Günter Steinhart founded Steinhart Watches in 2001 in Augsburg, Bavaria, with a clear commercial proposition: produce Swiss-quality mechanical watches at honest prices by selling direct to consumers and skipping the conventional retail markup. The early catalogue centred on the Ocean One, a 42mm Submariner-style automatic dive watch with Swiss case, ceramic bezel, sapphire crystal, and an ETA 2824-2 movement at a price under EUR 500. The Ocean One became one of the most recognised dive watch homages of the early 2000s and the foundation of the Steinhart catalogue.
Through the 2000s and 2010s Steinhart expanded the lineup with the Nav B-Uhr Flieger collection (referencing the WWII Luftwaffe pilot watches that Stowa and others originally produced), the Triton sports chronograph, the Marine Chronometer dress collection, and the Apollon GMT. The brand maintained its direct-to-consumer model and its Swiss-made designation - cases are produced and assembled in Switzerland, with movements supplied primarily by Sellita after ETA restricted external supply in the 2010s.
Steinhart today operates from Augsburg with a small office and online retail operation, producing several thousand watches per year across the Ocean, Nav B-Uhr, Triton, and Marine collections. The brand has maintained its core value proposition: Swiss-made mechanical watches at EUR 400-1,200, primarily sold direct from the website with limited dealer presence. The Ocean One in particular has become a microbrand collector benchmark and a frequent recommendation as an entry point to mechanical dive watch ownership for new collectors.
