A little background on Dresden, the seat of the Saxon king’s and with them the lavish court that accompanied them. Dresden was the center of scientific research and of the arts for Eastern Europe prior to WWII. The architecture of the city center is tremendous, wonderful Baroque buildings surrounding the palace comprising of a cathedral, military and scientific buildings, the famous Semper opera house with the probably the worlds first mechanical digital clock, that was inspiration for the more well known Glashutte watch making house of A. Lange & Sohne. The big date feature on the Lange 1 owes its look to that of Gutkaes’ five-minute digital clock with the separate windows for hours and minutes. All in all a rich tradition in horology, that spans many generations, with sons following their fathers into the family business.
Jumping forward to present day Dresden, Marco decided to close his retail watch and clock restoration business about three years ago to pursue his dream of creating his own watches the way he wanted to. “Old School” springs to mind as an accurate description of what he embarked on. Initially working with a partner Mirko Heyne, Marco and Mirko presented their first watch at the Basel show to great enthusiasm. With two very talented watchmakers under one roof, things didn’t go as planned and Mirko resigned and moved on back down to Glashutte where he continues to create great watches. Marco, head down, pushed on with his business and here we are almost four years later with some amazing new complications emerging from the Lang & Heyne atelier. For those of you who weren’t able to drop by mid December when Marco visited us, two very exciting moments occurred for me.
The first was the delivery to Ali of the first ever Moritz in a lovely rose gold case. This is the watch that Marco created to show the declination of the earth. In layman’s terms it shows the tilt of the earth depending on the seasons, cleverly programmed off the month wheel that is in continuous motion. The watch gives you the other indications of a complete calendar, day, date and moon phase together with a day/night indicator. I had only seen a non-working prototype in Basel last March. To see it running was a great thing and to see the smile it put on Ali’s face one of the reasons I do this. Marco presented the watch to Ali over breakfast and he kindly agreed to bring it back at lunch time so we could show it off in the store over the weekend, as it is the first and only one out there. Our first one should be here in February or March!
The second moment was when I was checking out his new catalogue, hot off the press prior to coming out to visit us. Beautifully designed and executed catalogue, befitting the quality of Marco’s work and passion. As I passed the section on the Moritz, I came across a photo of a new movement, his Cal. IV.
This immediately got my attention as I recognized a column wheel in amongst the additional complication on the ¾ plate. Quickly turning the page I was greeted by a superb mono-pusher co-axial chronograph with a center sweep second and minute register. This gives the clean look of his Johann with the traditional black roman numerals on the white enamel dial but on flipping over the watch one is delighted to see the beautifully finished chronograph movement residing under the sapphire crystal exhibition back. My pulse quickened with this revelation of his new model for Basel 2006.
I knew this was going to be a winner with our clients, and over the weekend pre-sold this spectacular watch to two discriminating clients based on the pictures and Marco’s enthusiasm for his work. His watches seem quite simple in that they are manual wind and very traditional. A throwback to the years when a handcrafted wristwatch was an extremely rare sight and only for the ultra wealthy. Luckily, for us mere mortals, the advent of the CNC machine has speeded up the process together with the powerful personal computers that allow modern day watchmakers to do the design work. The hand finishing and assembling will always remain though. No machine can do what human hands coupled with passion can do.
Marco’s admission to the prestigious AHCI (The academy of independent watchmakers) two years ago gave him more exposure, particularly during the Basel show in March when he is on display to the worlds watch fanatics and trade who attend the show in this North Western corner of Switzerland, where Germany and France meet on the banks of the Rhine. Admission to this group is by a vote of the existing members after a couple of years of being a candidate and so really is an acknowledgement by ones peers. Two of our other associations with genius independent watchmakers, Speake-Marin and Vianney Halter also happen to be members. To me this where the real art and creativity in the current watch making world is coming from and something that I think should be whole-heartedly supported.
The Lang & Heyne atelier only produced about 45 watches for 2005. For the collector who wants a piece of mechanical wrist art that will never be commonplace, a watch by Marco would make an excellent addition. To delve into some of technical aspects regarding his watches, I would like to bring your attention (surprise, surprise) to the enamel dials.
My appreciation for enamel dials is quite well known, and when learning about Marco’s watches, this was one of the initial attractions. The look is pure and clean with either roman or arabic numerals.
The Friedrich August 1 has a double sunk dial, in other words three layers with the Johann enjoying a two layer dial, the sub second hand dial being the second layer. The other aesthetic aspect I find brilliant are the spade hands in either blued steel or solid gold and the option he gives for the Louis XV gold hands on a Friedrich August 1. The rose gold Friedrich with the Louis XV hands lasted all of a day when it arrived with Marco in December. Stunning on a medium brown shiny alligator strap.
The interesting part for many of you is of course the movement and here Marco shines. He designed his movement on an earlier Saxon pocket watch concept with the sub second at 6 o’clock. Currently he is making the main plate, ¾ plate and bridges in his workshop and using the wheels from a Unitas base caliber. The rest of the Unitas base goes in the trash, he then finishes the wheels to his high and exacting specifications, taking hours to refine them then polishing them to where he is satisfied they pass his criteria. One will notice the traditional use the blued screwed gold chatons for the ruby jewels in the ¾ plate. Under magnification these are perfect. As with keeping in tradition, the balance cock is hand engraved in a paisley style and supports a perfectly polished swans neck fine regulator. A decorative diamond end stone for the balance wheel, a nod to the traditional Saxon use. A note on the anglesite polishing of the regulator and the clique spring, done by hand on a tin block using an old polishing compound so pure, that Marco closely guards his remaining stash. He assures me he has enough for many years supply, but that the current compounds are not as pure and therefore he isn’t able to get the mirror finish he desires. As they say “it’s all in the details”.
The final finish applied to the movements after the hand engraving of the name and serial number is done with silver/zinc powder brushed on to the brass, then finally gold plated to give the exquisite sheen. This is an old English style of finishing which the Saxon watchmakers liked and made their own many years ago.
I haven’t mentioned the Moritz in great detail; suffice to say the picture will have to do. In person it’s spectacular. The moon phase disc needs mentioning, solid gold with royal blue enamel surrounding the two moons.
I’m very excited to see the prototype of the Albert, Marco’s new chronograph in platinum, which he talked to me in depth about in December. This is a watch that will garner huge attention in Basel and I suspect put him squarely in the realm of the highly regarded independent watchmakers. Up to this point I think he has been overlooked for his “Simple” designs. With the complicated watches typically garnering all the attention of the crowd, he’ll get his just deserves.
As is quite common with fine watches, pictures don’t do them justice, in person a Lang & Heyne is spectacular and I urge to take a close look at Marco’s offerings. I’m thrilled to be able to offer these to you and feel honored Marco deemed us worthy of representing his work here in the US. This caliber of watch is rare and knowing Marco just adds to the pleasure of acquiring one of his pieces.
We continue the journey,
Warm regards,
Tim
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