Lang 1943
Lang 1943 is a watch brand named for Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, born in 1943 in Braunschweig, Germany, the watchmaker who founded Chronoswiss. Lang joined Heuer in 1964 in stopwatch production, moved to its Frankfurt branch in 1968 and to Munich in 1974, where he directed the technical department of Heuer Time GmbH. After Heuer closed the Munich subsidiary in 1980 he opened his own restoration and service atelier, and in 1983 he registered Chronoswiss, which he led until selling it in 2012. The new brand was conceived with German entrepreneur Georg Bartkowiak, a former CEO of Grieb & Benzinger, and was announced in the summer of 2022, with Lang acting as figurehead and adviser on design and technology. WatchTime and A Blog to Watch report that Lang died in 2023, and Bartkowiak now leads the brand. The articles used for this listing do not give a headquarters; Europa Star says the watches are assembled in Switzerland, and the official website, lang1943.com, was not yet working when this listing was written.
The brand's central asset is old stock. During the quartz crisis Lang bought mechanical movements from failed makers, including Marvin, and kept the remaining Marvin movements and components after selling Chronoswiss (accounts differ on whether this happened in the 1980s or 1990s). The Lang 1943 Caliber L43.1 is a refurbished and re-decorated 1960s Marvin 700 from Lang's own stock: hand-wound, 17 jewels, 29.40 mm by 3.2 mm, 3 Hz (21,600 vph), 46 hours of power reserve, with an Incabloc shock absorber, Nivarox 1 balance spring, Nivaflex mainspring and Glucydur balance wheel. Finishing includes striped and bevelled bridges, circular graining on the mainplate and gold chatons, and the movement is visible through a sapphire caseback. Reviewers have questioned how long the supply of Marvin 700 movements will last.
The launch model, the Field Watch Edition One, takes its cues from the British Ministry of Defence "Dirty Dozen" field watches of the 1940s. It has a fully brushed 39 mm steel case 8.4 mm thick, a domed sapphire crystal, a sapphire caseback and 50 m water resistance. The sunray-brushed, smoked grey dial carries a recessed small seconds at six o'clock with a crosshair (which the wartime originals lacked), a railroad minute track, and large Arabic numerals and syringe hands in beige "old radium" Super-LumiNova, with only the logo printed. It comes on 20/18 mm brown calfskin or beige woven straps with quick-release spring bars, in a Pelican case. The price is €3,500 (about US$3,660 to 3,800 at launch), sold directly and through Perpetuel in Dubai. Lang 1943 does not present the watch as a limited edition: Europa Star reported about 600 watches expected in the first year, and WatchPro later reported annual output of around 500, along with later Retro special editions and a collaboration with seconde/seconde.