Following the success of Europa Star’s ‘80th Anniversary Portraits’ column that we ran in 2007, we have decided to feature an exceptional portrait section in this issue as part of our special glamour section. The particularity about these portraits is that there isn’t a man among them. From Germany to Japan, Italy to Australia, France to the United States and the United Kingdom to Switzerland, there are some incredible women moving and shaking the watch business. Europa Star’s network of international correspondents decided to talk with some of the industry’s most talented women to find out how they have succeeded in the male dominated world of horology.

Since 2002, Stephanie Sattler-Rick holds a 50 per cent share of Erwin Sattler München, a manufacturer of top quality clocks and luxury automatic watch winders. Stephanie is one of the three daughters of Erwin Sattler, a Bavarian watch and clock maker who founded the company, along with his wife Viola, in 1958.
“When I was a child I used to go into my father’s watch workshop all the time. But I didn’t notice the interest that was growing inside me for watchmaking”, explains Sattler-Rick, a petite woman with a calm, friendly, but reserved nature.
Actually, she did not discover her love of clocks until she started her apprenticeship and education as a saleswoman in a big Munich watch retail store. “At that time, I became addicted to timekeepers because I understood them. Working with clocks and selling them became so much fun for me”.
Stephanie joined the Sattler staff in 1989 working closely with her father. “I did not think of becoming my father’s successor”, she says. But the more Stephanie became involved, the more the clock business attracted her.
Since the takeover of the management of the company by Sattler-Rick, which is responsible for the financial and organizational side of the business, and the arrival of her co-owner Richard Müller (who takes care of the technical and design side), the firm has changed a lot and has become the world’s number one supplier of fine clocks in terms of value. 2008 was the 50th anniversary of the firm, which was celebrated discreetly. Stephanie Sattler-Rick’s success is something that she can most certainly be proud of, but in her speech she only expressed her gratefulness to her parents. That’s the other side of her: warm hearted, friendly and reserved. (GC)


Source: Europa Star October-November 2008 Magazine Issue