarize themselves with modern watchmaking technology, combined with their traditional watchmaking experience and knowledge, and finally created a watch that is very popular today, including Lange 1.
The rebirth of Lange watches is inseparable from the help of WG!
It is true that Walter Lange is the fourth generation of the founder of the brand, but in the process of rebuilding the Lange watch, he himself was limited by national politics, so the strong support of the team at that time had the opportunity to return to the watchmaking industry. Hannes Pantli, then director of marketing and sales of the IWC brand, believed that Lange Lange was enough to represent the existence of the Glashütte region and even the German watchmaking industry, so he hoped to help the historic brand return to the watch industry after the fall of the Berlin Wall, so they went to Walter Lange to discuss the plan to revive Lange, and later through the mediation of Jürgen King, the head of the research and development department of IWG, Walter Lange collaborated with Günter Brülein.
GÜB voluntarily abandoned the Lange Lange trademark and patent, allowing Walter and Brüleine to promote brand reconstruction
The first step in rebuilding Lange was to negotiate with GUB, because Lange's sign was still owned by GUB, and as a result, Günter Brülein, in cooperation with Walter Lange, who had a deep relationship with the brand, finally impressed GUB and persuaded them to give up the trademark and patent rights related to Lange, which allowed Lange & Sorne to return under the name "A. Lange & Sohne".
Since 1991, new employees at Lange & Söhöhöhe have been sent to Schaffhausen, Switzerland, for training
Because of the division of Germany between 1949 and 1990s, the turbulent social environment greatly damaged the watchmaking industry, and later it was kept as a state-owned enterprise and then suffered the quartz revolution, and it was difficult to form competition in the watch industry and eventually withdrew from the watchmaking industry. And now to restart watchmaking, they must relearn to keep up with modern watchmaking technology, which can make Lange watch create high-end watches that meet the expectations of Walter Lange and Günter Brülen. At that time, the watchmakers of Glashütte watchmaking industry were sent to the IWC Mite in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, to learn to operate modern electronic machines, which helped Lange to combine traditional and modern knowledge and technology to create high-end watches that could meet the needs of the market at that time.
When Lange & Söhne first started making watches, some watch collectors thought that Lange was no longer appropriate
When Lange was just preparing to rebuild and return, some collectors mentioned that some collectors thought that the machine heart produced by Lange was already half a century ago, including the 3/4 splint design and maintenance of the gooseneck fine-tuning mechanism, which belongs to the old era, and moving to the present may have doubts about not keeping up with market demand. In response to this, Günter Blüllern said that insisting on traditional Saxon watchmaking is the original intention of the brand revival, and some things will look a little old-fashioned at first glance, but the beauty and practicality they contain will not be easily eliminated by the times. From Günther Blümlein's answer at that time, it can be found that some of the reasons why Lange Lange can gradually develop into today's scale are also related to their original adherence to their own line and not to follow the trend.
Lange & Söhne was acquired by Richemont in 2000 and the capital is blessed with development
In 2000, Lange was acquired by Richemont Group, and after being acquired by the group, Lange developed more rapidly, and high-end complex functions continued to pour out, of which the ultra-long 31-day power, owl-style jumping letter, sesame chain can be described as amazing watches, the brand ushered in an unprecedented new height.
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