LANGE MANUFACTURE
Watchmaking at A. Lange & Söhne.
future,” said Lange CEO Wilhelm Schmid during the new building’ s 2015 inaugural.“ The focus,” he added,“ was on a modern, energy-efficient building that would offer appealing surroundings and ideal working conditions. This will help us further enhance the quality of our watches and optimize our production processes. All the while, we strive to minimize our ecological footprint and resource consumption.
WORKSHOPS These modern workshops allow the firm’ s watchmakers to enjoy dust-free, climate-controlled workspaces. The new building’ s impressive central stairway curves like a multi-story hairspring leading from the upper watchmaker’ s floors to the heavy parts manufacturing rooms set at ground level and below. CNC machines hum as they initiate the case making and component-production processes while two floors above engravers, polishers, in-house-trained finishers and assemblers create the firm’ s timepieces.
Each watch here is, famously, assembled twice and checked for quality each time. Watchmakers work in departments separated by sub-assembly or operation( engineering, design, prototype production and testing, parts production, finishing and engraving). One department, significantly, assembles the escapement and the balance. This not only involves the setting of the lever and the adjustment of the entry and exit pallets, but also includes measuring the hairspring’ s active length and then bending the terminal curve as required. All hairsprings are manufactured in-house.
When the first assembly is complete, the watchmaker checks the gears, pinions and moving components to be sure all are operat-
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WRISTWATCH | 2017