Drumming to His Own Beat

Anthony de Haas, the director of product development at A Lange & Söhne for 19 years, talks to Tatler about the allocation of its watches and how he built a new culture for the brand in his first five years

- Amrita Katara

Anthony de Haas, the director of product development at A Lange & Söhne, exuded a sense of focused calm as he sat down with Tatler in Hong Kong—a city he was revisiting for the first time in a decade. Despite having just stepped off a long and delayed flight that derailed most of his plans for the trip, De Haas was eager to unravel the intricacies of German horology. Our chat came on the heels of the much-anticipated release of the latest Zeitwerk Minute Repeater in Honeygold, an event that marked a significant moment for both the revered watchmaking house and De Haas.

His own path to watchmaking was as unexpected as it was serendipitous: “I was a terrible kid,” he admits. Initially aspiring to be a teacher like his father, his passion for drumming soon took precedence, leading him away from academics and towards a career in music. With his father’s practical guidance, though, he found himself in toolmaking school, where he honed the skills that would inadvertently prepare him for his future in horology.