Lange's New Family

WILHELM SCHMID HAS spent the last eight years managing five watch collections started by his predecessors at A Lange & Sohne. But patience has its virtues, as the CEO of the German luxury label finally has a collection that he can be personally associated with.

"It's my family, at last," says the former BMW executive who joined the Lange fold in 2011.

Coming after the Lange 1, Saxonia, 1815, Richard Lange and Zeitwerk, the sixth family is named after Odysseus - the great Greek hero in Homer's epic poem The Odyssey. The poem tells the tale of Odysseus who wandered the seas for 10 years as he struggled to return from the Trojan War. But Mr Schmid notes that it's not so much the journey but the man himself that inspired this new "sporty elegant" watch.