‘A. Lange & Söhne brings the Zeppelin back to Dresden’ read large billboards posted along the many streets and crossroads of Dresden at the end of 2006.
A. Lange & Söhne were drawing people’s attention to the fact that their traditional Glashütte watch brand had just signed a collaboration agreement with the people at ‘Zeppelin Luftschiff-Werft’, the world’s only airship yard based in Friedrichshafen on the shores of Lake Constance.
Making a comeback with the famous airships that were invented around the turn of the 19th to 20th century, the Zeppelin company has started to bring the unusual aviation vehicles – now of course with modern technology – into new use for aviation lovers and tourism purposes. One problem, however, is that airships are not allowed to use regular airports for take off and landing. As a result, the Zeppelin company is currently working on creating a network of towns all over Germany that are willing to provide places where the Zeppelins can pick up and drop off pass-engers. The contact with A. Lange & Söhne was very useful in helping to secure a location for Dresden, a town with a special relationship to Zeppelin that goes back to the 1930s.




From left: Hartmut Knothe (A.Lange & Söhne), Walter Lange, Wolfgang von Zeppelin and Fabian Krone (A.Lange & Söhne) handing over a ‘Richard Lange’ watch to Mr. von Zeppelin.

The ‘Richard Lange’ watch is manufactured in the style of ancient precision pocket watches.

The A. Lange & Söhne air ship over downtown Dresden. In the foreground is the re-erected ‘Frauenkirche’ (Ladies’ church)


A. Lange & Söhne was founded by Ferdinand Adolf Lange (1815 – 1875), who established the Glashütte watch industry in 1845. Similarly, Count Ferdinand Zeppelin (1838 – 1917) had a close relationship with aviation and worked engagingly on the development of airships. Zeppelin was, however, by no means the inventor of these air vehicles. But the Count used the brilliant idea of manufacturing a large container filled with hydrogen – which was later given the nickname ‘flying cigar’ because of its shape - to lift a gondola with passengers or cargo. It was in this way that the Count of Zeppelin became a true airship pioneer.
Zeppelin’s first prototype was presented on 2nd July 1900 in an 18-minute flight. A precise development strategy soon led to the construction of more reliable airships that could be used for covering long distances. In 1908 the world’s first airline was founded. Three years later, the first airfield with a huge hangar with enough space to house two Zeppelins was erected in Dresden-Kaditz, some 35 kilometres from Glashütte. Airships were used for periodical passenger air transportation even before World War I and became best known under the synonymous ‘Zeppelin’ name. The real boom, however, began after 1930, when the Zeppelins started to cross the Atlantic Ocean and were used for luxury trips around the world.
In the mid-thirties the Lake Constance airship builders and the Saxonian watchmakers came into contact. Soon, A. Lange & Söhne became the watch supplier to the Swabian aviators. They had been manufacturing very large, high precision pocket watches since the turn of the century. These watches were often referred to as observation or deck watches and had equipped the first German expedition to the South Pole in 1901. They played an important role in navigation and timekeeping at the time, not only on marine vessels but also on airships. Marine-chronometers with extreme high accuracy were always found on board. As the chronometers had to be kept in wooden cases inside the ship, the observation watches – together with navigation instruments – were positioned in the cockpit of Zeppelins.
In 1935 A. Lange & Söhne delivered two high precision watches to Zeppelin, followed by 13 others during the following years. Continuing this tradition, A. Lange & Söhne will provide the current Zeppelin pilots with a new ‘Richard Lange’ model, a special, very pure, three-handed wristwatch with an accurate hand-wound movement.
Richard Lange (1845-1932) was one of the sons of the company’s founder, who not only worked as a watchmaker, but was also a scientist and the inventor of a special alloy for balance springs. The wristwatch named after him has a 40.5 millimetre diameter case and is available in red gold and platinum. The design of the solid-silver dial is inspired by ancient precision watches. The movement, calibre L041.2, is adjusted to five positions and has a separate gear train to drive the second hand. A strict requirement for precision watches, the movement can be stopped in order to set the time exactly.
A ‘Richard Lange’ watch was presented to Mr. Wolfgang von Zeppelin, the former CEO of the airship company, by members of the board of Lange and Walter Lange, the great-grandson of the watch brand’s founder in celebration of the collaboration between the two companies and to honour the city of Dresden for becoming a Zeppelin base again.


Source: Europa Star February-March 2007 Magazine Issue