Georg Bartkowiak first made his mark on the fine watchmaking industry with a nine year stint at boutique atelier Grieb & Benzinger, where, as CEO, he worked with co-founders Hermann Grieb and Jochen Benzinger to grow a two-craftsmen workshop into the collectors’ brand it has become today.
During that period, Mr Bartkowiak’s desire to launch his own watch company grew and, in 2017, he started work on what would become LANG 1943 as a German operation, headquartered in Dubai, manufacturing in Switzerland and producing timepieces inspired by the work of Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, the legendary founder of Chronoswiss.
It took four years for his dream to become a reality when, in the summer of 2021, the first LANG 1943 Field Watch Edition One was revealed in the company of Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, who Mr Bartkowiak refers to as GRL.
Mr Lang passed away two years later in 2023.
Design of Lang 1943’s watches is influenced by timepieces from the 1940s, especially the utilitarian field watches of the war years.
They use a hand-wound LANG 1943 calibre based on recovered 1960s Marvin 700s that are reworked exclusively for the maison.
In honour of Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, who is credited with creating the first exhibition case backs for watches, the LANG 1943 movement is also on show so its finely finished details can be appreciated.
WATCHPRO: When did you decide that you wanted to launch a brand of your own? Was it when you discovered these historical movements?
Georg Bartkowiak: Everything came together naturally; the intention was never to create my own brand but rather to find the ideal scenario allowing my expertise acquired over the years of bespoke creation in the watch industry to be combined with undeniable legacy.
Let’s say I was blessed when we discovered the actual Marvin movement stock. The forgotten treasure propelled everything that happened next and the birth of LANG 1943.
My friendship with GRL simply grew stronger and intuitively guided us on this new journey. I am now alone to spearhead GRL’s legacy due to his sad passing almost a year ago but honored to carry it over through the brand we worked so hard on.
All this is thanks to this exclusive movement, which allows us to set ourselves apart from mass production and microbrands from day 1 and to make us a true independent brand.
WATCHPRO: How much of an influence was Gerd-Rudiger Lang on your career and how did you persuade him to come out of retirement to launch the brand?
Georg Bartkowiak: We shared several values, one of them being our common German origins. Besides this obvious point, we had a long-lasting friendship, an untamed passion for watchmaking, and he possessed an incredible legacy that he always kept very low profile.
We both had a strong desire to leave a mark in an industry that we cherished so much. Many circumstances made this possible, and one of them was certainly his restless brain and mind, which always remained immersed in the world of watches.
WATCHPRO: The passing of GRL is still very recent, how important is it for you to grow this brand in his name?
Georg Bartkowiak: Indeed, the footsteps left are significant in less than a year; however, GRL also left behind numerous drawings and pointers. When you combine this with the existing legacy he granted to the watch industry, I believe the mission should not be too complex.
My expertise in crafting bespoke watches has granted me access to the best suppliers, ensuring that our timepieces will uphold a key attribute that mattered to him the most: creating valuable and qualitative watches that can withstand time at an affordable price. Undoubtedly, we are committed to maintaining the fascination of the mechanics, just as he would have wanted.
WATCHPRO: GRL was of course an incredibly important figure and along with the likes of Mr Biver in the early 80’s was responsible for putting watch making back on the map. Aside from the glass case back with GRL pioneered How much of GRL’s DNA can be seen in the LANG 1943 brand today?
Georg Bartkowiak: LANG 1943 is all about GRL. It´s about the beauty of mechanical watches. We are following his guidelines in terms of aesthetics and the beauty of the 1940s. We will make sure that the fascination of the mechanics continues.
Furthermore, we will introduce exclusive modifications based on our Marvin movement co-designed with GRL and a very special chronograph in the near future since GRL was a Chronograph collector and owned the probably biggest collection of mechanical chronographs, a collection of about 800 watches.
