Anthony de Haas, Director of Product Development, A. Lange & Söhne, Dresden, Germany
Robert Hoffmann, Head of the ZEITWERK Assembly Department, A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte, Germany
June 7, 2021
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For the Horological Society of New York’s June 2021 lecture, Anthony de Haas and Robert Hoffman presented the ZEITWERK – one of the six collections of timepieces made by A. Lange & Söhne.
de Haas, Director of Product Development for A. Lange & Söhne, began the lecture by giving an overview of the timepiece’s creations and subsequent model extension. Even though A. Lange & Söhne made pocket watches with a digital indication in 1885, it was not a breakthrough for the company. However, the inspiration for the ZEITWERK came from the Five-Minute Clock from the Semper Opera House in Dresden.
The first prototype of the ZEITWERK had two windows — the dial on top of the movement and the disc system for the minutes — but the timepiece was 14mm thick and had to be thinner. Also, based on a master clock that was in the company, the remontoir system was applied on the watch. For five years, numerous iterations were made on the prototype such as playing with angles and design.
In May 2009, the ZEITWERK was launched and from that watch, creativity expanded the line:
2009 – ZEITWERK
2010 – ZEITWERK Luminous
2011 – ZEITWERK Striking Time
2012 – ZEITWERK Handwerkskunst
2015 – ZEITWERK Minute Repeater
2017 – ZEITWERK Decimal Strike
2019 – ZEITWERK Date
After de Haas’s overview, Robert Hoffman, Head of the ZEITWERK Assembly Department, joined the lecture from his workshop in Glashütte. Within Hoffman’s workshop, his team of watchmakers is dedicated to specific calibers such as the standard ZEITWERK, the Striking Time, the Date, the Minute Repeater and handling of the service work. Hoffman takes pride in maintaining the quality and up-to-date standards of the workshop.
To show the certain technical areas of the type of movement, Hoffman gave explanations to various images regarding the display mechanism, energy transmission, the barrel and the constant force escapement.
HSNY wishes to thank Anthony de Haas and Robert Hoffman for their fascinating lecture!
Submitted by Melody Benloss, Recording Secretary