ver the past fifteen years, Saxony’s A. Lange & Söhne has won over watch collectors from New York to Tokyo, via Dubai, Milan and London. That growing recognition owes much to a distribution strategy that, since 2017, has reduced a network of more than 200 points of sale to 46 today. The aim is to offer a stronger selection of watches at each location and bring collectors closer to the manufacture’s world.

We met the architect of this strategy, CEO Wilhelm Schmid, in Lisbon for the opening of A. Lange & Söhne’s only boutique in the Iberian Peninsula. The new address provided a starting point for a conversation that extended well beyond retail. What do knowledgeable collectors expect from a boutique? Where does a manufacture rooted in traditional watchmaking seek innovation? And how does it interpret the growing attention paid to its watches on the secondary market?

From the latest Saxonia, Lumen and Cabaret creations to design, métiers d’art and the training of a new generation of watchmakers in Glashütte, our discussion explored several facets of the company. After more than fifteen years at the helm, Schmid also reflected on the lessons of his tenure and what he hopes will endure in the years ahead.

Distribution and availability

Europa Star: A. Lange & Söhne opened a boutique in Lisbon last June, following the four-storey flagship in London earlier this year, with further news from Chicago and Monaco. Could you give us an update on your mono-brand network worldwide?

Wilhelm Schmid: Lisbon is our only boutique in the Iberian Peninsula. We started this journey back in 2017, when we decided to change our distribution set-up. At the time, we had more than 200 points of sale, with very few watches at each one. We decided to reduce that number until every point of sale could offer a good selection of watches. After all, why would you come to a boutique if there were no watches?

We’ve reached that level, and now, slowly but surely, we’re making sure that wherever we are, we can create a journey for our clients. That is much easier if you have some space to work with, as we do here with the upper floor. It’s very similar to the boutique on Bond Street. Here, we go upstairs rather than downstairs, but the idea is exactly the same.

Not everybody can come to Glashütte and visit the manufactory, but whenever you enter one of our boutiques, you should experience A. Lange & Söhne in its purest form. That’s the idea, and we work on it continuously. There’s more to come: we’re going to start working on a new boutique in Geneva.

Correct me if I’m wrong: are we talking about roughly seven flagships around the world?

For now, it’s New York, Singapore and London Bond Street. We will also start construction in Ginza, Tokyo. We are putting the overall set-up in place. That’s where we will stay. Now we’re working on each point of sale to make sure that what you see here is what you’ll find elsewhere when you travel.

Is representation through multi-brand retailers becoming the exception?

There are a handful of retailers left for historical reasons, such as Hübner in Vienna, which has been with us since 1994. We’re keeping things that way for the time being.

I think you have to see it through the client’s eyes, not just our own. A client who comes here wants to experience the brand. How can you do that in an environment where you have many brands next to one another? Our clients usually come here because they already know a lot. This is not generally the beginning of their journey. They’ve already embarked on it, and they come here to go even deeper.

Customer expectations

Portuguese watch connoisseurs have long been regarded as highly knowledgeable about fine watchmaking. What kind of experience will this 140 m² boutique offer local and visiting watch aficionados? What are your expectations?

First of all, it will serve the Portuguese market. That’s the idea. I’ve learned that Brazil and Angola also have close ties to the Portuguese market, which is very positive for us, as we have no points of sale in either country. We’re very happy for these markets to be served from Portugal.

Every time I attend an event, particularly when a boutique has just opened, I find myself talking to some of the most knowledgeable customers in the watch market. People who come looking for our watches don’t arrive here by accident. It’s not an impulse purchase, where you walk past a window and say: “Oh, that’s a nice watch. I’m going to buy it.” These people familiarise themselves with the brand. They already have a deep understanding and considerable knowledge.

Of course, it’s very important for us to meet those expectations. Otherwise, they feel they’ve come here without getting what they wanted.

They want information and stories. They want to understand why the Datograph has a jumping minute counter rather than one that moves gradually around the dial. It’s important to understand and be able to explain that.

I’ll never forget being tested by a customer in the very early days. He had a Datograph Perpetual and said: “Look, the push-button doesn’t work.” I replied: “That’s no wonder, because you have to pull out the crown to operate it.” He knew that perfectly well. He just wanted to know whether I knew. It’s these little things.

