A. Lange & Söhne Akademie Singapore Session

mpiz shares an engaging account of the A. Lange & Söhne Akademie session in Singapore, offering readers a rare glimpse into the meticulous world of Lange watchmaking. This report details hands-on experiences with traditional finishing techniques and insights into the brand's rigorous quality control, providing a deeper appreciation for the craftsmanship behind each timepiece.

The folks at Lange & Sohne Singapore held their final and last session of the Lange Akadamie on the 6th of December. I was indeed delighted to be invited for it. The following are some highlights of the session. Please excuse my poor phone camera. Gotta get me a decent one soon.

The venue: Saint Pierre - A restaurant by award winning celebrity chef Emmanuel Stroobant at Central Mall, Magazine Road.

When we arrived we were given lab coats for us to assume our 3hr role as a watch apprentice.

The class started with announcement of the theme for the event, "Obsessed with accuracy".

Of course, someone(a Lange WIS) decided to brave it up and sat infront, while most of decided to take a backseats. Usual Singaporean style, I'm guilty as charged.

We were briefed by Mrs Joanna Lange on some aspects of accuracy in watch-making at Lange in Glashutte.

Here as you can see below, she showed us the fate of a Datograph Flyback being 'tortured' by various tools as part of the quality control checks in the factory to ensure the that the watch was still operating normally after 1000 start-stop operations of the Chronograph.

Another image showing some lasers used to check the operation of balance wheel/movement.

Next up, a short demostration of what we'll be doing in the next hour during our workshop. Our enthusiatic participant(a.k.a Lange WIS) was seen to be lending a helping hand to the watchmaker.

We were told to heat up the screws and wait for them to turn blue - a certain cornflower blue or in this case 290deg Celcius as seen in the guide below.

Some of the participants trying their hands at the exercises posed to us, including the difficult black polish - used for the tourbillion bridge in the higher end movements.

It's turning cornflower blue...soon!

Still a long way from the factory version of the black polish...keep it up. Wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off...This is tiring!  We were told that the paste that was used for this polishing was kept a secret.

After that, it was time to inspect the dials for inaccuracies.

 After a good hour or so, it was time for us to put aside our loupes and tweezers for some laid back rest and also something to feed our hungry stomachs.

For starters: Oyster...

Some scallops...

Foie Gras...

And finally the Pièce de résistance...

Missed out on the dessert...too busy eating and chatting with my neighbour.

After dinner, the certificates or Diplomas as they were called were given out by Mr Frank Giacobini, MD for Asia Pacific together with Mrs Joanna Lange.

With that said, it was a lovely evening by the folks at Lange & Sohne and we enjoyed it thoroughly with the presentations, exercise sessions & of course the food! My thanks once again to Michelle & team for their invitatation. I still have 2 more sessions to go before I obtain my 'certificate'.

This was something given to all who attended the event...

You wished it was this inside...

Thanks all for your time...