“Not just the parts which are visible are finished to perfection. Even the ones you won’t see [are].” — Robert Hoffman, A. Lange & Söhne

“THOSE who really love, love in silence, with deeds and not with words,” wrote Carlos Ruiz Zafon in his novel The Shadow of the Wind. It is perhaps one of the world’s greatest ironies that some of the world’s most beautiful things are hidden from the human eye. I can go on and on with examples of these, but one of the most luxurious things hidden from the naked eye are the movements of the watches from A. Lange & Söhne.

During a watchmaking workshop by the brand last month, Robert Hoffman, Head of the brand’s Zeitwerk watch family, pointed out that each one of the brand’s timepieces are finished to perfection; engraved and polished by hand.

“Not just the parts which are visible are finished to perfection. Even the ones you won’t see [are].”

Of course, this technical masterpiece wasn’t going to be handled by our ordinary hands: booths were set up in the Executive Suite of the Raffles in Makati, where the watch’s parts were laid out for the guests to assemble. We were given practice movements, one of the tests for the A. Lange & Söhne watchmakers, who would have to study the craft for three years or so, moving down in size from clocks, to pocket watches, to wristwatches, and then a movement from the brand.

The brand was founded in 1845, and their technical mastery became known throughout the world. However, the company was badly hit by the Second World War — quite literally, as their buildings were bombed. The split between East and West Germany after the war also proved disastrous to the brand: the company was nationalized and it was effectively dismantled.

Walter Lange, a descendant of the founder, Ferdinand Adolph Lange, vowed to restore the company once Germany was united again. With the help of IWC Shaffhausen CEO Günter Blümlein, the company was opened again in 1990 and produced its first range for decades in 1994.

At the Raffles’ suite, we first had to set the plate, on which a series of wheels, bridges, and screws were to be placed with a pair of very small tweezers, aided by a loupe. This writer spent almost an hour assembling the watch (Mr. Hoffmann said that a watchmaker of his caliber could build and take apart the watch in five minutes flat), mindful that a mistake could make the movement fall apart, even violently so. A steady hand with a clear eye is needed in the profession, but in the end, turning the key and making the watch move — without any complications — gave an almost child-like satisfaction. Perhaps it’s akin to the feeling an A. Lange & Söhne watch owner gets when he peers at the clear caseback and sees the movements whirring away.

“We could just build a movement without finishing, just a very plain movement,” said Mr. Hoffman. “[But] that is just what makes the watch beautiful.

“There is no technical point [to it],” he conceded.

But we suppose that the satisfaction for the owner comes from something deeper: a connection with a machine tracking your movements through time, with another human doing the same. Said Mr. Hoffmann, “I know every single part is touched by a human hand.” —