I never tire of reminding our boutique teams: when in doubt, assume your customer knows. If you don’t, you’ll fail that test, and you’ll never be able to speak to your clients on an equal footing.

The knowledge of a salesperson in a boutique must at least match that of the customer. It’s imperative. Over time, you learn all the little stories, such as why our watches always show the 25^th, because our clients want to know.

Collections & innovation

Returning to the Watches and Wonders 2026 launches: A. Lange & Söhne presented the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar “Lumen”, a limited edition of 50 pieces, and two Saxonia Annual Calendar references. A second limited edition of 50 pieces, the Cabaret Tourbillon Honeygold, followed in May. Starting with the Saxonia Annual Calendar you’re wearing today: why did you decide to launch these two new references nearly ten years after the 1815 Annual Calendar?

First of all, I think the annual calendar is a very appealing complication because, in terms of price positioning, it hits a sweet spot. If you don’t mind having to advance the date by two or three days at the end of February, it’s then correct again for the rest of the year. That’s very nice.

It looks like a complicated watch, and to some extent it is, but it’s not a perpetual calendar. It also has the outsize date. On a 36-millimetre watch, that really stands out, and it’s the most important information, isn’t it? The date and the time: you can read both at a glance. If you don’t know what month or year you’re in, you have bigger problems than your watch (laughs).

You also mentioned the price point, around €65,000. Was that part of the thinking?

We always try to answer different questions across different segments. Many people love our watches, such as the minute repeater, but that’s €750,000 and only 50 watches.

There are also many aspirational collectors who want to crown their collection. The Saxonia Annual Calendar is an A. Lange & Söhne through and through. It has all the finishing, but at a rather different price point from the minute repeater I just mentioned.

How were the other two references received?

Extremely well. You can’t go wrong with honey gold. I admit I’m not a huge fan of rectangular watches, but I put it on my wrist and it made a very strong impression.

The only challenge for us is that some people couldn’t get a watch, because there are only 50.

So you’re not worried about being too exclusive?

People understand that by now. Limiting it to 50 isn’t a marketing decision. It will take us three to four years to make those 50 watches. In today’s world, asking someone to commit to something they may only receive in three or four years is as far as you can reasonably go. If we’d said 100, that would mean eight years. That doesn’t make much sense, does it?

I was very happy to see the return of the Cabaret, a shaped watch. Does A. Lange & Söhne now have six collections?

Six, including the Odysseus family, and then we have the specialities. From time to time, we’ve brought out a Cabaret; the last was the Handwerkskunst about five years ago. But it will always remain something of an exception. It won’t become a new family.

How many references make up those six collections?

We will always have a total of 70 individual references: if one comes in, one goes out. If you don’t maintain that discipline, you can suddenly find yourself with a collection of 150 watches. You have to explain it, you have to produce it, and then you’ll find a particular watch in one store and nowhere else because we can’t supply every location. Seventy is a manageable number for us, and we want to keep it that way.

Let’s imagine I’m a young collector who wants to buy an A. Lange & Söhne watch but knows almost nothing about the brand. Which three words would you choose to explain the brand and its products?

First, its fascinating history: a family company that was confiscated, dormant for 40 years, then revived immediately after reunification.

Why is history so important to someone prepared to spend at least €30,000 on a watch?

People want to know whether we’ve been around for a long time and whether we’ll be around for a long time to come. The brand survived even the hardest times, which is a very strong argument.

The second word is, of course, design. It’s a very German, no-nonsense approach. There are two faces: very understated on the dial side, very opulent on the back. And these watches are the work of skilled hands: watchmakers and engravers, not simply trained operators.

So it’s craftsmanship, design and history. Those are the three reasons.

Do you see technical frontiers still to be explored?

We’re always pushing boundaries, but we do it our way. We don’t take shortcuts. If you opt for silicon, that shortcut has nothing to do with traditional watchmaking. Silicon offers great advantages, such as resistance to magnetism, but then you don’t need anyone to regulate it. All the interesting work is gone because it’s machine-produced, using wafer technology. We don’t do that.

But when we introduce, say, instantaneously jumping perpetual calendars, jumping seconds counters or tourbillons that you can stop or reset, we’re talking about innovation where we believe it matters. That’s fine watchmaking at the highest level. That’s what we want to do, and where we push boundaries, rather than finding ways to reduce the work of our watchmakers.

