Glashutte Watches

About Glashütte Watches

For more than 150 years, the city of Glashütte has housed Germany’s finest watch brand, Glashütte, aptly named after the small city of 5,000 people. Glashütte was founded in the mid-nineteenth century with intent to craft fine watches. The company went about making these watches with local resources such as gold, silver, and copper that could be taken from nearby mines. The company was successful in maintaining this business model and found great fortune in the European watch-making scene. Unfortunately, as the 20th century approached, the mines began to give out, and Glashütte had to find another model in order to keep its company from going under. This was when Ferdinand Lange came into the picture.

Lange decided that he had to convince the German government to subsidize Glashütte until the company was well enough to make it on its own pace with steady cash flow. Lange defended the opinion that Glashütte was one of the country’s finest brands and that financing it would be beneficial not only to the German government but also to German society and the people of the small town. As it would turn out, Mr. Lange proved to be correct in his hypothesis, and the company became a synonym for luxury, brand loyalty, and magnificent hand crafted pieces. In the town today, the majority of the people live off of the watch making industry. If it were not for Mr. Lange’s gamble to preserve the brand, the town would be nowhere near where it is today, selling some of the world most expensive watches. Today, it is still common knowledge that a watch must be crafted in the city for it to bear the Glashütte letter on its face. This tradition accounts for more than half of its value.

The Glashütte brand came to a halt during both of the world wars. However, it was not until the Second World War that the company was seized from the Lange family. The company would need to find a quick way to recover from this stagnation. In addition, the Weimar inflation did not contribute to the luxury brand’s case in a positive manner.

During the communist era that clouded Eastern Germany, Glashütte was still making watches. Although they continued to make watches, they made little progression due to communist restrictions. The communists forced the company to employ around half of the village of Glashütte to work for the company. This controlled amount of semi-skilled and unskilled laborers did not help in a positive manner. Once the communist regime ended, the company cut the work force to just 72, which was an indicator of the dramatic restrictions that the company was under.

In 1994, the company was acquired by a trustworthy investor, Heinz Pfeiffer. Although Pfeiffer was not as much of a watch businessman as he was a watch collector, he preserved the noble brand and even renamed it Glashütte Original. This was a statement that the company had outlasted both of the world wars and the communists, something that most other companies could not claim. The originality of the history and location of the brand continued to add to collector’s value to each timepiece that bore the Glashütte logo.