On May 22, 2008, the German Watch Museum Glashütte will open its doors and present itself to an international public. In accordance with its motto «The Fascination of Time – Bringing Time to Life», the Watch Museum illuminates not only the fine art of watchmaking itself, but also enables an emotional and philosophical access to the phenomenon of time.

Consistent with the goals of the Foundation German Watch Museum Glashütte - Nicolas G. Hayek, Glashütte Original has developed an exhibition journey which conveys the rich and diversified history of Glashütte as well as aspects relating to the sensation of time and its measurement. The project was made possible by the benevolent support of Swatch Group and the town of Glashütte.

More than 400 unique exhibits are presented on two floors with an exhibition space of 1000 m². These can also be experienced with the help of multimedia: Glashütte pocket watches, wristwatches and pendulum clocks from different periods, marine chronometers and escapement models, historical certificates and patents, tools and workbenches as well as astronomical models and metronomes are all displayed in an artful fashion. Thematically, the exhibition is composed of a row of historical rooms and time rooms, framed by a prologue and an epilogue.

The historical rooms set up the chronological context of the watch town and present, at the outset, the celebrities and the founding fathers: Ferdinand Adolph Lange, Julius Assmann, Adolf Schneider and Moritz Grossmann, who made Glashütte an important centre of fine German watchmaking and watchmaker training. Throughout the exhibition, other crucial periods are presented such as the founding years, the First and Second World Wars, the era of disassembly and expropriation as well as the German reunification and the new beginnings.

The time rooms interrupt the chronological progression of the Glashütte watch history and carry the visitors away into the microcosm of a mechanical clock for example. This way the visitors can experience for themselves the precision and the interplay of hundreds of individual parts. They can also make independent discoveries in the multimedia time room which proposes an interactive glossary of chronometry.

As a modern and experience-oriented «time world», the museum is designed not only to appeal to watch enthusiasts but also to laymen, families and young people in order to pass on to the next generation the fascination of the art of watchmaking and the knowledge of chronometry.

With the opening of the German Watch Museum Glashütte, a unique place that guards the rich cultural heritage of the town will be established in the fully renovated building of the former German School of Watchmaking. After the inauguration ceremony on May 22, the museum will be open to the public as of May 23.

For further information

Phone: + 49 35053 46 238. 
Some suggestive pictures of the opening of the German Watch Museum Glashütte. 
German Watch Museum Glashütte’s website.