What the watchmakers, and the designers, engineers, and toolmakers can do here are things that their peers elsewhere would struggle to do—because watches have been made in Glashütte for many generations; since 1845 in fact. Watches with many unique characteristics, and always of the very best quality. Watches that transport a love of handcraft and tradition within them—and are yet always contemporary: watches for life.
Since the 15th century, the people of this region lived on mining. When the silver and copper ore in the ground began to run out, the communities there became desperate. That is when, in 1845, the Saxon King Friedrich August II dispatched the master watchmaker Ferdinand Adolph Lange with the task of bringing a new era to Glashütte: to teach the people there how to make watches, and to establish a watchmaking industry in the image of the Swiss; with engineers, toolmakers, manufacturers of dials, hands, and cases; with production based on the division of labor.
The two World Wars and the GDR period dealt huge blows to Glashütte and its industry, yet the knowledge and expertise remained and only grew stronger. Since then, 1845, the name of this small town has been synonymous with the best watches in the world—and is more renowned today than ever before.
