This year’s challenge was to construct and build a full calendar. Eight young watchmakers from France, Sweden, Finland, the USA, Japan and Germany took part in the competition, spending a busy week at A. Lange & Söhne in Dresden and Glashütte in early May to prepare. They then had six months to tackle the assignment, which required them to deal with the underlying theory as well as the practical aspects.
In late November a specialist jury met to evaluate the entries. It was made up of company founder Walter Lange, Anthony de Haas (responsible for product development at Lange), the journalists Gisbert L. Brunner and Peter Bran (both watch experts) and the Director of the Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments in Dresden, Dr Peter Plassmeyer. The jury’s final decision was unanimous: The French candidate Tanguy Huret’s entry fulfilled all four criteria of the competition equally: originality, technical functionality, quality of craftsmanship and aesthetic implementation.
The jury even went as far as to say that this was the best work that had ever been submitted in the history of the Awards. The 25-year-old watchmaking student Huret went far beyond the requirements of the competition: He designed his full calendar as an annual calendar which correctly incorporates the lengths of all the different months. What is more, he submitted a technically sophisticated solution with three overlapping dials, creating a unique aesthetic effect.
Due to the high quality of the entries, the jury decided to also announce the names of those placed second and third, for the first time. The work submitted by Ville-Veikko Koski from the Espoo watchmaking school in Finland stood out thanks to the originailty of its cylindrical date display and the unusually high level of craftsmanship that went into it. And Masakazu Arafuka from the Hiko Mizuno College in Tokyo, Japan, presented an idea inspired by the Five-Minute Clock at Dresden’s Semperoper opera house, winning over the jury thanks to his creativite approach and the construction itsself, which was reminiscent of a chiming movement.
As part of an international press event on 7 December 2016 in Glashütte, Lange CEO Wil- helm Schmid and company founder Walter Lange presented the winner with his 10,000- euro prize.