The zero-reset function is one of the pillars of the A. Lange & Söhne collection. It’s a striking innovation.

I’ve always found it fascinating that Breguet developed the tourbillon to improve accuracy. Yet, when you want to set the time, you do so with the seconds hand still running, which we all know is quite challenging. Nobody had thought of making it stop. I think that’s a very interesting way of looking at things, and a typical example of an innovation that may mean little to people who aren’t interested in watches. But if you are, you’ll understand the difference.

Aesthetics & métiers d’art

Moving from technology to design, I notice the same level of refinement in the Saxonia collection, for example, as in the Lumen.

It’s German, you know. There’s a hierarchy of information. We would never create a watch on which you couldn’t read the time immediately. The date should be just as legible, with the exception of the 1815, which takes a very traditional approach.

On all the other watches with a date, I can read it without my glasses. Time and date are the two pieces of information you need constantly. Everything else has to follow that hierarchy. From that comes an aesthetic that is subtle, understated, no-nonsense, clear and appealing, while respecting those two priorities.

Earlier, you mentioned craftsmanship as one of the three words defining A. Lange & Söhne. How important is it to the brand’s community? How did your customers respond to last year’s onyx dial? Are they asking for more stone dials or engraved cases?

We don’t see ourselves as luxury producers. We see ourselves as craftsmen. Germany gave us the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, the total work of art. That’s where we push everything to a level that cannot be sustained in regular production. We bring out limited editions of 25 or 30 pieces every three, four or five years because the number of hours that goes into each watch is not sustainable even for us. It’s closer to independent watchmaking, without being an independent. If you look at the latest Datograph Handwerkskunst, that’s something you’d expect from an independent.

For me, the Lumen collection can also be described as a new craft. Look at Hermès, which developed mosaic leather dials, a craft that’s only ten years old. There’s still a lot of innovation in aesthetics.

We have our colours. You won’t find a green dial from us, because that’s not what we do. We have our plain dials, argenté or rhodié, depending on whether the case is white gold or platinum. We have black, Lange grey and blue. If it’s white, it’s enamel. We won’t introduce another colour simply for the sake of it. Even the “salmon” dials are simply pink gold.

As for onyx, it’s pitch black, and we’ve used it before. For the 30th anniversary, we had the Lange 1 and Little Lange 1 in black onyx and in dark blue. In the Lisbon boutique, for instance, you can also find aventurine glass. The aventurine has always been glass, cut into very thin slices. It’s quite delicate to work with, particularly in the Little Lange 1, where there are many cut-outs. These thin slices tend to break; they’re not easy to work with.

Reading the secondary market

Turning to the secondary market, some customers see watches as a financial asset. Do you monitor it? How important is it to you?

It’s a useful indicator. We don’t use it in our communication, and we only monitor the auction market. I don’t trust digital platforms because you never know what’s accurate, or whether the asking price is ever actually paid.

For me, watch auctions are the only indicator. On the internet, we see watches that we haven’t even started delivering, already offered for resale. I know those listings are simply there to generate contacts.

I’ve personally sold some prestigious watches on Chrono24, and it worked perfectly.

I’m not saying it doesn’t work. New products have a price, and someone is prepared to pay it. At auction, we see prices for limited-edition Lange 1 models going through the roof.

How do you explain that? Is it down to the concentration of distribution?

We’ve always made good watches. But the recognition we receive today is very different from what we received, say, fifteen years ago, when I arrived. I believe that’s the biggest change, because we haven’t changed our approach to watchmaking. It’s still the same.

The one thing that has changed is our distribution strategy. I think we now know whom we’re selling to, and those people know us, which is just as important. It’s not a one-way street. I think that has changed the recognition our watches receive.

We make sure that not all the good watches end up in the hands of a handful of collectors. We always ensure there’s a wider circle of people.

Do you consider collectors who buy a Zeitwerk second-hand part of the family?

Absolutely. Whoever buys a Lange is part of the family. I can’t say that we build watches that will outlive all of us and then ignore the fact that circumstances may oblige someone to sell a watch, and that someone else may pay a high price for it. How could I tell that person they aren’t part of the family?

