Next appointment was with Marco Lang. A friend I very much admire, who grew up in quite different circumstances than most of us. He was born in communist East Germany years before the re-unification, into a watchmaking dynasty. Unable to practice what his forefathers had done for 5 generations, he had to wait til the wall came down to start his watch and clock making career. After opening a shop in Dresden of restoration, clock sales and vintage wristwatches, he realized he wanted to make his own watches.
The original Johann in RG.
He joined forces with another young watchmaker, Mirko Heyne, to form Lang & Heyne with the idea of designing and making very traditional Saxon manual wind watches. As is often the way, the partnership split only a year or so after and Marco continued on under the original company name. When I first met him, his English was minimal and his watches only two models, the Johann with enamel dial and romans and the Friedrich August I again with enamel dial but with arabics using the same Caliber 1. Since then he has expanded his collection quite substantially, to include a complete calendar with earth declination, a stunning chronograph, a watch that features a constant force mechanism, another simple time only and recently he released a model that featured a movement that contained the mainplate and bridges of Mastodon ivory!
Ice age Ivory from a Mastodon, pretty neat.
This year, he released the Friedrich III, essentially the same as the steel Friedrich II, but with a roman numeral black dial, which I find very elegant and cased in 18K RG, to be one of my favourite executions.
On the wrist, a lovely piece.
He also has decided to make the Albert, his sublime mono-pusher co-axial chronograph with central 60 minutes counter, in 18K RG and WG. A new dial also is now on offer, a black metallic dial rather than the original white enamel. These are a welcome addition and will please those who are looking for a slightly less conservative and traditional chronograph. As you can tell, picturing black dial watches is my nemesis, so these are pretty poor I'm afraid.
Indirect lighting outside
Full sun outside.
Here is the killer chronograph caliber as a reminder:
I then left the AHCI stand where Marco and his lovely sister were based and wandered next door to see what the Dutch boys were up to. Here I found the two sets of Independent Watchmaking brothers enjoying a beer after a long day of showing their wares to interested parties. Also present was the celebrated Finnish contingent of Independent Watchmakers, Kari Voutilainen and Stepan Sarpaneva. I joined them prior to heading out to dinner with Kari and John McGonigle.
The new building housing the big brands. The view from the side of the Hall 2.0 where many of the Independents where.
Yes, Independent Watchmakers are fun...