hr: Watches

By Issac Stolzenbach

This article was published originally in issue 10.1 of hr: Watches & Luxury Lifestyle Magazine. Subscribe to hr: magazine and enjoy similar articles www.hrluxury.com.

While we discuss the latest models, innovations, conventions, etcetera of our watches; gaze in awe at the beautifully engineered timepieces on our wrists; and try to figure outways of gaining more time, sometimes we lose sight of what keeping track of time is all about: Defining our place in the universe.

Since the beginning of mankind’s aspiration to keep time with utmost precision, they have used the stars as a measuring device; The watchmakers needed an authoritative signal to serve as a regulator in building and setting their timepieces. At this point in the history of German watchmaking, artisans in Glashütte had to wait on a regulating signal sent from Berlin to set their timepieces.There were multiple problems with this system:

1) The hazy skies in Berlin provided only limited astrological capabilities;

2) the time signal was transmitted from Berlin to the watchmaking school in Glashütte by a human inputting Morse code, which even omitting the time it took for the signal to get there, the best operators could only get within onetwentieth of a second accuracy;

3) the signal then had to be redistributed from the school to the local manufactures. One can see the opportunities for error and German watchmakers – being obsessed with precision – would not stand for lapses in accuracy.

The regulating signal emanating from Berlin was sufficient to keep railroads and postal carriers on time, but not for teachers who wished to relay their knowledge of horology to their students, nor watchmakers who sought to construct timepieces that were as accurate as the stars guiding them. The chairman of Urania,Hugo Müller, sought to rectify these issues.

The WEMPE CHRONOMETERWERKE Glashütte i/SA “My great-grandfather, my grandfather and my father were never satisfied with selling fine watches. They wanted to offer their own timepieces. By establishing the WEMPE STERNWARTE Glashütte i/SA collection, and the first German chronometer-testing site in Glasshütte, we have created a second venue that will preserve our horological expertise for posterity.” - Kim-Eva Wempe

Müller was a renowned regleur (chronometrist) and held the proud position of adjusting deck watches that were more accurate than the signal coming from Berlin.

Therefore, he sought a way to eliminate the Müglitz Valley’s dependence on the regulating signal from Berlin. Müller led the way and supplied a plot of land in Dittersdorfer Weg for the construction of an observatory, which began construction when the foundation stone was set on August 27, 1906.

When the observatory opened four–years later in 1910 it cemented Glashütte as the hub of Germany’s watchmaking industry and it contained the most cutting-edge technology available at the time. It was furnished with: a refracting telescope to precisely measure the Earth’s place in the Milky Way galaxy; one of the most accurate timepieces made at that time: a marine chronometer; and a donation from Glashütte’s leading industrialist, Ludwig Trapp, a precision pendulum clock. Finally, German watchmakers had an exact reference to precisely quantify and further improve the accuracy of their craft.

Several problems were solved with the completion of the observatory. In addition to affording horologist with a more accurate reference, Glashütte now had its own educational observatory that could be used by horology professors and students. Soon thereafter, a testing facility was established and watches could be certified for accuracy.This served as an essential element in streamlining the maritime chronometer construction because the watchmakers no longer had to get involved in the extensive process of securely packaging their chronometers for shipment to Hamburg’s naval observatory for testing.

The manifestation of the observatory dream gave birth to yet another vision nearly 40-years later,but to bring the idea to fruition would take nearly another six decades. In 1939,Otto Lange (grandson of the founder of Saxony’s watchmaking industry) and Herbert Wempe (owner of the Wempe Chronometerwerke in Hamburg) were fascinated by the bastion of precise timekeeping in Glashütte and founded the cooperative workgroup,Glashütte Observatory.

Their goal was to establish a reglage (precision timekeeping) institute.World War Two disrupted these plans and watchmakers were placed under the jurisdiction of Germany’s naval and aeronautics ministry.

The apex of German watchmaking was reached when the government demanded a reasonably priced and integrated chronometer in the shortest possible time. Wempe Chronometerwerke and its closest competitor, the A.Lange & Söhne watch manufactory, began working together. The exchange of knowledge and resources was unsurpassed and the result debuted in 1942 as the legendary Unified Chronometer.

After the production of the Unified Chronometer, there was nearly a 50-year freeze in Glashütte watchmaking. The Allies dissolved the Urania watchmakers’ association in the late 1940s and the observatory was designated communal property. The manufacture that once made some of the most horologically advanced timepieces in Saxony began producing run-of-the-mill watches and clocks for daily use. The observatory was opened in 1960 as an educational observatory.

The Wempe Chronometerwerke in Hamburg guarded the flame of horological innovation,which at this time was a mere flicker, but they were still able to keep pace with modernity: In 1962 they made the first electrically wound marine chronometer.

The art of watchmaking returned to Glashütte soon after German Reunification on Oct. 3, 1990. At this point, the observatory had fallen into grave disrepair, but stood proud overlooking Glashütte as a symbol of German watchmaking precision and horological tradition.

The company reestablished itself as WEMPE STERNWARTE Glashütte i/SA on Aug. 29, 2005 and commenced watchmaking operations. In february2005, WEMPE purchased the 620-square-meter plot of land the observatory rested on and invested 1.5 million Euros (approx. $2 million USD) in the renovation of the observatory.

Six months after the purchase, a topping-out ceremony was held on June 9, 2005 and the cupola (observatory dome) was rested atop the tower on July 15, 2005. The grand commemoration of the observatory’s reopening was celebrated along with the opening of a new manufacture headed by Gunter Teuscher and the opening of a chronometer-testing facility headed by engineering expert,Dr.Olaf Kühn.

