A New Brand With a History.

What is it that comes to your mind when you hear the name Lang, Gerd-Rüdiger Lang to be precise? One of the living legends of watchmaking, a man whose vision and energy contributed immensely to the relaunch of the mechanical watch industry in Switzerland after the choc created by the quartz crisis of the ’70s, and who inspired a lot of watchmakers. The industry actually owes him quite a lot for this. The man who believed in the appeal and magic of mechanical watches, and the inventor of the crystal case-back for wrist watches.

Of course, we know the history and we are all aware that he withdrew from his own company Chronoswiss in 2012 after almost 30 years of its existence. Now Gerd-Rüdiger is almost 80 but his creativity, visioner spirit, and love for vintage watches are like a good wine, growing better with age.

The legendary watchmaker is coming back to the market with an all-new brand, Lang 1943. And when I say new, well there’s a bit more to that.

According to the official data, LANG 1943 was founded in 2022 by Georg Bartkowiak and is an authentic homage to a living watch industry icon Gerd-Rüdiger Lang. The latter is an actual ambassador of the brand, is consultant, and an advisor for design and technology. A fun fact is that the date in the name of the brand is actually the birth year of Gerd-Rüdiger.

“Who needs luck when you have Gerd-Rüdiger Lang... It’s an honor for me to be able to pay tribute to his legacy and heritage with LANG 1943 and its products”, says Bartkowiak describing the flagship timepiece of the new brand the Lang 1943 Field Watch Edition One. And he has all the right to say so.

Field Watch is an exceptional piece not only because it was inspired by Gerd-Rüdiger Lang. And we need to go back in history to understand why. The first edition of Lang 1943 is based on the dirty dozen model of wristwatches issued by the British army during the Second World War. That was a set of 12 timepieces for army personnel commissioned by Great Britain’s Ministry of Defense in the 1940s. Each one of them had to adhere to strict specifications such as water resistance, luminosity, chronometer-level regulation, and a rugged case. The dial was required to be black with Arabic numerals and subsidiary seconds. The 12 models were manufactured by the best brands at that time - Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lémania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor, and Vertex.

The Lang 1943 decided to use the same vintage model, but give it a modern touch. The Field Watch looks cool with its signature easy-to-change textile strap and the luminous hour markers in old radium-style colors pay tribute to the design of the dirty dozen. The slightly dusted khaki color of the dial makes you think of camouflage or something related to military or airborne services.

The timepiece is powered by a remastered Marvin caliber 700 from the 1960s, which was used for his Chronoswiss in the past. Now named  L43.1 it is an astonishing 46-hour reserve manual-wind movement that you can admire from the open back.

The case is made of steel, 39 mm in width and 8.4 mm in height which makes the wristwatch truly unisex. The face of the dial looks very appealing because of the right balance of proportions between the hands and the edge of the dial, as well as the size of Super-Luminova numbers, and the position of the seconds exactly on the edge of the dial. The Field Watch is also water resistant for up to 50 meters.

The Field Watch is not a limited edition. Land 1943 has already received several preorders but plans to sell this timepiece online, making its customers the unique ambassadors of the brand. All other watches, that will be manufactured in the future however will be limited editions.

So yes, this first edition has a clear link to vintage-inspired watches, but a very legitimate link in this case, and for the time being at an early stage of its commercialization. So hope you enjoyed this.

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And Viva Watchmaking!