Ahead of its time - for 180 years

180 years of Glashütte watchmaking art. The manufactory Glashütte Original is celebrating its rich heritage in a multi-part newsletter series. Discover how each generation of watchmakers has left its mark on time.

Discover more
Chapter I

Chapter I

Founding years from 1845

 Chapter II

Chapter II

“Original Glashütte” from 1878

 Chapter III

Chapter III

Change to the wristwatch from 1926

 Chapter IV

Chapter IV

New start after 1945

 Chapter V

Chapter V

Reunification from 1990

1845

How Glashütte established the metric system in watchmaking

180 years ago, a grand vision began on a small scale. With the establishment of his company in Glashütte, Ferdinand Adolph Lange was the first watch manufacturer in the world to introduce the metric system. At the time, this was still a new concept that competed with various regional unit systems. Until then, watchmakers in continental Europe typically used the Paris line, which corresponded to approximately 2.26 millimetres.

Measuring instruments from this period usually used the division by twelve. However, when calculating and measuring the delicate components of a movement, this resulted in tolerances that could lead to considerable inaccuracies. Ferdinand Adolph Lange recognised the potential of the metric system and established it in Glashütte around three decades before it became mandatory in Germany.

1851

At the same time, he developed specialised measuring instruments for practical use in watchmaking. The so-called can micrometer allowed a hitherto unknown precision of 1/100th of a millimetre. In 1851, Lange wrote:
“My first and decisive step was to construct a measure to realise any calculated ratio on the smallest scale with the greatest possible accuracy.”

Around a century later, the watch manufactory founded by Ferdinand Adolph Lange becomes part of VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe. As the official legal successor to the former state-owned enterprise, Glashütter Uhrenbetrieb GmbH continues to pursue its vision of maximum precision to this day. Since 1994, the company is using the brand name Glashütte Original as a clear commitment to its roots and as a statement of its special historical position.

State-of-the-art production techniques now allow unparalleled precision work with tolerances of a few thousandths of a millimetre. In order to fulfil its high quality standards, the manufactory continues to design and produce many of its own testing devices, for example to precisely control the curvature of a dial.

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