By Kathryn Lewis
An American and a German have been awarded €10,000 (£8,000) by the German watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne in the firms’ third annual competition for young watchmakers, the Watchmaking Excellence Award 2012 .
BennieHernandez, a 24-year-old from Texas, and Daniel Neugebauer, a 29-year-old from Munich, received €5,000 (£4,000) eahc in prize money for their creations.
This year apprentices from 36 schools worldwide were invited to participate in the competition and eight qualified. Participants spent a week at the Lange Watchmaking School in Germany last summer familiarising themselves with the ins and outs of Saxon watch manufactory, which was founded 165 years ago.
Participants had four months to build an ETA 6498 model date indicator and they were judged on originality, innovation, functionality, technical prowess and quality craftsmanship.
A spokesperson for the company, said the competition was launched to support the tradition of fine watchmaking. “Lange would like to continue this tradition and that is why they invite these students to do a course in this and to continue their studies,” she said.
