A visit to Marco Lang’s atelier:

Driving up the residential street where Marco has his atelier.

I was picked up by Marco Lang and his VW Vanagon bus to go and see his atelier/workshop in the basement of his home on the outskirts of Dresden. He has retrofitted his downstairs basement to suit his work with a comfortable space for the watch assembly bench, the tool area and the common tools of an artisanal Independent Watchmaker. Our old friends, the Shaublin 102 Lathe, with an optical comparator, Aciera Drilling machine and various other tools. Join me as I journey into the Independent Watchmakers world of micro mechanical artistry in the field of high horology…

Optical Comparator for checking accuracy of tiny parts.

Watchmaking tools of an artisanal Independent Watchmaker.

One modern piece that Marco had is a 3-D printer which allows him to make parts very quickly in 3-D plastic to see if they work theoretically, and also allows him to make tools and also adapt some of his tools. He finds it a very useful piece of equipment.

Marco's fine polishing station with added parts in orange plastic that aid in use.

The room next door is his “dirty room”, so separate from the main watchmaking room. Here are polishing machines and also the galvanic station. I was amused to see his watch cleaning machine, with orange plastic parts attached (from the 3D printer) so that he could program, with the use of a small microchip and motor, the operation of this older watch cleaning machine, in order that he didn’t have to manually change between the different modes.

Cleaning machine, with some "Marco updates"

As Marco is fifth generation watchmaker, it was an absolute joy to see his predecessors in the family up on the wall with their watchmaker certificates. Martha Hartding, his great-great grandmother, was a great rarity in the watchmaking world, which back then would’ve been primarily male. There was a showcase that Marco has filled with wonderful old watchmaking tools and parts, also inside were the school watches from his relatives as well. One piece I asked to bring out and wind was an escapement model made by Martha Hartding in 1920.

Family "Master Watchmaker" certificates Marco has been able to compile. An impressive watchmaking family legacy!

Martha Hartding, Marco's great-great grandmother's Escapement model.

Close up of the escapement model. More impressive was when Marco wound it up for me, so I could enjoy it ticking away and see it run!

Grandfather, Heinz Lang school watch from 1950

Great-grandfather, Kurt Lang's school watch from 1921

When Marco graduated as a Master Watchmaker, one of his pieces that he built for himself initially was a model of a Galileo Galilei escapement. I had seen pictures of this in the early Lang & Heyne catalogs and was fascinated to see the actual piece live in his workshop. Marco being Marco kindly agreed to wind it up and I got to see and hear how it worked. Quite a simple concept, but a great model and I know he sold a few of these to collectors in the early days of his career. I’m sure they’re thrilled to have one of these on their desk!

Galileo Galilei escapement model, by Marco Lang.

side view of Marco's Galileo Galilei escapement model.

Taking a little time, we talked about business in the future for the Zweigesicht watch concept of two faces and what that might be. He was quite tightlipped about it, but it will be a more complicated watch than the first model. He’s also working on another fun complication, and the plastic 3-D printer was used to model one of the parts which I happened to see on a shelf in the workshop. It was not shown to me clearly because he didn’t want to reveal what might be in the future, but I did spy it. It will be quite a revolution when he reveals it to watch collectors.

Marco's assembly bench. This is where the final magic of his artisanally made watches come to life.

We then jumped back into the trusty VW Vanagon, and headed south towards Glashütte. Marco was keen for me to meet some of his younger watch buddies, who were creating new watches in the independent scene. Exciting times for me!