In the 1970s and 80s when quartz watches seemed to have dealt a coup de grâce to mechanical watchmaking, Gerd Lang fervently championed mechanical watchmaking and would become one of the pioneers of its renaissance.

Born in Braunschweig, Germany in 1943, Gerd-Rüdiger Lang was brought by his father to a watchmaking school at age 15, where he studied the craft for four years. After some apprenticeships, he landed a job in Heuer (now TAG Heuer) in 1964, where he would work for 28 years.

After Heuer closed its Munich office in the early 1980s, Lang founded Chronoswiss in 1983. Lang remarked that it would be confusing to open a company bearing his family name, because there already was an important watch brand with a similar name.

Chronoswiss would garner the attention of watch collectors the world over with alluring timepieces like the Régulateur of 1988, which sported a classical ‘regulator’ style dial. The horological community will also never forget his Opus timepiece of 1995, which was the first timepiece to incorporate a date indicator sub dial into a skeletonized automatic chronograph.

Lang sold Chronoswiss to watch enthusiasts Oliver and Eva Ebstein in 2012, citing old age, but never really stepped away from watchmaking. He continued his involvement as mentor for the brand Lang 1943, as well as continuing to write about chronographs extensively, which was his specialty complication. The Revolution team conveys our sincere condolences to the family of Gerd Lang.

Read more about Gerd Rüdiger Lang and Chronoswiss here.