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Deutsche Chronometer
The Wempe company has set up a chronometer testing facility in the old "Urania" observatory of Glashütte…
Because the sought after Swiss COSC seal is not available for watches of German origin, the Wempe company has set up a chronometer testing facility in the old "Urania" observatory of Glashütte where testing and calibration can once again be carried out, with the official blessing of the state measurement and calibration services of Thuringia and Saxony and the accreditation of the German Calibration Service, Chronometers, in accordance with the German standard, DIN 8319.
To this day, German chronometry remains closely linked with the name of the family business. Its origins go back to the foundation of the Hamburger Chronometerwerke, bought in 1939 by Herbert Wempe, who recognised the potential as a training and production establishment for precision timepieces and was soon making ship’s chronometers with a world-wide reputation.
In the Glashütte chronometer testing facility, however, it is, to begin with, only wristwatches that are certified, the fundamental difference from the Swiss chronometer standard being that DIN 8319 stipulates that it is fully assembled timepieces and not just movements that are to be tested. The strict criteria prescribe inspection and monitoring over a period of 15 days. In the five positions, "crown left", "crown up", "crown down", "face up" and "face down", the average daily gain must lie between -4 and +6 seconds, with an average daily gain deviation of no more than two seconds and a maximum gain deviation no more than five seconds. All watches are tested at temperatures of 23 °C, 8 °C and 38 °C with a relative humidity of approx. 50 %.
At the end of each 24-hour period, the deviations are measured and the watches wound. On the tenth day of testing, any complicating factors that may be present are applied in order to test their effect on the accuracy. A particular feature of the German standard is that it must be possible to set the watch to the nearest second.
The services of the Glashütte Chronometer Test Facility are open to all watchmakers, however, capacity is, as yet, limited by the time consuming test procedure. P.B.
(1) The old Glashütte "Urania" observatory, before the war.
(2) The Wempe Glashütte i/SA observatory on the Ochsenkopf, 410 metres above sea level.
(3) Front view of the Wempe Glashütte i/SA observatory.
(4) A glimpse of the production site at the Wempe Glashütte i/SA observatory.
(5) The testing laboratory, accredited by the German Calibration Laboratories (DKD) as a certification body under the State Offices for Weights and Measurements of Thuringia (LMET) with the Federal Bureau of Physics and Technology to the international ISO/IEC 17025 standard.
(6) Testing Zeitmeister Wempe Glashütte i/SA chronometers in temperature-controlled cabinets manufactured by Witschi.
(7) Testing Zeitmeister Wempe Glashütte i/SA chronometers to DIN 8319 standard. Verification carried out by the State Offices for Weights and Measurements of Thuringia (LMET).
(8) Front view of the Wempe Glashütte i/SA observatory with the cupola open.
- Articles from this issue
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- A trickle of water for a stream of words
- Glashütte remains the showcase
- Deutsche Chronometer
- Times are good in the watch trade in the United Kingdom
- The spirit of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in South America
- The electronic hourglass
- From water thief to electronic hourglass
- Roger Dubuis: 10 years old and 28 movements!
- When time takes the face of humankind
- Origins of the wristwatch before 1900
- Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele: Red Carpet
- Kari Voutilainen, the watchmaker who came in from the cold
- "Marketing has taken over"
- Time Aeon brings together the "da Vincis" of watchmaking
- Watchmaking is moving up a gear in training
- Watchmaking houses are sharpening their spears
- Watchmaking sub-contracting is returning to its years of plenty
- A deep-water dive for Jaeger-LeCoultre
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