A. Lange & Sohne CEO Fabian Krone Steps Down

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Sep 22nd 2009 at 7:01AM

It was sad news to hear that Fabian Krone, the charming and charismatic CEO of luxury watch company A. Lange & Sohne has stepped down, and left the company. On numerous occasions A. Lange & Sohne has been heralded as the best Germany luxury brand, as well as best German watch brand. I've been to their factory and viewed many of their watches. I can easily attest to all of this being more than mere hyperbole.

While the watch industry has been down, and will be down for the next few years, there are no signs that Lange is hurting disproportionately. Plus, being under the wing of the Richemont Group certainly helps curb economic issues. So why did Mr. Krone leave the company? Hard to say, but reports suggest disagreements between him and others regarding the future direction of the company. Who Fabian disagreed with and over what issues are still a mystery to me. I have a feeling that it may be part of the stifling effect Lange experienced as being part of the Richemont Group. Though, this is speculation. When you are part of a group of brands, the problem is that issues can occur when brands compete with one another or wish to do something that the parent company does not want. For this reason there may have been pressure for Lange to act or not act in various ways when it came to future products or other company directions.

For the mean time the company COO Jerzy Schaper will take over as interim CEO until a replacement is found. Having shaken the man's hand in the past - I wish him success and prosperity in his next career move.

Via Perpetuelle.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: a lange sohne, ALangeSohne, ceo, fabian krone, FabianKrone, resign, step down, StepDown, watch