2 weeks ago I visited the Grossman manufacture and made this report for an english forum. I hope it's OK to post the same here ( in English)
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
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 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 !