Glashutte Original - Marine Chronometers Ahoy
WORLDTEMPUS - 19 October 2010
The setting was an unusual one for a watch presentation, but a fitting one: the newly refurbished Transport Museum in Dresden's Johanneum — a historical building from 1586 located in a fully renovated section of the city that was fully bombed out during World War II, just across from the recently rebuilt Frauenkirche.
An entire floor of the museum has recently been dedicated to sea travel. And it is precisely here that Glashutte Original placed the museum's very first marine chronometers for the evening — the precision instruments without which reliable eighteenth- and nineteenth-century navigation would never have been made possible.
Marine chronometers not only have a long history in England, they do in Germany as well — particularly in Dresden and Glashutte. Some of Glashutte's most famous chronometer makers are indeed some of Glashutte's most famous historical names: Paul and Fridolin Stubner, Strasser & Rohde, and of course A. Lange & Söhne, which under the East German regime first became VEB A. Lange & Söhne and then VEB Glashutter Uhrenbetriebe as the socialist government consolidated all of Glashutte's watchmakers into one socialized "people's" combine.
VEB Glashutter Uhrenbetriebe, the remains of which have today morphed into Glashutte Original, continued to make mechanical marine chronometers all the way until 1978. The last one was engraved with serial number 13,190 and represented the end of an era. Current CEO and speaker of the executive board for the Swatch Group-owned brand Glashutte Original Gunter Wiegand, who has been with the company since 1974 and seen both eras, explains that because of the extreme amount of work done by hand on them, each one of these marine chronometers was a unique piece.
A Serendipitous Find
Though the old Glashutter Uhrenbetriebe building at Altenberger Str. 1 was fully renovated and renewed in 2003, Wiegand explains that the brand is finding its manufacturing space now too crowded. Glashutte Original would like to increase the number of pieces it manufactures per year, and to do this more employees—and thus more space—is needed. Therefore, Glashutte Original has bought another sizable piece of property in Glashutte and will begin building a new factory edifice soon.
While cleaning out some of the boxes in the basement when erecting the city's museum in the old Glashutte School of Watchmaking building a few years ago, employees came across thirteen vintage marine chronometers from the 1970s. These have now been completely refurbished and added to a set that includes a platinum-encased Senator Chronometer, introduced at Baselworld 2010. Thus, thirteen exquisite collectors sets were created, each sold at the equally exquisite price of € 100,000.
An Original Marine Chronometer
The rhodium-plated brass cases of the chronometers were reformed from a modern brass alloy to ensure longevity and to accommodate the sapphire crystal case back allowing for a view of the beautifully refurbished movement. The gimbaled suspensions were carefully restored, as were the movements, which included remaking some components. The matte black oak cases they come in were specifically designed for the set. Most likely it is the dial's transformation that represents the most interesting change, however: Glashutte Original's dial supplier (DZM in Pforzheim, also owned by the Swatch Group) was able to re-coat the brass dial with grained silver in a way that allowed it to retain the original markings of the black numerals and indexes. The "Glashutte Original" logo was added, though the dial discretely retains its marking of origin "made in GDR," which — now as then — is not visible.
The Senator Chronometer in a platinum case, introduced in rose and white gold cases at Baselworld 2010, is also only available in this exclusive set of thirteen. It marks the very first watch outside of Wempe's timepieces to be chronometer-certified at the observatory in Glashutte, which was inaugurated in 2006. As the marine chronometer does not fit the testing apparatus of the German Calibration Service found in the observatory, Wiegand assures us these are in-house certified for less than one second rate deviation per day.
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