STERNWARTE GLASHÜTTE, THE GLASHÜTTE OBSERVATORY
The Glashütte Observatory / Credit: Horobox
We know that Beyer is an influential retailer in the watch industry. There is another retailer, however, worth mentioning, as today we’re going to cover Sternwarte Glashütte, the Glashütte Observatory, and its connection to the Wempe family. The German retailers.
The importance of observatories in the watch industry is not only to serve as marketing for the brands (which they certainly do a great job of) but also to ensure a certain threshold of quality for chronometers around the world (or Europe in most cases).
The Glashütte Observatory was opened in 1910, with its inauguration happening on the 26th of January. Planning is said to have begun in 1904 under the auspices of the local watchmaker’s association with construction beginning in 1906. Its significance was that it helped establish the town of Glashütte as a watchmaking hub, particularly on the international stage. It housed telescopes, along with marine chronometers, and is said to have received the donation of a precision pendulum clock from Ludwig Trapp, a leading watchmaker and businessman in the region. However, the Observatory only began its life as a chronometer observatory in the 1930s, when Ferdinand A. Lange’s grandson, Otto Lange, partnered with Herbet Wempe of Wempe, the retailer, to establish the ‘Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sternwarte Glashütte’ (Glashütte Observatory working group) to train young watchmakers. Unfortunately, however, when these plans were drawn up, Germany was on the eve of World War II and the project had to be scrapped.
Wempe Chronometer in 18kt gold / Credit: Wempe
It was decades until the idea of a chronometer observatory would once again come up in the minds of those involved in the industry in Glashütte. After the war, East Germany was…well, East Germany, and the observatory was maintained by a man named Heinz Sauerwald (who was originally a student at the Glashütte School of Watchmaking). Some classes were still held there, but the observatory had fallen far from what it once was.
It was only in the early 2000s that the descendants of the Hamburg Wempe family, Kim-Eva Wempe and Hellmut Wempe, returned to the original idea. But this time expanding it to the extent of creating a facility for the production of chronometers including independent chronometer certifications. This time it worked, and as of 2006 their watches and others have been officially tested in the Glashütte Observatory following the standards set out by the German equivalent of the Swiss COSC certification, DIN 8319.
Despite the Observatory’s important history, especially as it pertains to German watchmaking, not many people are aware of its existence – let alone its story. Today, the Glashütte Observatory is the only place for testing chronometers in Germany and even tests chronometers for watch companies outside of Germany. In one case certifying chronometers for the Chinese brand, Shancheng, which was an important achievement for the Chinese watchmaking industry. Wempe has since manufactured their own watches in the facility and even added a new building in 2011, they also make a few marine chronometers every year – which go for quite a hefty sum!
By: Andres Ibarguen