WATCH POP

Hello everyone,
I recently purchased another watch from my other favorite brand A. Lange & Soehne, a major driver to start participating on this forum. Please allow me to briefly introduce myself (and to say hello to Larry, Bob, Isobars, Nelson, Stefan and other familiar names) before moving on to my question.
My name is Peter Nievaart. I live in the Netherlands. I call myself Management Consultant. Hobbies are: diving, traveling and watches. I became interested in watches in 2001, after buying a Breitling. Soon after, I discovered the world of high end watches and bought a RG 1815. The virus caught me after buying a few IWC's. Participating in the IWC watch forum allowed me to meet and interact with many great people. A good watch friend, Martijn Bonthond, and I interviewed several people about their passion.With the acquisition of the Grosse Saxonia Automatik (black dial), the time has come to broaden my forum-horizon. I am sure I will learn a lot. Hopefully I will also be able to contribute.
Let me start with learning by asking you a question: "what makes Lange unique, as a watch and a a company?".
Please forgive me if the question has been asked already many times. I am not familiar with the search function yet.
Kind Regards,
Peter
I think on this forum you will find a consensus that Lange always does the best and most original work it can. My view is that that makes it unique among full-production watch companies. (There are many artisanal producers who I believe do the same.)
In my opinion, every other company occasionally cuts a corner, at least in its lower-end watches, in finishing or by using a slightly inappropriate (obsolete or wrong-sized) movement or pretending its movements are in-house because of a corporate relationship or claiming another house's history as its own. Some people may disagree with these points or dispute there relevance; the above is only my opinion.
I also very much enjoy Lange's insistence on doing everything "just a bit better." For example, the zero-reset function on the Langematik movement is just a little twist, but let's be honest: plenty of other companies would consider it a complication and tout it as such. For Lange, it's just a wish to make the best automatic movement around and a bit of ingenuity in finding a way to add utility. Many of Lange's other watches have similar subtle excellences.
One other point: Langes are very sturdy watches. You can really wear and use them, even the complicated ones. Regrettably, that does not seem to be the case with some other high-end watches.
Anyway, that's how I see it. I look forward to reading other people's comments. Congratulations on your purchase, and welcome to the forum. hi,
I totally agree with mkvc. Lange give me the impression they are greatfull to us for appreciating and purchasing there wonderful timepieces. I get the impression,for example that patek have a hint of arrogance in there dealings with clients. I considered purchasing a patek, but chose lange. I found patek to be somewhat delicate for my needs. In my dealings with lange they always have been so helpfull and polite which is very important to me.
good luck,
henry They really are more in the nature of typos; I do know better. Thank you for taking the time to answer. It was very interesting to read. I did not know how sturdy Lange's were. Although I am not tempted to try how sturdy, it is good to know.
For me Lange's uniqueness is (was) in its combination of simplicity (not showing off) and the highest quality standards. One of the things I really like is attention to detail. E.g. even non-visible parts are polished carefully. It makes me proud to wear a Lange and ensures that I try to treat the watch the same way as the people in Glashuette do.
I understand from your response that I should add "service" and originality". Service is a critical factor to me too. What I also like is that Lange keeps records of each individual watch as well as spare parts for future maintenance.
Originality is an interesting phenomenon. Your remarks made me understand why Lange has so many movements and variations. Since Lange will probably never go for the large quantities, they can focus on building unique pieces where case, dial, and movement are carefully harmonized with each other. Let us hope that Richemont allows Lange to continue (or return to) building purist watches (as was - if I understood correctly - Guenter Bluemlein's vision). Fashion watches can be produced by other brands within Richemont.
Thanks again for your time and your welcome,
Peter hi peter,
you are most welcome,and please keep us posted as to your progress,
kind regards,
henry On the Patek board, they very often try to compare a Patek to a comparable Lange. They usually talk about quality and finish of movt., they give the edge to Lange, the look of the movt., Lange, then they often say they like the look of the Patek dial so they would buy the Patek. I would not suggest buying a watch you don't like the look of but if someone is passionate about watchmaking they would appreciate the look of the Lange a lot more. If you like IWC, then you should know that Lange is owned by the same company as IWC, the Richemont Group. While some may see this as a negative - I think it is one of the company's strengths (assuming they retain some independence).
Richemont has many brands, but it is clear that Lange is positioned as the high-end brand. All current production watch cases are made of precious metals, and all movements demonstrate a very high level of manufacture. If you do a little looking, I'm sure you can find a number of other qualities that define the company.
From what I can see, as a consumer, it would seem that Richemont has invested (and continues to invest) a significant amount of money in the company. This tells me that Lange is more likely to be around for many years to come.
Because of the way the brand is positioned, I would guess that we will continue to see exciting products with innovative horological designs. Haute horology - made in Germany.
"Does this look too big for my wrist?" I wonder how long Richmont needs to prove that they are not interested in rocking the success that launched Lange. Its been 6 years since they took over LMH in 2001. Gunter had led the company since its revival in 1990, but given that the last 6 out of its 16 yer history is under Richmont, we can rest assured that the current course is Richmont's and in my perception, has not deviated from the general course and vision set by Blumlein.