Are these and Glashutte Original the same company? They don’t seem to have held value compared to other vintage brands. I’m curious as they pop up on my search feeds frequently.

 

Glashutte Original was founded in 1994.

My understanding is before the fall of the Berlin Wall watches labeled Glassute where made by a conglomerate of the Glashutte watch makers after the creation of East Germany. This includes Tutima and others.

 

Iron Curtain / Communism = death of many German watchmaking companies.

Fall of the Wall / Free Enterprise = rebirth of several German watchmaking company names. Very little in common with the original companies, although in this case (pardon the pun) I remember a story about a family member involved with the resurrection.

All you have to do is take a look at the calibers. Those old ones are typical of Soviet industry - stark, spartan, only made to perform a task in a utilitarian manner. The new Glashütte calibers are works of art.

 

Thanks guys.

It’s confusing as the “Glashutte” script on GO is similar to some of the vintage models. Also modern GO has those 60s and 70s heritage models, like they have been around since then.

 

That's intentional.

Well, Glashütte watches have been around since then, and earlier. Just not the exact same company. This, and the similar font you noticed, are some slick marketing.

 

All watchmaking in Glashütte was consolidated into an East German conglomerate (GUB) in 1951. They produced a lot of watches, with pretty ugly movements - think of the Lada but in a watch instead of a car. Parts are hard to find, and when I've taken these in if they needed parts, a donor watch was the only way I could find them, so I don't work on them anymore.

Once the wall came down and things changed, some brands were brought back to their original status. Walter Lange was instrumental in bringing the modern ALS into existence.

Many of the designs they made are quite nice aesthetically, and the modern GO has revisited that heritage with a lot of success.

 

As Al (and others) mentioned GUB was formed in 1951 as a state company comprising all (private) watch companies based in the East German city of Glashutte. Glashütte Original as we know it today, was founded in 1994 by the privatization of GUB.

Here's both my GUB (Glashütte Uhren Betrieb), from the 60's and my Senator Sixties edition (introduced at 2007 Baselworld). You can see the similarities. The dial and hands are the parts that bear the closest resemblance. Beyond the similar style in the numbers 3, 6, 9 and 12 the dial is domed like on the old GUB, and the hands are baton style hands. The hour markers are applied stick markers. New has lume in the hands and small dots. Apparently some of the old had hands with lume and others not ... like mine. Case size is 39mm in the new and 36mm in the old.