The A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia belongs to the rebirth of one of Germany's greatest watchmaking houses. After the Berlin Wall fell, Walter Lange refounded the family firm in Glashütte on 7 December 1990, exactly 145 years after his great-grandfather Ferdinand Adolph Lange had started the original manufacture on the same date in 1845. Together with industry leader Günter Blümlein, he rebuilt the company from nothing. Four years later, on 24 October 1994, the firm presented its first modern collection at Dresden Castle: the Lange 1, the Arkade, the Tourbillon Pour le Mérite, and the Saxonia.
Named after the region of Saxony around Glashütte, the Saxonia was the quiet traditionalist of the four. While the Lange 1 broke convention, the Saxonia was the pure dress watch, meant to have the broadest appeal. The original references 102.001 and 102.002, made from 1994, used a 33.9mm yellow gold case and the rectangular caliber L911.3 borrowed from the Arkade, with the brand's outsize date at 12 o'clock and small seconds at 6. In 1997 the line received the round manual-wind caliber L941.3, bringing references such as the white gold 105.027 and the platinum 105.025, which kept that same big-date layout that defined the early Saxonia look.
The model evolved repeatedly. In 2011 the family expanded with two landmarks: the Saxonia Automatic (reference 380.026, 38.5mm white gold, self-winding caliber L086.1 with stop-seconds) and the Saxonia Thin, the slimmest watch the brand had ever built, powered by the hand-wound caliber L093.1. In 2015 the manual Saxonia was redesigned at 35mm (references such as 219.026), the dials were simplified with longer baton indices, and the hands were rhodiumed for sharper contrast. In 2018 Lange returned the outsize date to the collection with the Saxonia Outsize Date, references 381.029 and 381.031.
Collectors prize the Saxonia for what it leaves out. It is the purest expression of Glashütte watchmaking: solid silver dials, hand-engraved balance cocks, the three-quarter plate, and finishing applied to surfaces no owner will ever see. Restrained on the wrist yet uncompromising inside, it is widely regarded as one of the finest German dress watches of the modern era.
Bedesten Watches has sold authentic A. Lange & Söhne watches in Istanbul since 1999. From our family-run store in Suadiye, Kadıköy, we carry a rotating selection of pre-owned Saxonia models across generations, including the manual-wind 105 and 219 series, the Saxonia Thin and the Saxonia Automatic. Visit our Suadiye showroom or message us on WhatsApp +90 532 327 88 26 for current stock and pricing; we buy, sell and appraise, and accept TRY, USD and EUR.