What is Glashütte?
Virtually everyone has heard the name, perhaps fewer think they can pronounce it correctly, but how many actually know what it is? In short, it’s the destination for people in love with watches, and a hub for the finest products Made in Germany which celebrates its birthday: 175 years of watchmaking.
GLASHÜTTE, JANUARY 2022. In Germany, there are over 30 towns called Glashütte—more are scattered across Eastern Europe, Austria, Switzerland, and America. However, only one Glashütte is celebrating the 175th birthday of watchmaking heritage: The small town of Glashütte, nestled between the Eastern Ore Mountains in Saxony, Germany. This destination for people in love with watches is also the home of Tangente by NOMOS Glashütte, the most famous German mechanical timepiece. Since this model and many other fine watches are produced here, Glashütte’s name is almost universally known, a name synonymous around the world with fine timekeeping for the wrist.
The town is hidden between rolling hills. In its center live no more than 2,000 inhabitants. Almost as many work for one of the nine watch manufacturers and related businesses that are now among their neighbors. Even today, the latest news and trends are slow to arrive. And that’s just fine: Peace and quiet, and above all time to think, are the ideal conditions for watchmaking.
Few who live here can imagine a career outside of watchmaking; there are nowhere near as many bakers, mechanics, or theology scholars. And so watchmakers—designers, engineers, toolmakers—are the rule and not the exception in Glashütte. And that’s why they can do things here that their peers elsewhere in the world would struggle to do, at least not to this degree of excellence.
Everywhere you look in Glashütte, people are in a never-ending friendly competition to perfect their craft, to outdo one another, to pass on their knowledge to their children, the next generation. Only when the highest standards have been met are they happy to send the fruits of their labor out into the world. Meticulous measures, tests, and revisions are carried out: Parts and assemblies of each and every watch—and the finished watch in its entirety—go through countless strict quality control checks in the workshops of NOMOS Glashütte. Is that stereotypical German efficiency? Perhaps in this instance, yes. Since German engineering and handcraft are more at home here in Glashütte than anywhere else in the land.
Before watches, people in the region were miners, but eventually the silver and copper ore began to run out and the population became desperate. In 1845, with a loan of 6,700 thaler which he received from the King of Saxony Frederick Augustus II, the master watchmaker Ferdinand Adolf Lange ventured into the hilly rural communities south of Dresden to bring hope and better times for the future.
Driven by an immense sense of purpose he began educating young people and laying the foundations, brick by brick, for the creation of a new industry—one with engineers, toolmakers, manufacturers of dials, hands, and cases; with production based on the division of labor. He achieved his goal with resounding success. Others followed in the footsteps of Lange, each bringing their own particular skill, talent, and plan for the town. In the early 20th century, the production of wristwatches gradually began to replace that of pocket watches; Glashütte had long been famous for its deck watches and marine chronometers.
The wristwatch industry fell on hard times during and between the world wars. It was replaced by the production of fuses and tools. Expropriation, nationalization, and reconstruction followed the end of the Second World War—and Glashütte was now in the eastern part of Germany. In 1951, all Glashütte watch production was consolidated into one state-owned conglomerate called the Glashütte Uhrenbetrieb. Western watch connoisseurs continued to regard Glashütte and its new reality with great nostalgia, but little did they know that behind the Iron Curtain the town was retaining its centuries-old knowledge for the craft of fine watchmaking—in secret, it survived.
A number of old watchmakers, who had learned their craft before the war, were still living in Glashütte after the fall of the Berlin Wall. They were able to pass on their knowledge to the ones who were now coming to the town. It proved to be fortunate timing, and incredibly valuable, helping Glashütte to revive and flourish again after 1989. The name of this town has long been synonymous with the world’s finest watches—and now, 175 years after the creation of its most important industry, 30 years since German reunification, it’s more famous than ever before.
Today, there are nine watch manufacturers actively producing quality timepieces in Glashütte. NOMOS Glashütte, one of the best-known, draws on traditional techniques and methods while embodying the Glashütte of today. What happens here is special, seldom seen: NOMOS Glashütte is a watchmaking company from A to Z—all eleven of its watch calibers are designed and produced in-house. By hand, as the 175-year-old tradition calls for, and yet highly contemporary. “We represent the Glashütte of today,” says NOMOS CEO Uwe Ahrendt, “and of course the next 175 years.”
Your contact:
Oliver Nyikos
NOMOS Glashütte
PR department
+49 35053 404-481
pr@glashuette.com
About NOMOS Glashütte:
NOMOS Glashütte is one of the few owner-operated watch manufactories in the world, and creates its mechanical timepieces in Glashütte, Germany. Watch models such as the Tangente, Ludwig, Orion, Club or Metro are world-famous—just like the place where they are made. Glashütte is a legally protected designation of origin. Only manufacturers who work according to strict rules in the 175-year-old tradition of the watchmaking town are permitted to use this denomination for their wristwatches. NOMOS Glashütte is the manufacturer that produces the most mechanical watches in Glashütte.
