Глассхютте Оригинал: Немецкие часы класса люкс тарихы

German luxury watch brand

Glashütte Original is a German producer of luxury watches founded in 1994 by the privatization of VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB), an East German conglomerate formed in 1951 from the watch companies based in Glashütte. Glashütte Original uses its own movements, and has 10 proprietary movement innovations. Glashütte Original is currently owned by The Swatch Group.

Glashütte Original has roots dating back to 1845 when watchmakers Ferdinand Adolph Lange (of A. Lange & Söhne fame), Moritz Grossman, Julius Assmann, and Adolf Schneider came to Glashütte to manufacture watch parts and pocket watches. They chose this area for its proximity to Dresden's already established clockwork fame. The work of these founders led to innovations that became signature components of Glashütte watchmaking and are still continued today, such as the Glashütte three quarter plate, gold lever wheels, and chatons, all developed in 1865 and all increase timekeeping precision. After successfully petitioning the King of Saxony for a business loan, Moritz Grossman founded the German School of Watchmaking in the town of Glashütte in 1878. Various independent watchmakers rose to prominence in the town of Glashütte, aided by the constant influx of talent from that nearby School of Watchmaking. Known for their high quality, Glashütte timepieces grew in popularity until World War I and the depression caused by hyperinflation in Weimar Germany that followed, which dramatically impacted sales. The issue worsened however, when World War II broke out, leaving the town of Glashütte in rubble after a devastating bombing in the final days of the war, which leveled the town.

After the reunification of Germany and the return of market economics to the former East Germany, the remaining components of Glashütter Uhrenbetrieb GmbH (GUB) were registered as a private business once again in 1990. In 1994, Heinz W. Pfeifer bought the now tiny company of 72 employees, renaming it Glashütte Original and bringing back the traditional Glashütte watchmaking handiwork. Having succeeded in this effort, in 2000 the reinvigorated Glashütte Original was bought by the Swatch Group, the largest watch group in the world. Even today, due to its unique history in the watchmaking world, Glashütte Original is known for making nearly 95% of all components in house. Since 2002, Glashütte Original has also run the Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking to keep the Glashütte tradition alive. This school is named after the Glashütte based watchmaker, Alfred Helwig, who invented the flying tourbillon in 1921, a major horological innovation that can be seen on extremely high end timepieces.

Glashütte is the German town where the watch factory is based. It is pronounced By German orthographic convention, this would be written Glashuette, if an umlaut ü is not available, but it often appears internationally as Glashutte. The modern name "Glashütte Original" is a reference back to the early days of watchmaking in the Glashütte region. In an attempt to sell inferior movements for a premium price, less renowned watchmaking areas were adding the term "System Glashütte" to their timepieces and often simulating traditional Glashütte decoration and finishing work. As a response, the watchmaking houses in Glashütte started inscribing the word "Original" to their watch movements and clockwork to indicate that a given timepiece was really from Glashütte.