You have access to the same system and the same after-sales service. We make no distinction.

Now a tricky question. Would you recommend a second-hand watch as someone’s first A. Lange & Söhne for financial reasons? A new collector with a budget of €30,000, for example, couldn’t afford the new Saxonia Annual Calendar but could buy a second-hand Lange 1.

It’s a very tricky question. I’d advise waiting until you have the means to buy what you really want, rather than taking a shortcut because you want something immediately. You’ll always regret it. I’ve regretted it so many times in my own life. I bought something because I couldn’t afford what I really wanted. Eventually, I bought what I wanted and lost money along the way.

So I believe you should buy what you want. Don’t settle for your second choice just because you can’t afford your first right now. Then it’s up to you whether you buy second-hand.

Glashütte

Turning to Glashütte, the Dresden Chamber of Crafts named you “Training Company of the Year”. How difficult is it to recruit new watchmakers? The brand invests substantially in its in-house school.

It’s become more challenging, not so much to recruit people as to establish whether they understand what they’re getting into. Ten to fifteen years ago, anyone who started an apprenticeship made it through the exams. Today, we have people who come to us after six months and say: “Sorry, this isn’t for me.”

The new generation is less willing to endure the difficult stages. They’ll pull out. I think the challenge, both for us and for the young person sitting in front of us, is to make sure they understand what a watchmaking apprenticeship involves and how much resilience it takes. That has changed quite a bit, and we see it in the recruitment process. We therefore place even greater emphasis on making sure these young people understand what it means.

Would you accept people over 50? I’m not talking about myself, of course.

It probably wouldn’t make sense because, even if you’re very good and dedicated, at a certain age your eyesight will deteriorate, and perhaps your hand–eye coordination too. Achieving a certain mastery of this art takes years of training, and there may not be that many working years left afterwards, if you know what I mean.

Where do your apprentices come from? Dresden? Outside Germany?

Eighty per cent come from within a 30-kilometre radius of Glashütte. The other 20% come from elsewhere in Germany, Finland, Sweden and Austria. I think the furthest afield were Hawaii and Japan, and they made it through, actually.

The courses last three years for watchmaking and three and a half years for toolmaking. We currently have 38 students across the different years and courses.

How many people now work in Glashütte?

Six hundred.

Could there be scope for a “Glashütte Watch Week”, considering the other brands operating in the area?

Not for us, at least. We don’t need all of that, and it’s not something we want to do.

Looking back, looking ahead

You’ve been at the helm for more than fifteen years. That’s roughly half the history of the modern Lange...

I think the team is our greatest strength. It’s not a one-man show. We have experts in every field and mutual respect for one another. We have intense internal discussions. But when we go out, we have one decision, and everybody supports it. That’s the real strength of A. Lange & Söhne. We don’t rely on one individual.

Your team has remained stable over time.

If I remember correctly, the three who are still here are Tino, Tony and Christine in human resources.

Knowing what you know now, if there were one thing you could do differently, what would it be?

I might have started the shift towards retail earlier. I think we could have begun two or three years sooner. But you know what? Everything served a purpose.

I think “never stand still” helps a lot. You learn an enormous amount by getting something wrong, which you wouldn’t have learned had you got it right the first time. I’m a great believer in learning from mistakes. Whatever I’ve learned, I’ve learned through mistakes, not because I was successful from the outset.

If you have a culture that accepts mistakes, where you discuss them openly so that everyone understands what happened, and then use them to make things better, that’s a very valuable mentality to have in a company.

Where do you see Lange in fifteen years?

That’s such a difficult question in today’s world. But I’ll tell you this: if, in fifteen years, I look back and still see that mutual respect within the company; if customers still behave like custodians, and journalists too, by the way; if the focus remains on fine watchmaking our way; and if the company continues to train young people, I’ll be very happy. I’ll say: job well done.

One last question, on behalf of my daughter. What social and environmental impact should Lange have in the future?

I think that if we fail, Glashütte will fail, and a small town in the middle of nowhere will face problems with opportunities for young people, poverty and so on.

Don’t underestimate the feeling that “there’s a future here”. This isn’t a passing commitment: “Today we’re doing this, but tomorrow, who knows?” That sense of continuity is very important in a place where, if this industry fails, there isn’t another one to take its place.