Visit to G O

[Java]

Following a wonderful Turf dinner in London on the 17th may I flew off to Berlin on the 18th. Main reason was to visit Glashutte Originals factory on the 20th. Glashutte is a small town in Saxony with an incredible history in watchmaking, all of which is very well documented online. The reason for my visit was to feel the atmosphere and speak directly with G O about their view on watchmaking, where they feel they sit in relation to other manufacturers both Swiss and German. They were wonderfully hospitable and very welcoming. I was met by Rene Marx who is in charge of new media. Yes they do, as I have found also to be the case with other manufacturers, have a department who's job in part is to monitor , read, and understand watch fora. These people do know us, only by our forum names of course, they read what we say and try to understand us. While they recognise that WIS will never be the largest part of their business, at the same time they value that we have a particular view on watches and a deeper understanding of the way different models inter-relate.
It was very interesting hear directly from GO some of the reasoning behind their current range of watches. Some changes have occurred in the last few years; The deletion of all sports watches from the range. deletion of navigator watches from the range. It would seem that G O do not see themselves in the Tool watch market at all. They feel that their market lies in quality, sophistication, and great engineering and execution. They (not quite by direct admission) don't endevour to achieve quite the level of finish refinement as ALS, although, their sophistication in design engineering aspiration would seem to be more adventurous. This is witnessed by such creations as the Calendar week ( Now deleted) A watch with over 250 parts, including a third spring barrel and centrifugal brake added to the already highly sophisticated 100 series movement, simply to provide the weeks of the year. The Cosmopolite possibly one of the most sophisticated and well engineered watches around. It was interesting too to note the shared pride and unity among the several watchmaking factories in this small town. This despite the two big players being each under the ownership of the two mega rivals of watchmaking , Swatch and Richemont. They spoke with great pride and admiration for the quality of ALS watches and with equal pride and admiration for the achievements of Nomos. Unfortunately they have a policy which precludes the possibility of lots of photos, although I did get a few.
I was treated to a wonderful lunch and an accompanied visit to the Glashutte museum. All in all I had a great day and thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality and the frank discussion about their aims and hopes for the future. One of the things that came out very clearly is that they feel the UK market has been neglected in their efforts in other areas. This is currently being actively rectified. I am sure we will see many more ADs appointed in UK over the next year or two. This will bring the availability of these superb watches to many more people. I do apologise if the photos are a little boring. Some manufacturers are just not too keen on lots of random photos of their operations appearing all over the internet. They understandably prefer to have some control over the available images.
In mid July I have managed to secure a visit to Zenith in Le Locle. Quite a difficult one as their official position is that they don't do factory visits. However a few strings were pulled and I will be spending the day at Zenith on July 14th. Hopefully I won't be asked to leave my camera in reception.

Arriving at the crucible of German watchmaking


The modern GO building towering over ALS



The great entrance hall where some of their finest work is displayed



Interesting to note on this photo, looking at the drawing to the right of the Seventies image. It would seem they are still doing some work for Union Glashutte.


Some hand polishing going on here


An early watchmakers work bench


An early calculating machine used in watchmaking

[Presa canary]

Thats awesome! Thanks for sharing! I really really like most things GO

[Malak]

Videos about Glashütte


GO - Handmade in Germany
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntYwiyvlhh0


flooding in 2002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGUCaDvgjbE

[Psmith]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing this

[malarky_hk]

Thanks for sharing. Please post some pics of the Zenith factory tour as well.

[joli160]

Thanks for your thread. It's a respectable brand. German engineering

[Urosfan]

Thanks for sharing

[texex91]

Great pics! Did you go into ALS?

[Java]

Originally Posted by texex91

Great pics! Did you go into ALS?

No Just G O. maybe I will visit ALS another time