In 2005 the German town of Glashütte put out a tender looking for an innovative way to make use of one of the town centre's most historic buildings, the former German Watchmaking School. A year later, the documents establishing the "German Watch Museum Glashütte – Nicolas G. Hayek" Foundation were signed by the town of Glashütte and Glashütte Original. The idea was to set up a watch museum, with the town contributing its watch collection and Glashütte Original purchasing and restoring the former watchmaking school with the support of the Swatch Group. After two years of renovation work, the museum opened in 2008. Over the past ten years, more than 300,000 people from a wide variety of backgrounds have visited the museum, from groups of local schoolchildren to watch collectors from afar.
Exhibition highlights
The German Watch Museum Glashütte has organised a number of exhibitions tackling in detail some of the significant moments in the town’s horological history. In 2015, the museum celebrated the 25th anniversary of Germany’s reunification with an exhibition about Glashütte in the GDR era, showing how the town’s industry under the communist regime was restructured under the name of the “VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe” between 1951 and 1990, when the company produced not just wristwatches but many other products and devices used in science and everyday life.
In 2016 the museum dedicated a special exhibition to marine chronometers made in Glashütte. After the German Empire was founded in 1871, the German Navy became more important and the state encouraged the domestic production of marine chronometers to reduce dependence on English imports. In 1886 the first marine chronometers from Glashütte were sent to the German Naval Observatory in Hamburg for testing.
In 2017 the museum highlighted another area of mechanical engineering where Glashütte excelled. The town was one of the first large-scale production centres for calculating machines from 1876 until the 1960s and the advent of electronic calculators.
Library and archive
The German Watch Museum Glashütte has an archive that holds an impressive collection of documents on the history of watchmaking in Glashütte and more than 1,500 volumes of historic and current specialist literature. These may be consulted free of charge by interested visitors in the museum’s reading room.
Restoration workshop
Visitors to the museum can observe a watchmaker at work. Large windows open up on to the Glashütte Original restoration workshop, which specialises in the repair and maintenance of old pendulum clocks, marine chronometers and pocket watches made in Glashütte. You can also have your Glashütte watch repaired and serviced by a professional watchmaker.
Certificates of origin
The German Watch Museum Glashütte issues certificates of origin confirming the authenticity and age of watches made by a variety of Glashütte companies. A copy of the relevant archival documentation is provided along with the certificate. The cost is 105 Euro per certificate. Around 25,000 requests are processed each year.
