SEEING DOUBLE

A. Lange & Söhne takes traditional watchmaking far beyond double assembly, as we learn at the manufacture in Glashütte

-  ASHOK SOMAN

For our first visit outside Switzerland this issue, and the first one in Legacy overall, we will take a moment to address some behind the scenes work. In an issue like this one, where a multitude of manufacture visits are arrayed before you, dear reader, our goal is to make it all as engaging as possible. Normally, we do not worry about how one story follows the next, as long as there is a standard. For example, the simplest thing is to go with alphabetical order. If you have gotten this far, then you already know we have not done this. What we have done is separated the Swiss brands from the others, although in practice there is nothing to set them apart in terms of quality. Of course, this is not to say that Grand Seiko and A. Lange & Söhne are at all the same, any more than all manufactures are the same. For this reason, this seems as a good a place to pause and take stock as any.

To begin with, it will not have escaped your attention that all but one of these stories is written by me. In itself, that elevates the risk that each manufacture story would suffer from a certain sense of ‘sameness,’ and this is not what we want for Time Stamps. As noted previously, we abandoned any idea of standardising this series of articles, just as a practical matter. Far better that each story stand out for its own virtues, whatever the deficiencies of the writer. In that sense, the biggest takeaway from the Glashütte manufacture of A. Lange & Söhne is that it embodies the spirit of an entire watchmaking region and philosophy.