1815 Up/Down

The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Up/Down is a luxury watch of a special kind. It has a full three dials in an attractively simple symmetrical design. The first, which stretches across the entire face of the watch, is the usual hours and minutes display. The hours are marked with large Arabic numerals, making them easy to read even for older people. Only at the four o'clock and eight o'clock positions are the numerals missing. In fact, this is where the two other dials are located. The right one, at the four o'clock position, is the seconds display, the left one, at the eight o'clock position, is the up/down display. The company logo is emblazoned under the number 12, and at the very bottom, under the number 6, is the inscription "Made in Germany".

In honor of the company founder

1815 is the birth year of Ferdinand Adolf Lange, the founder of A. Lange & Söhne, who probably preferred his middle name to his first. This may seem strange today, but when Mr. Lange founded his watch manufactory in Glashütte in Saxony in 1845, no one had any idea how much the name Adolf would fall into disrepute a hundred years later. Striving for precision and perfection from the very beginning, Ferdinand Adolf Lange laid the foundation for the reputation of A. Lange & Söhne that still exists today. In his honor, the A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Up/Down also strives for the greatest accuracy in timekeeping.

The year 1815

But even without this reference to A. Lange & Söhne's company history, the year 1815 would be worthy of a commemorative watch. At that time, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, which had not only thrown the whole of Europe into chaos but also affected almost all other continents, negotiations were held at the Congress of Vienna to reorganize the borders of Europe. But quite unexpectedly, Napoleon escaped from his exile on the island of Elba, returned to the throne of France, and once again threatened the world with war. The most famous battle in world history took place at Waterloo, where the Duke of Wellington and Gerhard Leberecht von Blücher finally defeated Napoleon and averted this disaster.