Ask any toddler: the first steps are always the toughest ones. After having located a suitable plot of land on which to build Munich’s first watch factory, several questions arose. How should such a building look? What special features characterize a watch factory? How does Chronoswiss differ from other manufacturers? And last but not least, how can the new building optimally embody the business’s corporate identity?
Its planners wanted the new building to unite the development, production, sales, marketing and shipping departments all under one roof. The craft of watchmaking would naturally have to be the focal point of the entire facility. With this in mind, the idea was born to embed the workshop in the physical center of the structure, on the so-called belle étage with its extensive windowed façade, and to relegate the “servile” functions to the ground floor. Timelessness and longevity are symbolized by the building’s materials: brick, terracotta, aluminum, copper and glass, along with oak, Solnhofen slate and plaster.
The construction obeys the logic of a clockwork.
The watchmaking heart of the building, which also includes rooms for the business’s two “heads” Gerd-R. Lang and Natalie Lang, is augmented by the sales, marketing and shipping departments on the ground floor, by the two-storey entry hall with reception area and lounge toward the south, and by an open space for presentations on the top floor. The uppermost storey likewise houses the library and the employees’ cafeteria. Two small apartments are available for guests.
The structure’s central component is the rotunda, which contains the watch museum. Sixty showcases, embedded at eyelevel into the interior and exterior sides, harmoniously lead the beholder through regularly changing exhibitions. The rotunda transitions downward through a glass floor: this offers a view of the below-the-ground level, which provides exhibition space for a classic automobile. Upwards, the rotunda rises toward a circular skylight. In its role as the pivot and fulcrum of the entire building, the rotunda metaphorically corresponds to the pallet-staff of a watch movement.
The building’s clear and harmonious proportions match those of an Ancient Greek temple, with reliance on the classical ratio of 3 to 5. This harmony is first established in the ground plan, where five longitudinal axes correspond to three lateral axis. The same ratio also underlies the gables’ axes, where a width of five modules is paired with a height of three modules. The stones used in the construction likewise embody this mathematical relationship.
The building’s shell consists of heat-insulating brick masonry, borne by just a few ferroconcrete supports. Terracotta covers the exterior façade. The walls are essentially replaced by steel supports that recall blast furnaces in the steel industry. Skylights and large window fronts assure the necessary transparency.
Advanced, environmentally friendly and economical-to-operate domestic engineering is a hidden highlight of the new watch factory. A heat pump extracts energy from the surroundings and feeds it into the system. A heat exchanger with a condenser and an evaporator heats or cools the building as needed.
The watch museum, which forms the midpoint of the overall concept, is also reflected in the outdoor facilities. If an imaginary compass were to trace a circle around the building, the immaterial ring would enclose the Palladio stairs of the main entrance and the round entry doors (see architectural sketch). This virtual circle is rendered visible by first-quality granite in the outdoor area. Viewed from above, it resembles the dial of the Régulateur, which is Chronoswiss’ most characteristic “calling card.”
Chronoswiss’ concept sets a new standard in Karlsfeld. This successful link between tradition and modernity has led to the creation of an edifice which, we hope, will outlast many long years and many Lang generations.
Contact for journalists:
Josefine Müller
++49/08131/292 77-10 ,mobile ++49/173/277 72 89
mueller@chronoswiss.de Veronika Riggauer
++/08131/292 77-26
riggauer@chronoswiss.dewww.chronoswiss.de/com 
