Milan, 9-10 May 2011. Eight watchmaking and A. Lange & Söhne enthusiasts are invited by l'Orologio to share a unique experience: a full-immersion into the world of the German brand. Take eight watchmaking enthusiasts, a classroom equipped with professional desks, a master watchmaker and a Lange manufacture calibre finished in every component. Have the enthusiasts sit at their desks, complete with a watchmaker's smock with their name embroidered on the breast pocket, and guide them through the assembly of the calibre in question. What will you get? You get the chance to witness the transformation of eight grown men, entrepreneurs and professionals, into as many children seeing an amusement park for the first time or, at the same time, taking their seats at the school desk for the first time. Huge smiles and sweaty foreheads, depending on the moment, competitions to see who is the best and immediate solidarity, even though until five minutes before they did not even know each other's names. The magic of passion and that for watchmaking in particular. We saw all this happen with our own eyes in Milan on 9 and 10 May, during the first A. Lange & Söhne VIP Akademie, organised by the German watchmaker in collaboration with l'Orologio and l'Orologio Club. Absolute protagonists were eight readers and members of our Club, selected among the hundred or so people who responded to the invitation published in our magazine, on orologioblog.net and on the Lange website in the two months preceding the event. Amused and equally enthusiastic witnesses of this experience were, in addition to myself, Luca Dondi - General Manager A. Lange & Söhne Southern & Eastern Europe, Brigida Ceresola - Marketing Manager, Maurizio Marino - Sales Manager and Johanna Lange - Director of the Lange Akademie, who came to Milan from Hong Kong especially for our guests. The best testimony to the atmosphere of the Milan event is certainly the one we received from the protagonists. Filippo Negri, our reader from Florence, even wrote to us: 'Dream or wake? Chronicle of a unique experience', underlining the emotion of 'being able to feel, even if only for a moment, a Master Watchmaker of one of the highest mechanical watchmaking houses', a dream that 'thanks to the Lange VIP Akademie, has come true! Similarly, Diego Cogo, from Vicenza, describes his participation in the Akademie as follows: "The opportunity to take part in something that for many watchmaking enthusiasts remains a dream: to be able to touch the mechanism of our beloved timepieces (rather than just contemplate them)". But let's come to what was the unfolding of this two-day full-immersion into the world of Lange. Leading the Akademie was the very well-prepared director, Johanna Lange (another confirmation of the prominent role of women in the world of watchmaking), who introduced the participants to the world of Lange: the models, the production and, above all, the care for quality, which was the main theme of the meeting.Special attention was paid to describing the finishing techniques of Lange gauges, and this encouraged participants to subject them to a very strict examination, with macro photos and microscope observations.
