DRESDEN, Germany, 17 September 2006 — After a hiatus of over 60 years, the historic Green Vault in Dresden has finally reopened.
It is the repository of treasures accumulated by the Elector of Saxony who gained fame as Augustus the Strong.
Established in the Residential Palace in the early 18th century, the collection includes more than 3,000 inimitable masterpieces of jewelry and sculpture in nine magnificently appointed rooms.
The precious objects are displayed on hundreds of consoles set against sumptuously decorated mirrored walls or freely showcased on splendid ornamental tables.
Masterpieces of horology produced at the A. Lange & Sohne factory in Glashutte gained fame a little over a century later. After an eventful past, the superbly talented watchmakers at Lange are once again crafting the very finest mechanical timepieces, among them exquisite jewelry watches that stand out as a perfect symbiosis of the watchmaker’s prowess and the jeweler’s art.
Shortly before the reopening of the historic Green Vault, a selection of these truly regal treasures was exhibited in this exceptional environment. The most beautiful pieces of the A. Lange & Sohne jewelry watch collection interact in a subtle dialogue with the historic treasures, paying homage to the masters of a bygone era.
“With its collection of jewelry timepieces, the eminent Lange factory in Glashutte strives to build not only the world’s finest watches but also the most beautiful ones,” A. Lange & Sohne’s Chief Executive Officer Fabian Krone told a team of Middle East media representatives on a tour of the factory.
This is in keeping with the tradition of the jewelers and watchmakers commissioned by the court of the Saxon kings.
“Our watches are of rich tradition and highly inventive, and at the same time exclusive since we make only 5,000 watches, all handmade, and market them through 198 points of sale worldwide,” Krone said. “Exclusivity is very important for us,” he said, adding that there is a waiting period ranging from 18 to 24 months for owning Lange watches. There is, however, a marketing strategy to see that the Lange watches have a greater presence in Saudi Arabia. Lange watches’ prices range from 8,500 euros to 385,000 euros. “The US and Asia Pacific markets are strong for us, and both Japan and the Middle East are getting stronger,” he said. In Glashutte, a village in the Ore Mountains, the tradition was established in 1845 when Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded the first Saxon watch manufactory. He had learned the trade as the most talented master apprentice of his mentor, royal court clockmaker Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes, and perfected it as a journeyman who traveled to the then most prestigious European centers of horology in Paris, London and Switzerland.
The most exquisite jewelry watches and ladies’ timepieces are also milestones in the Lange tradition. In the mid-19th century, A. Lange & Sohne began crafting ladies’ pocket watches with smaller movement diameters ranging from 27.1 to 30.5 millimeters, among them models with intricate mechanical complications such as annual calendars and minute repeaters.