Walter Lange

When time came home



In 1845, Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded a watchmaking firm in Saxony’s Glashütte that became world famous for its fine, high-precision pocket watches. But a century later, in 1948, world events forced an end to the grand Glashütte watchmaking tradition. Walter Lange, the founder’s great-grandson, took flight to the West after expropriation of the company by the new East German authorities. But then came the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Lange didn’t hesitate for a moment and, together with Günter Blümlein, an experienced manager who had already restored watch companies IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre, he rebuilt the company. With spectacular success.

Walter Lange’s life reads like a thriller: war, wounds, escape, expropriation, the struggle to survive in the watch industry, and the climb back to the very summit of international watchmaking. The autobiography of the man who wanted to make the best watches in the world has now been updated following the first edition of 2004.