WATCHPRO: The LANG 1943 houses an amazing movement. The remastered original 1960s Marvin 700 ebauche. According to Ranfft, Marvin got the rights to the Cal. 700 from Election around 1960 and passed it on to Longines at the end of that decade. How on earth did you come across this treasure of a movement and how many do you have?
Georg Bartkowiak: GRL had the foresight to buy remaining stocks of several manufacturers in the 80s and 90s. When absolutely nobody had interest in a huge bunch of in that time “worthless” components, he had the chance to acquire the full remaining stock of Marvin 700 manual wound movement components.
Not a single finished movement but only blanc components. A very worthwhile investment at the end. Stored for many years, forgotten, rediscovered and now hosted in all our collections after some slight adjustments such as the movement finishes for example.
When I asked GRL about the available quantity of movements he simply answered: “until the end of your life”.
WATCHPRO: You have gone with a 39mm case, which many people believe to be the holy grail of sizes. We have seen the size of watches shrink from 44mm down to sub 39mm. Do you plan on sticking to the 39mm case size? Do the movements prohibit you from going smaller?
Georg Bartkowiak: In fact, 39mm is a great size. Remember most Chronoswiss watches – GRL´s most famous brainchild were mostly 38mm?
In fact, 37- 39 mm offers one big advantage to us: our movement fills the see-through case-back without any need of movement spacer. This is the aesthetics that GRL was always talking about: emphasize the beauty of the mechanics!
WATCHPRO: You chose a field watch that was inspired by the British Military in World War II ‘Dirty Dozen’ as your first watch launch? Why?
Georg Bartkowiak: The dirty dozen got great PR when a set of 12 watches has been auctioned some years ago. A great input for us since they originate in the decade of GRL year of birth. How much better can we start a brand called LANG 1943 with a watch style that was born in that decade too?
WATCHPRO: Your most recent launches are the Retro whose colours show a sense of fun, can we expect more colour to be explored in future editions?
Georg Bartkowiak: I love colours. You can show style and personality with it. Colour defines the dial of our field watch Edition ONE too though it`s grey/black shades – it´s also the careful choice of colour.
Yes, we will see also some colour spots in the future collections, some discreet, some smiley bright. Our positioning is new vintage, strong attachment to know-how, legacy but granting us with the possibility to integrate fun and a modern touch to our creations too. Retro was just one of many to express our neo-vintage touch.
WATCHPRO: Your Onion King and seconde/seconde (Sun) show a real sense of humour whilst tipping the hat to those before you. How were these received in the market and will the brand continue to more LE in this fashion?
Georg Bartkowiak: The cooperation with Seconde/Seconde was a special one, one where we could educate our audience and future owners on GRL’s milestones and get to know a bit more about the man.
And on the other side, to claim our positioning in a very concrete way but disrupting and pushing the boundaries like GRL always did it but this time with a focus on design for now prior to pushing further technically in the future. This decision is worth repeating itself as it is well received and by a wide audience in nationality and age too.
WATCHPRO: How many watches are you producing a year? What are your plans to increase production as your brand grows?
Georg Bartkowiak: Our annual production is set at around 500 timepieces and the market demand will drive the growth. We are already set with our internal process to expand as the demand grows.
WATCHPRO: Do you expect to remain a direct-to-consumer ecommerce business, or would you like bricks and mortar and retail partners to be part of your plans?
Georg Bartkowiak: D2C is in fact very efficient in terms of cost/revenue. However, the brand got a lot of recognition and numerous inquiries from international retail as well as wholesale. For a long term strategy, it is important for consumers to see our brand also in the market not just on the screen phone or tablet.
WATCHPRO: What other watch makers or brands do you admire and take inspiration from?
Georg Bartkowiak: I always admired the independent brands and watchmakers since they drive the development of the watch industry. I was always a huge fan of Chronoswiss and the early Daniel Roth watches. However, LANG 1943 will get it´s own DNA and we have a lot in the pipeline being created with GRL before he passed away.
