J. Assmann German anchor watch factory Glashütte i. Sat
The J. Assmann Deutsche Anker-Uhren-Fabrik Glashütte i. Sa. was a watch manufacturer in Glashütte in the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district , founded by Julius Carl Friedrich Aßmann in 1852.
1852–1865: years of research and development
The then 25-year-old trained watchmaker Julius Carl Friedrich Aßmann founded in 1852 after a two-year employment in the company A. Lange & Cie. Glashütte founded the J. Assmann Deutsche Anker-Uhren-Fabrik Glashütte i. Sa. He was supported by the founder of the Glashütte watch industry, Ferdinand Adolph Lange . Due to the training of the first specialists, Lange had a considerable number of individual parts and raw movements that he could not process into finished watches on his own. Assmann financed his company from the inheritance of his deceased father. In contrast to Lange, Assmann financed the training of his employees himself. When Assmann asked the Saxon state government for a loan in January 1859 (7 years after he started his own business), this was refused several times and only approved at A. Lange's request, because Assmann received an offer from Prussia to set up a watch company in Silberberg. This company foundation contributed significantly to the consolidation and development of the watch industry, which was emerging in this impoverished region due to the decline of ore mining. The spelling of the name Assmann with "ss" in the company name is probably due to the export orientation to the overseas market.
The trademark for the clocks and cases of J. Assmann Deutsche Anker-Uhren-Fabrik Glashütte i. Sa. contains not only a shield but also mallets and irons , as they appear in the city arms of Glashütte.
Initially, pocket watches with a pin anchor gear and key winder were manufactured, but they already had a high quality standard.
In cooperation with the protagonists of the Glashütte watch industry, Ferdinand Adolph Lange , Adolf Schneider and Moritz Großmann , the company played a key role in the development of the Glashütte precision pocket watch , which was only fully developed in 1865.
1865–1886: Awards and worldwide export of precision pocket watches
The J. Assmann Deutsche Anker-Uhren-Fabrik Glashütte i. Sa-manufactured watches were similar to those of A. Lange & Cie. comparable and were in no way inferior to them in terms of quality, as documented by the awards acquired at national and international exhibitions.
The main sales area of Julius Assmann's company was in South and Central America, the Caribbean, Spain, but also in the large British colonies such as B. India.
By 1880 almost all of the production was shipped abroad, mainly overseas, but also to the large British colonies. The high price of these high-quality precision watches largely prevented their sales in the German states and principalities. With the growing prosperity in Germany in the "founding years", sales of the expensive precision pocket watches from the Assmann company on the German market also increased.
Paul Aßmann, Julius Aßmann's eldest son , became a partner in J. Assmann Deutsche Anker-Uhren in 1877 after completing his training as a watchmaker in his father's company, further training at the Le Locle watchmaking school in Switzerland and gaining further experience abroad -Factory Glashütte i. Sat
After Julius Assmann's death on August 15, 1886, Paul Assmann initially continued the company as the sole owner.
1887–1897: Development of a new Glashütte pocket watch caliber in cooperation with Gruen & Sohn, Columbus / Ohio
With the growing industrialization in Germany, the market increasingly demanded the production of cheaper pocket watches . Paul Assmann met this demand by founding the "Grünsche Uhrenfabrikation Grün und Assmann" in Glashütte in 1894 together with Frederick Gruen, the son of the German-born American watch manufacturer Dietrich Gruen , who had attended the German watchmaking school in Glashütte from 1892 to 1893 . The previous company J. Assmann Deutsche Anker-Uhren-Fabrik Glashütte i. Sa. continued to exist parallel to this new company.
Paul Assmann, who was open to new technologies, was also active on the supervisory board of the German watchmaking school at the time. A jointly newly developed movement, which was given the name “Progress”, combined components from Glashütte precision watch production with elements of the US template watch system. The corresponding machines from the USA were introduced for this new technology. A compensation or balance anchor, new for Glashütte, was also used in these works. The company's annual production in 1895 reached 1,800 watches, a remarkable figure for the Glashütte precision watch industry.
The pocket watch movement newly developed for the US market was manufactured in Glashütte for several years and delivered to D. Gruen & Sohn , a company that was newly founded in Columbus / Ohio by father Dietrich Gruen and his son Frederik . The Gruensche company headquarters was relocated to Cincinnati in 1998 .
In an anniversary exhibition held in 1895 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Glashütte watch industry, the pocket watches exhibited by the Assmann company illustrated multiple complications, such as: B. watches with a perpetual calendar that regulate the leap years themselves and display the phases of the moon, quarter and minute repetitions as well as a double chronograph , the company's capabilities also in the manufacture of complicated watches.
