Glashutte Watches

About Glashütte Watches

For more than 175 years, the city of Glashütte has housed Germany’s finest watchmakers. While Glashütte Original is a relatively new brand, first established in 1994, they’re rooted in the Glashütte tradition. To understand their origins, you must first understand a bit of Glashütte’s history.

Beginning in 1845, some of the country’s top watchmakers, like Adolph Lange of A. Lange & Söhne, began setting up shop in the town. Here, they flourished for roughly 50 years, until the onset of WWI. The war and subsequent depression negatively impacted Glashütte’s industry, and things only worsened as WWII approached. The location of Glashütte left it vulnerable to bombing raids. As a result, the city along with many of its watchmaker’s workshops was destroyed. Worse still, the Soviets took over Glashütte following the war and many watchmakers were expropriated. Those who remained were cut off from the rest of the industry and suppliers. By the time the Iron Curtain fell, Glashütte’s watchmakers weren’t up to speed with modern watchmaking.

By the 1990s, Glashütte’s watchmaking industry began to return to its former glory. A man named Heinz Pfeifer bought the town’s remaining workshop and started to rebuild. He called the new company Glashütte Original. Pfeifer and his team were able to restore the facility in record time. They began by bringing the manufacture of movements up to speed with modern times. Then, they incorporated this contemporary technology into traditional Glashütte designs. Soon after, they presented their first model, the Julius Assmann Tourbillon. It featured a perpetual calendar and moonphase complication in an 18-karat gold case.

The new millennium brought about a new era for Glashütte Original. In early 2000, the brand received the “Watch of the Year” award in Germany for their Senator Perpetual Calendar. To this day, the Senator line continues to be the brand’s flagship collection. Later that year, the illustrious Swatch Group purchased Glashütte Original. In the years to follow, the brand has been able to expand exponentially. In 2001, they opened the Glashütte Original Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking to further the craft in the Glashütte tradition. By 2003, they had built an entirely new, state of the art watchmaking facility.

Today, Glashütte Original continues to play with past and present in their designs. In addition to the Senator, the Pano collection is one of their most enduring lines. It showcases asymmetrical dials, a signature style of traditional Glashütte watchmaking. In 2005, one model from the collection, the PanoMaticChrono received the Saxon State Prize for design as well as the German readers’ award for Watch of the Year. The third pillar of the Glashütte Original catalog is their Vintage collection. As the name suggests, these designs draw from the region’s rich history, particularly the time of isolation during Soviet control. Last but not least is Glashütte Original’s Ladies’ collection. Here, you’ll find ladies’ variations of the brand’s classic styles as well as original collections, like the Lady Serenade.