Forgotten Heroes - Gerd-Rüdiger Lang - Chronoswiss

I was inspired to write another part of the series about forgotten heroes by this year's Watch of the Year gala, which was organized for the fourteenth time by ch24.pl, where the special jury award was posthumously received by Gerd Lang.

I would like to thank and congratulate Tomek Kiełtyka at this point, because the competition he initiated, which is summed up by the annual final gala, is not only developing in a beautiful direction, constituting in my opinion the most important watch event in Poland, but has also gained a position in the international industry. I am glad that for several years I could also help with subsequent editions.

Returning to our Hero, he was born during World War II in Brunswick (Braunschweig) in Germany in 1943.

The city was an important industrial center, known for many industries, including precision industry.

As a fifteen-year-old boy, he was taken by his father to learn the watchmaking trade by working at the Jauns store in his hometown. Younger readers will probably experience some cognitive dissonance, because today fifteen-year-olds more or less happily enjoy their secondary school education, leaving work to adults, and thinking about it is more of a plan for the distant future than a necessity.

After a four-year apprenticeship, young Lang began his apprenticeship at Gross in Burg/Fehmarn, over 350 km from his hometown.

He graduated after two years and in 1964, as a 21-year-old young man, he moved to Biel, Switzerland, where he began working for Jack Heuer, becoming associated with the manufacturer known today as Tag Heuer for the next few years.

There he worked, among other things, on the production of the famous stopwatch watches, where he had the opportunity to observe the birth of the first chronograph watch with an automatic drive, which was developed together with Breitling in 1969.

The Chronomatic was, of course, eventually created, but two months before its premiere, Zenith showed the first automatic chronograph movement, giving it the name "El Primero", or the First, which was a marketing jab at the competition.

However, the great success of the Chronomatic mechanism is inextricably linked to the Le Mans race and the famous film with Steve McQuinn, playing the Swiss driver, Jo Stiffert, who received a Monaco model from J. Heuer (it should be remembered that in 1969 it was a groundbreaking watch, the first square and waterproof model on the market with a new heart, still proudly bearing the Chronomatic on the dial) in exchange for the company's advertising on the driver's overalls.

The actor, consulting with Stiffert, who also worked on the production, wanted his role to be as accurate as possible in reality, so Hollywood turned to J.Heuer to supply the watches for the film set in France.

Gerda Lang was asked to carry out this task, he got in the car to deliver the watches, but after a thorough inspection at the border he unfortunately had to pay customs duty, so he arrived on set somewhat broke, as if it were a movie thing.

But thanks to this he got to meet Steve McQuinn in person, among others, something that even Heuer himself failed to do.

Ultimately, thanks to the film, the Monaco watch became not only a recognizable but also a cult model, one of the brand's workhorses, still produced in many variants today.

In 1968, Lang returned to Germany, taking up a position as head of the Heuer branch in Frankfurt; then, in 1974, he moved to Munich, to Heuer Time GmbH, where he headed the technical department.

In 1980, at the famous Olympic Games in Moscow, Heuer represented the team as the official timekeeper of the games.

Unfortunately, as a result of the painful effects of the quartz revolution, which is a kind of motto of my stories, Jack Heuer decides to close the branch, at the same time proposing that Lang run his own service for the Heuer brand on his own and with financial responsibility.

Lang sets up a watchmaking workshop in the basement of his home, purchasing a complete set of spare parts and, as part of his departure, receives 350 Heuer chronographs as starting capital for a new path in life.

Lang, inspired by his professional history, also began repairing watches from other Swiss manufacturers, not only Heuer, and while traveling around Switzerland, he took advantage of opportunities to buy old mechanisms as well as the remaining stock of old chronographs, which many believe are now just ballast, since they cannot be used in modern watches powered by a battery-powered quartz movement.

It was then that Gerd's visionary spirit became apparent; completely against the market trend and the industry's behaviour (many companies were reducing employment, plants were closing down, businesses were going bankrupt, the mechanical watch segment was shrinking), at the height of the quartz craze in 1982, he opened his own company, calling it Chronoswiss.

