The king was annoyed. Since the performances in Dresden’s Semper Opera House had...

The king was annoyed. Since the performances in Dresden’s Semper Opera House had been constantly disturbed by ticking or switching noises of the audience’s pocket watches, he instructed clockmaker Johann Friedrich Gutkaes to craft a stage clock that would run as silently as possible and is clearly legible from all seats. In 1841, he and his former apprentice Ferdinand A. Lange completed a timekeeping device with a “digital” display: the Five-Minute Clock. When A. Lange & Söhne introduced its first new-era collection in 1994, this historic design provided inspiration for the iconic outsize date of the LANGE 1.









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