Horological Meandering

Just back from a magnificent Manufacture visit. As most of you know it's not my first one and it won't be my last one I hope. This time not to Switzerland but to Germany. And when talking about Germany I'm sure most will immediately think about Glashütte. And indeed, Glashütte was the town to visit. The town well known as the cradle of German watchmaking. I believe there are 9 or 10 watch manufactures in the little but beautiful town. Most well known are of course Lange & Söhne and Glashütte original.  Most others are also nice but not haute horlogerie brands like Tutima, Nomos, ...

The smallest and youngest is Moritz Grossmann and that was the manufacture I wanted to visit. I met their CEO Christine  Hutter for the first time a couple of weeks ago at in dinner in Brussels. We had a great talk and not much later she invited me for a manufacture visit. Anyway, what I saw weeks ago in Brussels was so nice and so well made I needed to see the manufacture.  Weeks ago I took some pics of these watches but I wanted to make a more interesting report about the manufacture so that's why I didn't tell anything yet about the watches 6 weeks ago.

So Thursday we took the plane to Dresden and not much later a nice BMW 7-series picked us up at the airport to drive us to our hotel.

Arrived at the hotel  Bülow

https://www.buelow-palais.com/5-star-superior-hotel-in-dresden/

I found this schedule in my room

So the next day the same 7-series picked us up to drive from Dresden to Glashütte ( about 35 minutes) and parked in front of this nice building 

Nice view from the top floor

Better pictures from the watches will of course follow

First a little introduction with Christine (founder and CEO) who I already knew, Rainer ( Director of communication) and Jean-Pierre ( Brand Manager). 

A little more about the history of the brand :  ( copy from their website)

MORITZ GROSSMANN  :   Carl Moritz Grossmann, the son of a mail sorter, was born in Dresden on 27 March 1826. There, he attended the Technical College for two years after having graduated from elementary school. Moritz Grossmann was fascinated by technology and the complexity of timepieces. Eager to discover new methods, he became a journeyman in 1846 and set out to acquire the world’s horological know-how. After sojourns in Hamburg and Munich, he was drawn to La Chaux-de-Fonds, the hub of Swiss watchmaking. He returned to Dresden in 1854 after stopovers in England, France, Denmark, and Sweden. Upon his arrival, he fulfilled a dream and established his own atelier. Moritz Grossmann, who was also acclaimed as an award-winning technical author, began to craft pocket watches, pendulum clocks, and precision measuring instruments — from innovative details to complete movements. But for Moritz Grossmann, Glashütte was more than merely the cradle of German watchmaking artistry. He dedicated his time to various associations and supported regional projects. From 1866 to 1878, he was committed to the welfare of the town of Glashütte, later also as a representative of the Royal Saxon Landtag. As an author, he was eager to pass on his knowledge; in 1878, he initiated the German School of Watchmaking and outlined the curriculum. The art of watchmaking permeated his life and was his greatest passion. He died unexpectedly on 23 January 1885 after delivering a speech about the introduction of World Time. Thereafter, his atelier was liquidated.

So it was a very important person for german watchmaking, just a Mr A. Lange was. 

The new "Lange" started somewhere in the 1990's  and is one of the brands in the Richmond group while Mortiz Grossmann is a bit younger and exists about 10 years but this is a real independent and does not belong to Richmond nor Swatch, LVMH  ...

Grossmann is a small independent I believe 9 investors own the company. Probably 9 HUGE watch lovers with a great taste for art ...horological art

Anyway, let's start the tour

I saw quite a few manufactures in the past ( Patek, IWC, JLC, Zenith, ...) So it's nice if you can compare those things.

This time I was allowed to take pics as many as I wanted  ... That is not the case when entering for example Patek / JLC / IWC . Most don't want you to take pictures inside their buildings. 

Every manufacture has CNC machines. 

some 'unfinished' parts

unfortunately I broke my SLR camera a few days earlier and I could use one from my brother , but as you can see, the pictures are not very well ( not the lens I needed)

Don't know the name of this machine but I'm sure most of you know what it is used for. I magnifies every tiny part a zillion times.

every part is compared to the original drawings and every single part must be perfect... I believe they check up to 1/100 or even sometimes 1/1000 of a mm  ....

And if it's Made in Germany, it's know for the german gründlichkeit  ... so forget about any tolerance 

When the part is not exactly as they want, start again !

similar machines that measure pinions, wheels, plates, ...

some more parts ( still unfinished )

A few more machines for cleaning some parts and elektrolyse machinery

computers and CAD is a must to if you want to create and develop  movements

Finishing department

And this is what separates real haute horlogerie from the rest

This is what we want to see in our watches and this is mainly what we pay for

 

polishing a hand   ...  to a level I have NEVER seen before.

These hands are the most beautiful I ever saw. Know that it takes an entire day to make a set of hands. 1 entire day only for the hands, this gives you an idea what kind of watches we're talking about

Black polishing or mirror polishing , than changing them into a brown burgundy color 

heating the hands one by one   ... to give them the desired color

getting another color

and the result

As you can see the tip is not exactly the same as the end of the hand  ... not exactly the same color

This happens with when things are done by hand

result  ... start all over again , re polish the hand an do it again

Wheel snailing

5 stages from a raw component to a very good looking 3 band snailing

black polishing 

not very visible on that picture but the difference between a balance and a 'polished' balance

tools to polish /  drill the little holes in the balance

Tin block and wood for perfect black polishing

More finishing and putting the moment in the case

Time for a little lunch and looking a bit closer at their art

Pics below are a mix between iPhone pictures and the SLR with the wrong lens

It gives you an idea how beautiful and well made these watches are. I can only recommend you to try to see them in real life. You need to handle them, touch them, feel them, 

wind them to really understand a Grossman wristwatch

I was impressed, and I mean really impressed.

It is difficult to compare brands because most of the times it is personal opinion and personal taste but what I saw in these 2 days was beyond my expectations

The level of finishing is a level of perfection you won't see often. Like said   .. my personal opinion but a similar simple dress watch from Patek Philippe (Calatrava), Breguet, Lange ( Saxonia, 1815,...)

Vacheron, or any of the other big and well known brands doesn't give me the feeling I got when looking at a Moritz Grossmann

My absolute dream dress watch is the Atum  in red gold  ... I don't believe I ever saw a more beautiful simple dress watch

For those that know me, I call it the Patek 5070 among the dress watches

The hand engraved movement is another entire day of work

The big brands I mentioned above do it with a machine and it takes probably less then 5 minutes  ... this is done by hand, 1 movement per day !!

Hand engraved movement bridge ( and of course hand engraved balance cock)

First some extra pictures I took from their website. Pictures taken by a professional photographer with a professional camera give you a better

idea of the level of finishing

the balance, look at the polishing and beveling