There would be no reason to write an article about a German retailer launching a collection of watches under his own logo. But Wempe, Germany’s most prestigious watch and jewellery chain, has done something far more newsworthy. The board and the staff of Wempe are well known throughout the industry for doing things perfectly. In fact, they have not only presented two new watch brands: Wempe Zeitmeister and Wempe Chronometerwerke, but have set up their own chronometer accuracy testing centre in Germany. This is the first test to be available in Germany for 30 years. Wempe has restored a 100-year old ruined observatory to carry out their tests.
Wempe, the retailer, sells nearly every high-end watch brand in its stores. But until now, no brand had products in the Euro 500 – 2,000 price range that would have fitted perfectly into the collection and the image of this very traditional Hamburg company.
“I asked the Swiss brands several times not to forget the customer who wants a timepiece of good quality, but who is unable to pay today’s high prices,” says Hellmut Wempe, the now retired head of the firm, who is still active in business as a consultant for his daughter and today’s Chief Executive Officer, Kim-Eva Wempe.





Hellmut Wempe's appeal fell on deaf ears in Switzerland so Wempe decided to create two product lines of its own: the Zeitmeister collection (Time Master), which is equipped with ETA quartz or automatic movements and is reasonably priced and based on watches produced for Wempe by external suppliers back in the 1950s, and the Wempe Chronometerwerke collection which is a totally new brand of high-end timepieces equipped with manufactured movements including tourbillons.
Right from the beginning, there was no question at all that the watches of the new German brands would be produced anywhere but in Glashütte, Germany’s centre of prestigious watch making.
Wempe themselves own not only 25 jewellery stores in different countries, but also the Wempe Chronometerwerke which has been producing ship’s chronometers in Hamburg for more than 100 years.
The difference with the Wempe Chronometerwerke timepieces is that they are produced at Glashütte’s youngest manufacture Nomos. Both companies remain independent from each other which works perfectly as Nomos has the machinery and young highly-skilled constructors that Wempe needed to help them realize their ambitious plans.
The jewellery chain also wanted a chronometer quality test, sealed with an official certificate, not only for their movements, but also for their timepieces ready for sale. But as the Swiss chronometer tester COSC only accepts uncased Swiss watch movements, a Swiss certificate wouldn’t be considered, even if the Zeitmeister watches are equipped with Swiss ETA movements. Wempe had to think about alternatives. The solution was found by looking into the past.
In 1910, the Glashütte watchmakers association took the initiative of setting up an observatory on the top of a hill above their village to provide the local watch and clock industry with higher accuracy in time measurement. During the GRD era until 1989 the building unfortunately went into ruin. In 2001 Wempe bought the house and its small domed tower with a view to installing a telescope and to start a chronometer watch production in Glashütte.
After difficult and time consuming negotiations with several administrative bodies, Thuringia and Saxony gave their permission to establish an official office in the observatory with all the necessary instruments which would be controlled by a scientist from the Deutscher Kalibrierdienst, who would be responsible for the calibration of these precision measuring instruments.
In contrast to the COSC procedure, in which only movements are tested, the German chronometer test only allows complete watches to undergo the examination for the official certificate. The institute is not only open to test Wempe watches, but will also test products from other brands. The first inquiries have already started to come in.


Source: Europa Star October-November 2006 Magazine Issue