In Chiang Mai recently for the A Lange & Söhne Connoisseur’s Akademie series of watchmaking workshops, Karishma Tulsidas donned the watchmaker’s hat for the day and discovered the finer points of German horology .
"It’s really good, if i may say so myself,” I exclaimed in surprise as I took a hesitant sip of the tom yam soup I had just prepared. My amateurish cooking skills had been put to the test at the Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai, where A Lange & Söhne was hosting us for three days for its Connoisseur’s Akademie programme.
While my culinary skills were surprisingly on point (fine, yes, we had plenty of assistance from the chefs), this was not the case with my watchmaking prowess, which was tested at the horology sessions organised by the German watchmaker. A special coterie of customers was invited to discover, in full vacation mode, what goes into the making of an A Lange & Söhne timepiece. This year, the Connoisseur’s Akademie was held at the Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai. The trip was unfortunately one week after the demise of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in October, and we were told that some of the outdoor activities had been cancelled, and were expressly instructed to wear muted colours, preferably in monochromatic tones.
Nonetheless, we were treated to the full-on A Lange & Söhne experience, where we enjoyed a jam-packed programme of watchmaking sessions, sightseeing tours and cooking classes. As expected, the activities were punctuated by delicious Thai food. We enjoyed an upscale experience of an authentic northern Thai meal at the farewell dinner, where a night market had been replicated within one of the sprawling pool villas at the resort.
Learning Curve
But the point of the trip was to attend the watchmaking academy, an eye-opening insight into the astounding level of attention lavished on each and every A Lange & Söhne timepiece, from conceptualisation to realisation. For the first session, themed Hand-crafted Accuracy, we delved into the decoration and polishing techniques mastered by the watchmaker. At A Lange & Söhne, a wide range of techniques is used to ensure that each and every component—even those that are not visible to the naked eye—is finished to the highest standards of aesthetic precision. And just to make things a tad more complicated, these are all done by hand.
So we gave a technique called tremblage a whirl. Meaning “trembling” in French, it falls under the manufacture’s Handwerkskunst banner, an artisanal range of timepieces that are canvases for esoteric decoration techniques. Craftsmen undergo vigorous training to learn such skills, as they require a steady hand, patience, practice and an artistic disposition—we are told that most of the polishers and decorators at A Lange & Söhne are also very good painters.
