A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Thin

The question of what makes a fine timepiece has befuddled collectors for decades. In watch collecting, particularly in the world of haute horlogerie, there’s the mistaken notion that a watch must be complicated to be considered a work of art. But sometimes there’s beauty in simplicity—not a stark, antiseptic kind of simplicity, but the kind of austere beauty that comes when watchmaking is distilled to its simplest elements. Two hands and nothing more. For years that’s been the basest requirement of a dress watch. And for years—ever since the manufacture’s reestablishment in 1990—no one has done dress watches as well as A. Lange & Söhne. In many ways the the story of Lange mirrors the story of Dresden, capital of the region in which Lange’s headquarters is located. The city once known as the “Jewel Box” of Saxony for its ornate rococo and baroque architecture was the target of extensive bombing raids by the air forces of the United States and the United Kingdom during the Second Wor