A. Lange & Söhne is a trademark of Lange Uhren GmbH, a German manufacturer of luxury and prestige watches. The company was originally founded by Ferdinand Adolph Lange in Glashütte, Kingdom of Saxony in 1845. The original A. Lange & Söhne was nationalized and ceased to exist in 1948, following the occupation by the Soviet Union after World War II. The current A. Lange & Söhne trademark was re-registered when Lange Uhren GmbH was founded in 1990 by Walter Lange, the great-grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange. A. Lange & Söhne is a highly regarded watch manufacturer. Notable early patrons and timepieces owners of Lange included German Emperor Wilhelm II, Abdul Hamid II of Ottoman Empire, and Alexander II of Russia. Since 2000, Lange Uhren GmbH has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group. Lange watches boast distinctive Glashütte style in appearance and design, which is closer to the classic British style and is different from Swiss styles. The company's current model families are Lange 1, Zeitwerk, Saxonia, 1815, Richard Lange and Odysseus. History Early history Ferdinand Adolph Lange, son of Johann Samuel Lange, was born in Dresden on 25 February 1815. When his parents were separated, he was adopted by a foster family, who luckily offered him a chance of proper education. In 1829, he entered the Technische Bildungsanstalt (technical education institute) of Dresden. The training in the school was accompanied by three days of theoretical studies and the other three days were devoted to manual craftwork with a student's master. Ferdinand Adolph Lange's master was Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes (the maker of the famous Five-Minute Clock at Dresden's Semperoper), who at the time was second mechanic at the Mathematics and Physics Salon providing an astronomical clock with a mercury compensation pendulum for his service observatory. After finishing his apprenticeship with honours in 1835, Ferdinand A. Lange worked for Gutkaes for more than two years. In 1837 Lange embarked on his journeyman years, which took him to France, England and Switzerland. In Paris, he spent four years working as workshop manager of Austrian watchmaker Joseph Thaddäus Winnerl (inventor of the split-seconds chronograph). The lectures given by the physician and director of the Paris Observatory Dominique François Arago extended his knowledge of astronomy. After France, he went to Switzerland and Great Britain to improve his knowledge and skills even further with well-known watchmakers. However, Lange's intention was to set up