This name includes both the god of time, Chronos, and Lang's favorite complication, the chronograph, and of course, the word Swiss, which is probably why the company was officially founded in 1983 in Munich :)

Perhaps the matter was helped by the fact that Gerd lost his job, he knew nothing about quartz watches, and the only thing he could use was his knowledge and skills of the so-called old school of watchmaking. At this point, as a reminder, I will add that in 1980 he graduated from the Master School in Wurtzburg.

The first model, presented a year earlier, is inspired by a marine chronometer with a regulator complication by Vacheron Constantine from 1908.

The layout of the regulator dial comes from this clock (central minute hand, hours on a subdial above the axis of this hand and seconds on a subdial below) as well as the watch bezel decorated with characteristic knurling, which for many years became one of the most recognizable features of this brand's watches, however, probably the most important thing and a completely groundbreaking thing was Gerd's use of a transparent cover, through which the decorated watch mechanism is visible.

Until now, wristwatches were dominated by covered backs, and the movement was treated as a workhorse, not a work of art worthy of display. And so, thanks to Gerd and his specialite de la maison, today we are exposed to a multitude of models equipped with a transparent back, and this is neither surprising nor new to us. However, it is worth remembering who took the lead in this respect.

This is how the success of the brand begins, which quickly becomes one of the most recognizable players in the mechanical watch market.

A lot of experience with chronographs makes Langa fascinated with timekeeping and scoring. He is also fueled by his passion for vintage sports cars. Who remembers that at the beginning of the Chronoswiss advertisement they use photos of Lang behind the wheel of a beautiful Jaguar XK120 Alu Roadster OTS.

As a watchmaker and creator, he focuses on mechanics, and his slogan "I only produce watches that I like to wear myself" made Gerd famous in the industry.

Lang's first love was always the chronograph, both as a creator and collector. His personal collection reportedly included around 1,000 watches, all chronographs. He is also the main author of the book "Chronograph Wristwatches: To Stop Time" or "Chronographen armbanduhren".

When it comes to his personal philosophy, it is best summed up by the quote, "All the watches you see here, I made first for myself, not for you. I am a watchmaker, not a manager, and this is my toy. I make it for myself, and when it is good, I make more."

The first own brand catalogue is published as early as 1985. Within twenty years Chronoswiss achieves a strong market position, and in 2007 it moves to its own factory in Karlsfeld near Munich, which opens a completely new chapter in the company's history.

In 1997 Rüdiger Lang started working with Michael Kobold, with the intention of making Michael his successor at Chronoswiss after some time spent trading watches and learning the industry. However, in 1999 Rüdiger finally suggested that Michael start his own watch brand, and the word became flesh and thanks to the four founding fathers, namely the British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Michael Kobold, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University (where Michael studied) Jack Roseman and of course Lang, the company Kobold Watches was founded, based in Pennsylvania.

In 2011, at the age of 68, he practically handed over the reins of the company to his daughter, who shares his watchmaking passion and skills, and has been with the company practically from the very beginning. Unfortunately, Natalie, despite her experience, was not able to manage the company on her own, and in addition, the global financial crisis did not make her task easier.

However, it is clear that in recent years Chronoswiss was no longer able to meet the requirements of the changing market, and Lang himself no longer had his youthful clout, which was reflected in the design of not very successful model lines and those poorly received by the market.

In 2012, he sold his company to the Swiss Epstein family, in whose hands the company remains to this day, but in my opinion, looking at its current collections, it has lost some of its original Gerd Lang spirit.

Gerd himself is once again creating watches under the new (opened in 2022) brand Lang 1943 (an obvious reference to the name and year of birth of the founder) founded and run by Georg Bartkowiak, Gerd's friend and student.

The story sadly ends with his death on March 2, 2023, leaving behind the legacy of Chronoswiss, the glazing of the casebacks of many companies, and books.

Darek Chlastawa