In collaboration with the offices of weights and measurements in Thuringia and Saxony (LMET and SLME) a testing facility that meets the values of the German international standards (DIN: Deutsches Institut für Normung, or roughly translated: German Institute for Standardization), which is a member of the International Standardization Organization (ISO).

By establishing a new manufacture venue, installing a chronometer-testing facility, and reconditioning the observatory WEMPE has etched out Germany’s place in horology as a symbol of precision timekeeping. Herbert Wempe’s dream has finally come to fruition: Glashütte is further established as the epicenter of German watchmaking.

Germany’s Chronometer Certification Facility Watch aficionados are aware the term chronometer is the prestigious title reserved for those watches that maintain accuracy under stringent test conditions. Until recently, the only institution authorized to certify watches as chronometers was the Swiss notfor-profit organization, Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC).

This roughly translates to “Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute,” which was founded in 1973 by the five watchmaking cantons of Switzerland: Bern, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Solothurn and Vaud. The term chronometer implies an internationally recognized promise from the certifying authority: This timepiece is guaranteed to operate with the utmost precision and reliability. This process of certification emerged from necessity rather than vanity or talking points for selling products.

Germany served its part in chronometer certification. As successor to the German Naval Observatory, which closed in 1945, the German Hydrographical Institute was primarily responsible for the testing and certification of nautical chronometers.

Germany’s national metrology institute, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt stationed in Braunschweig and Stuttgart, awarded German wristwatches the chronometer distinction for manufactures such as Junghans, Kienzle, Laco and Bifora.

The International Chronometer Commission granted official recognition of the German testing center in 1959, but only a year later – due to a decline in demand – the institute’s best customer, Junghans, discontinued production of its mechanical wristwatch chronometers. Consequently, the Stuttgart testing facility closed about 10-years later; thus, 1970 marked the end of an era of wristwatch chronometers that were manufactured, tested and certified in Germany.

From that point on the COSC shaped the global standards and concepts of chronometer testing. Over 30-years later, in 2004, WEMPE stepped up to try and establish an internationally recognized chronometer-testing center in Glashütte, Saxony. The reasons for doing so were both practical and personal: 1) the Hamburg-based Wempe family had always had close ties with chronometry and wanted a special movement installed in its new line of wristwatches; 2) because their dials read “Made in Germany” the watches were disqualified from COSC certification.

Based on these reasons, the family began collaborating with Thuringian State Office for Weights and Measures (LMET,Landesamt für Mess- und Eichwesen Thüringen) to establish an independent German chronometer-testing facility at a location that had been long associated with precision watchmaking: Glashütte Observatory.

The chronometer-testing facility was built on land provided by WEMPE, but the facilities operation and personnel staffing are administered by LMET.

The German Calibrating Service (DKD, Deutscher Kalibrierdienst) at the Physical-Technical Federal Bureau (bei der Physikalisch-Technischen Bundesanstalt) accredited the calibrating laboratory on the basis of international standards as set forth in ISO/IEC 17025, and German standards outlined in DIN 8319,which further confirms the facility’s specialized competence.Because the agencies involved in accrediting the facility are independent – a strict precondition to international recognition of chronometer certifying – that ensures the impartiality and integrity of the work performed at the testing center. The facility is monitored and inspected on a regular basis by both the federal LMET and state SLME organizations.

The modestly sized laboratory is approximately four-meters by five-meters and contains three heated cabinets and three air-conditioned cabinets used for the climate testing portions of the certification process (two of each are dedicated to mechanical timepieces, the other two are for testing quartz watches).

All data is recorded digitally, summarized and digitally relayed to the Thuringian Office of Weights and Measurements located in Ilmenau. Though the facility has been opened less than a year, demand has already required the construction of a second, expandable laboratory in Glashütte on Altenbergerstrasse equipped with one each heating and air-conditioning cabinets.

The standards to become a German-certified chronometer are arduous under the strict criteria outlined in DIN 8319. The standards as stated in the regulation consists of a 15-day monitoring period for each mechanical watch in the following positions: crown left, crown up, crown down, dial up and dial down.All timepieces submitted for review are turned and tumbled in the heat and air-condition chambers while subject to 60% humidity and ranging temperatures from eight to 38 degrees Celsius (46.4 to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

Deviations in time are measure and the watches are wound every 24-hours. In order to qualify for the prestigious chronometer title, the timepieces must endure the environmental and positional tests without losing more than fourseconds, or gaining six-seconds, per day.

Also, the average daily variation cannot be more than five-seconds. The German standard is similar to the international ISO norm adhered to at COSC in Switzerland, but differs in two important ways:

1) DIN 8319 prescribes testing in which the time is set with to-the-second accuracy;

2) the caliber is tested inside of its real case rather than inside a temporary case for later installation. Thus, the German system seems even more precise because the whole watch is certified; caliber installed exactly as the customer would receive it rather than just the movement itself.

The first watches to pass the German chronometer tests are the new WEMPE CHRONOMETERWERKE Glashütte i/SA and the WEMPE ZEITMEISTER Glashütte i/SA lines. Their production affirms: A proud German tradition has been reborn in Glashütte, Saxony.

This article was published originally in issue 10.1 of hr: Watches & Luxury Lifestyle Magazine. Subscribe to hr: magazine and enjoy similar articles www.hrluxury.com.