What makes the Original so special? A film crew picked up the trail at Glashütte Original. The result is a three-and-a-half-minute homage to the art of watchmaking in Glashütte, to the people who have dedicated their lives to it, and to the values that inspire it. With striking images and fascinating close-ups, the brand takes you backstage in a modern manufactory – and reveals the secret behind the incomparable originality of its timepieces.
A first-class watch is more than the sum of its parts. Beneath the perfectly finished surface beats a complex mechanical heart; together they spark emotions, in Glashütte and around the world. This fascination, as the new film from the manufactory shows, has its origins long before a watch is ready to be worn. From the initial idea to the final touches, a great many minds and hands are passionately involved in the making of it, and the film is dedicated to the people behind the watch.
The three-and-a-half-minute spot takes viewers on a journey through the process of creating a Glashütte Original watch. We stop along the way to visit product design and construction departments, the lab and toolmaking workshops and take a closer look at frame part production and final assembly. We admire the skills of the machine shop operators and dialmakers, note the eagle-eyed alertness of quality management, and experience at first hand how a great variety of craft skills are engaged – from galvanization and hardening to spark erosion and gear-cutting, tin polishing and decorative finishing. What frequently remains hidden is revealed through exceptional images. This is also the secret of the manufactory’s success: a wide range of experts work together in a complex, perfectly tuned system resembling a mechanical watch movement.
Woven into all the diverse talents and personalities presented in the film is a common theme: values that shape every step along the way. Beauty, from the first sketch to the tiniest decorative detail; excellence, the relentless pursuit of perfection; originality, in the form of authenticity and creativity; tradition, nurtured and passed on to the next generation; and modernity, too, which shapes the entire working environment; and finally, exclusivity, which governs all else. Together these values allow the Glashütte Original team to give their best, so that each and every watch bears the invisible signature of the people who played a role, large or small, in its making. They are the key to its originality.
The new manufactory film is part of Glashütte Original’s global "Proud to be the Original" campaign, launched early in 2022. It highlights the unmistakable character that distinguishes not just the watches made by the Saxon manufactory, but also the people who wear and love them. The new film now turns the focus on the men and women who had a hand in their creation and who are responsible for their quality. The film premiere will be accompanied by #ManufactorySunday: every four weeks one of the six values that inspire Glashütte Original will be examined in greater detail, beginning on May 14, 2023.
