Württemberg watch factory Bürk

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Former factory building, now a watch industry museum
Clock from 1881, exhibited in the Museo del Hombre y la Tecnología , Salto (Uruguay) . With it, the working hours of up to 100 workers could be recorded.
Portable watchman's control clock around 1860 ( Deutsches Uhrenmuseum , Inv.-Nr. 2007-109)
Night watchman control clock 1868
Workers at a Bürk time clock at the VW plant in Wolfsburg, 1973

The Württemberg watch factory Bürk was one of the most important German companies in the watch industry , based in Schwenningen am Neckar (today Villingen-Schwenningen ). Johannes Bürk founded the company in 1855; It shaped the history of the city for more than a century, which for decades rose to become the “largest clock city in the world” due to the number and importance of its clock industries. In this phase, the company and the city were of international importance.

history

Right from the start, the company not only manufactured ordinary clocks, but also all kinds of time recording devices. So initially night watchman control clocks were developed, through which the presence of the watchman at certain times could be documented and thus monitored. The Bürk watchdog control clock Universal No. 50 was manufactured from 1912 to 1996. Work time recording devices (time clocks ) were also manufactured by Bürk. They had a decisive impact on working life.

As early as 1865, Jakob Bürk, the founder's brother, sold the products in the USA .

After Johannes Bürk's death in 1872, his son Richard Bürk took over the technical management, while his brother Hugo Bürk was responsible for the commercial management.

In 1900 Bürk founded the International Time Recording Co. (ITR) with the American watch manufacturer Bundy , from which the International Business Machines Corporation ( IBM ) later emerged through mergers .

Since the 1920s, the product range has been expanded to include master and slave clock systems, such as those used in particular on railway systems.

Bürk held patents in Germany and Great Britain .

The company was one of the two most important German companies for technical clocks (along with ISGUS ).

The company had to file for bankruptcy in 1984 and was continued as Bürk Zeitsysteme , which also went bankrupt in 1996. In 1997, Bürk Mobatime GmbH emerged from it, a subsidiary of the Swiss Mobatime group.

Today the Villingen-Schwenningen Clock Industry Museum is located in the former factory building .

See also

literature

  • Hans-Heinrich Schmid : Lexicon of the German watch industry 1850–1980. Company addresses, production program, company logos, brand names, company stories. 3rd extended edition, German Society for Chronometrie e. V., 2017, ISBN 978-3-941539-92-1 .
  • Gudrun Kopf: Time order. A history of the time clock. Diploma thesis at the Media Faculty of the Bauhaus University Weimar 2002, p. 18. ( PDF ( Memento from October 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ))
  • Meyer's Large Conversation Lexicon. 5th edition, 1897, vol. 10, p. 514 f. and 6th edition, 1905, vol. 11, p. 446. (quoted from Kopf, p. 18)
  • Werner Schmid: The Württemberg watch factory in Schwenningen and its products. In: time is money. Control clocks from the Black Forest. Exhibition catalog for the special exhibition in the Watch Industry Museum in Villingen-Schwenningen from April 2005 to April 2006. ( online as PDF document)
  • Richard Bürk: The Schwenninger watchmakers until 1929. Kuhn, Villingen-Schwenningen 1990.

Web links

Commons : Württembergische Uhrenfabrik Bürk  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annemarie Conradt-Mach: Work and bread. The history of industrial workers in Villingen and Schwenningen from 1918 to 1933. Neckar-Verlag, Villingen-Schwenningen 1990, ISBN 3-7883-0869-9 , p. 8. ( limited preview on Google Books )
  2. ↑ Württembergische Uhrenfabrik in the Watch Wiki.
  3. ↑ Time is money - control clock construction in the Black Forest. Special exhibition in the Watch Industry Museum in Villingen-Schwenningen from April 22, 2005 to June 30, 2006 ( Memento from April 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ Control clocks - time table. Kontrolluhren.de.
  5. ↑ History and brands. Bürk Mobatime website.
  6. ↑ Elektrouhren: slave clock collection. Zeigersprung.de ( Memento from June 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  7. ^ Bürk, Richard in the computer dictionary.
  8. ↑ E 170 a Bü 1828: Patent of Richard Bürk in Biel, Canton Bern, on a peculiar design of the J. Bürk control clock for railway trains and other wagons. Finding aid E 170 a, Baden-Württemberg State Archives .
  9. ↑ The big Brockhaus. 16th edition, Volume 11 (Sol – Unj), Wiesbaden 1957, p. 726.
  10. ↑ Mobatime worldwide: Organization at a glance. Website of the Mobatime group.

Coordinates: 48 ° 3 '52.5 "  N , 8 ° 31' 50.2"  E