A. Lange & Söhne capped off its 25th anniversary year in a big way this fall, launching its first entirely new collection since 2008. The Odysseus launches as Lange?s first regularly produced timepiece in stainless steel, and introduces both a new integrated bracelet and a new in-house movement. I caught up with A. Lange & Sohne’s CEO, Wilhelm Schmid, in New York recently for a frank discussion about the Saxon manufacture’s first new product family since 2009’s Zeitwerk.
A. Lange & Söhne CEO Wilhelm Schmid
WT: Was it always the plan for the Odysseus to debut in Lange?s 25th Anniversary year"

WS: It was clear that for the anniversary that we would have to do something special, and we definitely intended to launch the watch on October 24, 2019, 25 years after the launch of the first four new watches from A. Lange & Söhne. We didn?t launch them at SIHH, which would have been logical for a watch of this magnitude, even though we had prototypes of the Odysseus at SIHH that we shared with a very few people. WT: This is a brand that does not follow trends but does listen closely to its customers. What were you hearing over the past few years from your collectors that made you realize that it was time for a “sport-elegance” watch"

WS: The idea for a steel watch, a watch you could wear in a more casual environment, went all the way back to Mr. [Gunter] Blumlein [who resurrected A. Lange & Söhne along with Walter Lange...