Teddy Baldassarre
Glashütte Original Watches: A Comprehensive Guide
Glashütte Original is a luxury watchmaker founded in 1994, in the wake of the Cold War and at the dawn of German reunification. However, it traces its roots back much further, to the mid-19th Century during the inception of German watchmaking in the eastern German state of Saxony. Here is the story of how Glashütte Original, and the horological pioneers who laid its foundation, persevered through war, social and political upheaval, and economic turmoil to become one of today's most innovative and admired watch brands, along with an introduction to each of its five 21st-Century product families. Saxon Watchmaking’s Founding Fathers The little town of Glashütte, in the Ore Mountains of the German state of Saxony, had fallen on hard times when a watchmaker from nearby Dresden named Ferdinand Adolph Lange set up a watchmaking shop there in 1845. The silver-mining industry that had sustained the region’s inhabitants, and that had given the town its name (“Glass Hut” or “Shiny Hut”), was on the decline after years of war and industrial competition from the New World. The inhabitants of the town were facing poverty and eager for new opportunities to make a living, and Lange, along with others who shared his passion for horology and entrepreneurship, were the visionaries to provide them. In cooperation with the Royal Saxon government, who had funded the venture, Adolph Lange established A. Lange & Cie. (later A. Lange & Söhne), a manufacturing hub for watchmakin...