1897–1914: Successful further development with a partner and a broader product range
In 1897, Georg Heinrich, along with Paul Assmann, an experienced watchmaker, became a partner in the Deutsche Anker-Uhren-Fabrik. In the years that followed, the company's catalogs illustrated a wide range of pocket watches in various price ranges, equipment variants with and without complications. Special marine watches with larger dials and case diameters also enriched the production profile.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the German Anker-Uhren-Fabrik Julius Assmann was renamed the German Precision Pocket Watch Factory J. Assmann Glashütte i. Sa. At the same time, she was a member of the Swiss watchmaking association “Union Horlogére Society of United Swiss and Glashütte Watch Manufacturers Biel, Geneva, Glashütte i. Sa. ”Since the German side disputed the legality of the chosen name and damage to the company could not be ruled out, the Assmann company announced on April 15, 1904 that it would no longer be a member of the“ Society of United Swiss Watch manufacturers Union Horlogére ”based in Biel.
Paul Assmann died in 1911 and the previous partner, Georg Heinrich, continued to run the company alone.
1914–1926: Sale and subsequent liquidation of the company due to the consequences of the war
From 1914 to 1918, during the First World War , watch production in Glashütte largely came to a standstill.
In 1917, towards the end of the First World War, the company found itself in a difficult economic situation. The sole owner Georg Heinrich then sold the German precision pocket watch factory J. Assmann Glashütte i. Sa. to the Thuringian watch factory Edmund Herrmann AG in Kraftsdorf. With that, the J. Assmann company was only a branch of the Thuringian company from which the Herrmann Group, which was liquidated due to disastrous management in 1926, developed. With the liquidation of the Herrmann Group, the Glashütte branch was also liquidated. At the beginning of 1926 the company history of the German precision pocket watch factory J. Assmann Glashütte i. Sat
1926–1930: Unsuccessful attempt at a new beginning
A new beginning with a still in 1926 by Fritz Assmann, a son of Paul Assmann, under the name Julius Assmann, German precision pocket watch factory in Glashütte i. Sa. newly founded and in 1927 with a majority stake of the businessman and new managing director of the company, Heinrich Theden, in J. Assmann German precision pocket watch factory in Glashütte G. mb H. i. Sa. converted company failed. One of the main reasons for this was the devastating damage that the Müglitz flood caused in the company's production facilities in 1927 . The company J. Assmann German precision pocket watch factory in Glashütte G. mb H. i. Sa. was deleted from the commercial register at the beginning of 1930 .
Fritz Assmann announced on February 15, 1930 that he had left the company a year ago and had nothing more to do with it. Julius Fritz Assmann opened a workshop for new products and repairs under his name in Glashütte.
Individual evidence
- ^ Church books of the city of Glashütte.
- ^ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung of May 1, 1885, No. 9, advertisement section.
- ↑ Communications on the development of the watch industry in Glashütte (Saxony), 1895, p. 17.
- ↑ Zeitschrift Armbanduhren 1/2003 p. 58 ff
- ^ Glashütte / Saxony 1506 to 2006. 500 years of city history. City administration Glashütte, pp. 69f., ISBN 3-937951-31-8 .
- ^ Glashütte / Saxony 1506 to 2006. 500 years of city history. City administration Glashütte, p. 108, ISBN 3-937951-31-8 .
- ^ A b Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1903, No. 5, XVI, advertisements.
- ↑ a b c Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung 1895, No. 19, p. 220.
- ^ Jörg Hein: Julius Assmann 1827-1886. On the 100th anniversary of death on August 15, 1986. In: Fachzeitschrift Uhren und Schmuck , Berlin 1986, No. 4, p. 121.
- ^ Report of the Assessment Commission at the general German industrial exhibition in Munich in 1854.
- ^ Directory of the exhibitors from the Kingdom of Saxony awarded at the London Industrial Exhibition. In: Deutsche Industrie Zeitung 1862, No. 36, pp. 400–401.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung 1880, No. 7, advertisements.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung 1911, No. 13, p. 223.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung 1886, No. 17, p. 129.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1889, No. 21, p. 61.
- ↑ private homepage on the company history Gruen
- ↑ Allgemeine Journal der Uhrmacherkunst, 1902, No. 19, p. 420.
- ^ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1903, No. 20, pp. 346-348, advertisements.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1903, No. 23, pp. 394–395.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung 1904, No. 8, p. 113.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1911, No. 1,2 p. 206.
- ↑ Helmut Klemmer, Edith Klemmer: The development of the Glashütte watch industry. Part 3. In: Fachzeitschrift Uhren und Schmuck, 1979, Issue 3, pp. 86–87.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1919, No. 3, p. 22.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1922, No. 7, p. 86.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1926, No. 5, p. 89.
- ↑ Die Uhrmacher-Woche, No. 10, 1927, p. 161.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1926, No. 5, p. 89.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1930, No. 3, p. 50.
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, 1930, No. 7, p. 118.