Mauthe (watch manufacturer)
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Mauthe was a German watch manufacturer and watch brand.
Emergence
The company goes back to the founder and general goods dealer Friedrich Mauthe and is closely connected to watch production in the Black Forest . Mauthe founded a watch parts business in Schwenningen in 1844 and also sold finished watches from local watchmakers in the area. At the end of the 1870s, the company began manufacturing its own watches. From the 1890s onwards, Mauthe had used an eagle in its claws, a subdivided circle with the founder's initials F and M as a company logo. Around 1900 the clock manufacturer employed more than 1,100 people and produced a comprehensive range of alarm clocks, pendulum wall clocks, grandfather clocks, buffet clocks and office clocks.
post war period
Mauthe has also been making wristwatches since 1946. The Mauthe logo was used in cursive without symbols.
Awareness increased in the 1950s, when Volkswagen awarded VW vehicle owners who had driven 100,000 km with their Volkswagen with the same engine and without significant engine repairs with a certificate, a gold pin, an enamel plaque and a wristwatch. These clocks came from Mauthe and were made in not inconsiderable numbers.
It is a classic round case, gold-plated, stainless steel screw back, leather strap, black dial with Roman numerals, with the signet "Mauthe 17 Rubis Antimagnetic Contrachoc". Either a rectangular form movement from Mauthe cal. 1001, 15 jewels manual wind, screw balance or a round movement Mauthe cal. 1002 was used. "Large VW logo 100,000 kilometers" was added for Volkswagen.
Mauthe manufactured its own mechanical movements and stuck to this technology for a long time. Due to the strong rise of quartz movements in the early 1970s , the company lost market share and ran into financial difficulties. The bankruptcy of the Mauthe watch factory in 1975 put an end to a more than 130-year company history that had survived five generations in family ownership.
There are more recent attempts to revive the brand .
Today there is an adventure department store on the former company premises, the City-Rondell . A gate of the former plant is integrated into the shopping center.
literature
- Hans-Heinrich Schmid : "Lexicon of the German watch industry 1850 - 1980: company addresses, production program, company logos, brand names, company histories." (3rd extended edition 2017), publisher: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie eV; ISBN 978-3-941539-92-1 individual references
