During the Cold War, the manufacture that would one day become Glashütte Original was behind the times. On the east side of Berlin, it lacked access to computers and sophisticated machinery. Employees designed movements on drawing boards and wooden lathes. The watches were cranked out, made in large numbers for the Eastern Bloc – and were the epitome of Soviet design ethos; they were sturdy, reliable and simple to look at, built on three-quarter plates.
After the reunification of Germany, a now reorganised Glashütte Original retained many of those values – especially its penchant for self-reliance. When Swatch Group acquired it in 2000, it was steadfast in its resolve to continue making watches the old-fashioned way, and with limited oversight from its Swiss partners. Which is why horologists were so stunned to find out that the newest Glashütte Original movement would be produced in collaboration with other Swatch Group companies, such as a silicon hairspring made by the group’s Nivarox division.
Dubbed Calibre 36, the three-hand automatic movement spent four years in development – a year more than Glashütte had planned. That comes down to the company’s resolve – to build a movement that was as strong and reliable as possible – not just for a single watch, but as a base for further complications. Speaking at the launch of its new Calibre, CEO of Glashütte Yann Gamard said, “In Switzerland, you see a lot of movements that are flatter than ours, but we’re not afraid to make a movement that’s a little thicker. When you start to add four or five or six hands, it becomes a burden, and our objective is to create a robust movement that we can completely exploit”.
The strength of the movement comes from the silicon mainspring. Working with Nivarox – which has recently created a flexible alloy called Elinflex (which allows for lighter but stronger metals) – resulted in a power reserve of 100 hours. But it’s not so much about the ability to store power, rather the stability that this new mainspring provides. The Elinflex material has almost no performance loss over its full hundred-hours (meaning it doesn’t slow down over time). Each Calibre 36 watch comes with a lab report showing the results of 24 days of testing, as well as a guarantee of chronometer-level performance).
Beyond next-generation materials, the new calibre features Glashütte’s rock-solid assembly process, which has been streamlined over the years to eliminate unnecessary handling. “From a cost standpoint, we’ve got more time on our hands to add more finishing, “says Gamard. The process makes use of a unique mount that secures the movement in the case – similar to how a lens screws into a camera. This simplification means the watches take less time than usual to put together. “Our challenge in Germany is to match the quality of the Swiss,” says Gamard. “When our partners come here from Switzerland, they don’t think, ‘let’s go see those jokers there in Germany. There’s mutual respect. With the Calibre 36, we have proved it once more”.
