- Baume & Mercier: The new collection Hampton magnum-
- De Bethune adorning its DBS collection with diamonds-
- Blancpain opens its third Boutique in Dubai -
- Hublot One Million $ Black Caviar-
- Piaget Polo 30th anniversary-
- The Hublot boutique opens in Geneva-
- Chopard: The new Elton John watch collection-
- Piaget Emperador coussin large moon -
- Daniel Roth 220.Y-
- Zenith Starissime-
Glashütte remains the showcase
Glashütte today is again - as a hundred years ago - the shop sign of the German watchmaking industry.
Glashütte today is again - as a hundred years ago - the shop sign of the German watchmaking industry. The products from the small town in this remote valley in the eastern Erzgebirge, a good 30 kilometres from the gates of the capital of Saxony, Dresden, are the result of adherence to a cult of quality, aesthetics and precision driven to the extreme and are in the tradition of the renowned Glashütte pocket watchmakers.
The history of Glashütte watches began in 1845, when Ferdinand Adolph Lange, with state funding, established a teaching workshop for watchmakers to open up new employment possibilities for the largely unemployed young men of the town. At that time, the eastern Erzgebirge was what we would now call a "structurally disadvantaged area" and the number of youngsters interested in an apprenticeship was correspondingly high. After completing their apprenticeship, the watchmakers remained in Glashütte, often specialised in making particular parts and after just a few years, a closely woven infrastructure had developed. At the turn of the century, every second house harboured a watchmaker’s workshop or a small production business in which gears, springs, cases, screws hands, faces and glasses were produced. Numerous international awards from the time bear witness to the high quality standard of the Glashütte products, which were a perfectly equal match for the products of the Swiss watchmaking craft.
After the disastrous effect of the Second World War on relations between Germany and its neighbours, Glashütte found itself behind the Iron Curtain. The Soviet occupying power and the new Democratic Republic collectivised the factories and their supplier workshops in and around Glashütte to form a state-owned conglomerate. For forty years and sometimes under extremely difficult conditions, the "VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe" ("People’s Business, Glashütte Watch Enterprises") was required to satisfy the time measurement demands of the state and its population. P.B.
- 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
- Hot off the press...
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- Baume & Mercier : The new collection Hampton magnum
- De Bethune adorning its DBS collection with diamonds
- Blancpain opens its third Boutique in Dubai
- Hublot One Million $ Black Caviar
- Piaget Polo 30th anniversary
- The Hublot boutique opens in Geneva
- Chopard: The new Elton John watch collection
- Piaget Emperador coussin large moon
- Daniel Roth 220.Y, Tourbillon 8-day perpetual calendar
- Zenith Starissime collection, an ode to femininity
- Advertising
