Go inside the world of watchmaking with the world's leading watch auction house, Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo. Each episode of The Phillips Watches Podcast features candid conversations with the makers, collectors, and visionaries behind the most important watches in the world.
– Hosted by Logan Baker
When you talk about Glashütte, you’re not just talking about a city. You’re talking about a horological legacy – a 180-year continuum of skill, resilience, and renewal that has survived wars, walls, and radical change.
In the third episode of The Phillips Watches Podcast, I sat down with Wilhelm Schmid, CEO of A. Lange & Söhne, and Dr. Helmut Crott, historian, collector, and one of the foremost scholars of German watchmaking. Together, we traced the story of Glashütte from its 19th-century origins under Ferdinand Adolph Lange to its rebirth after reunification – and explored what it means to carry that legacy forward today.
The conversation coincides with a new traveling exhibition, Commemorating 150 Years Since the Passing of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, presented by Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo. Marking the 150th anniversary of Ferdinand Adolph Lange’s passing, the exhibition showcases watches from the former and current collection of Dr. Crott. It will open in Geneva (5–9 November) before traveling to Hong Kong (15–23 November) and New York (3–5 December).
Dr. Crott remembers when Glashütte had nearly gone silent. In the 1970s, during the Cold War, he crossed into East Germany to search for forgotten historic Glashütte pocket watches. His discoveries, shared through his early auctions and scholarship, helped reawaken interest in German precision watchmaking at a moment when few collectors looked beyond Switzerland.
Schmid and Crott see Glashütte’s story as one of stubborn optimism. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Walter Lange, the great-grandson of the founder, returned to Saxony to rebuild his family’s manufacture. Within four years, A. Lange & Söhne unveiled the Lange 1, the Saxonia, the Arkade, and the Tourbillon Pour le Mérite – watches that instantly redefined what modern German watchmaking could be.
That sense of renewal continues to define Glashütte today. The town’s population numbers only a few thousand, yet its density of high-end watchmaking rivals that of Geneva or the Vallée de Joux. Within a short walk, you can find A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte Original, Nomos, Moritz Grossmann, and others – each distinct, yet all rooted in the same tradition.
Crott’s exhibition reminds visitors that this wasn’t always guaranteed. His collection traces Glashütte’s evolution through one-of-a-kind pocket watches, school tourbillons, and marine chronometers – many built when Saxony’s economy relied on watchmaking for survival.
The exhibition and this episode both capture the idea of Glashütte as a living tradition, defined not by nostalgia but by persistence – a town, a craft, and a community still keeping time together.
Episode 2 of The Phillips Watches Podcast – featuring Dr. Helmut Crott and A. Lange & Söhne CEO Wilhelm Schmid – is available now on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.