German horology

Renaissance Nuremberg and Augsburg

In the early 16th century Nuremberg locksmiths and clockmakers such as Peter Henlein made small spring-driven portable clocks, the ancestors of the watch. Augsburg became famous for elaborate table clocks, automata and astronomical clocks made for princely Kunstkammern.

The Black Forest

From the 17th century farming families in the Black Forest made wooden-wheeled wall clocks, sold across Europe by itinerant clock pedlars. The cuckoo clock appeared in the 18th century; in the 19th century firms such as Junghans and Lenzkirch industrialised production, and Junghans became one of the largest clock factories in the world.

Glashütte and precision

In 1845 Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded watchmaking in Glashütte, Saxony, with state support; the town became the centre of German precision pocket watches and of a watchmaking school (1878). Clemens Riefler's precision pendulum clocks (from 1889) became observatory standards until free-pendulum and quartz clocks displaced them.

Division and re-founding

After the Second World War, Glashütte's firms were nationalised into the East German GUB; following reunification, A. Lange & Söhne and other brands were re-founded in the 1990s.

Timeline

1. 1511Johannes Cochlaeus describes Peter Henlein's small portable clocks made in Nuremberg
2. 1530Date inscribed on the spherical 'Melanchthon' watch, Nuremberg — Spherical table watch ('Melanchthon's Watch')
3. 1580sJost Bürgi builds clocks with the cross-beat escapement and remontoire in Kassel — Jost Bürgi
4. mid-18th c. (debated)Cuckoo clocks emerge in the Black Forest
5. 1845Ferdinand Adolph Lange founds watchmaking in Glashütte, Saxony — A. Lange & Söhne
6. 1990Junghans Mega, the first radio-controlled wristwatch — Junghans
7. 1994A. Lange & Söhne presents its first collection after re-founding — A. Lange & Söhne