An Exploration of Saxony Watch Making in Dresden, Germany

An Exploration of Saxony Watch  Making – Day 3:  A Tour of the Glashtte Original, Factory in Glashütte, Germany

March 14, 2008

Friday morning came all too quickly and early as I had to be up and ready for a 9am limo which would be transporting me back to the town of Glashtte so that I could visit Glashtte Original.  Here’s a shot of the Glashtte Original (GO) factory and headquarters which is right next door to one of Lange’s buildings:

Let’s go inside:

Of course, they had some lovely ladies working at the reception desk. The one on the right (Bettina) was kind enough to take me on my tour of the facility:

 GGO has a very nice showroom in the lobby of their headquarters:

Now we started the tour.  Unlike Lange, GO didn’t mind me taking photos of their CNC machines (which of course are quite similar to what Lange uses) but all of their watchmakers were behind glass and we weren’t allowed to disturb them:

This person is using a tried and true quality control technique – she measures the variance of a production bridge plate against a “perfect” – they must hold very tight tolerances.

Here’s more shots from inside the factory:

GO also freely admitted that they do not make their own cases or dials. They purchase them from specialty manufacturers who produce them to GO’s specifications. After my tour, I was told that GO’s President Dr. Frank Müller was hoping to have the opportunity to meet me, so I was taken up to the executive offices and we had a nice chat:

After some nice refreshments, I was taken to the newly reconstructed Watch & Clock Museum of Glashütte – GO is a major patron of the project.  I was given a bit of a preview tour of the facility – it’s due to open in about six weeks.  I hope to bring my son back someday to visit when it is complete:

The building will also house GO’s watch making school – the students re-built the clock movement for the giant clock on the front of the building:

If you go up into the attic of the building, and out onto the balcony, you get the best view of  Glashtte from anywhere in the city.  Even though the weather wasn’t that great on Friday, it was still a marvelous view – it reminded me of the mountains of the small town in Kentucky where my father is from:

I was taken back to Dresden in the early afternoon.  It rained the rest of the day so I relaxed in the hotel  and got some rest – I wanted to be well rested for my last day in Dresden on Saturday.

 *All text and images contained in this review are the original work of the author, John B. Holbrook, II and are copyright protected. Use of any of the information or images without the permission of the author is prohibited.