Does Germany make good luxury watches?

Not all the best watches come from Switzerland.

Germany is famed for bread, cars, footballers and sausages but it also makes some impressive luxury timepieces.

German watches are distinctively unique, often purpose-built, with innovations inside and outside inside their cases. They boast precision, functionality and affordable design to rival their European pals.

This isn’t really surprising, given the country’s reputation for its superb engineering and craftsmanship.

Brands like Damasko and Sinn offer robust, super-hard steel cases that are scratch-proof and the art of metalwork can definitely be seen through manufacturers like Ickler and Fricker.

We look at some of our favourite German-made watches out there.

Glashutte Original

Today a large part of the horology world is delivered from a little town called Glashütte, in Saxony, which boasts the production site for some of the most successful German watch manufacturers.

In the course of many generations a culture of excellence and creativity was created that lends particular brilliance to the name Glashütte Original. 

We are lucky to have in stock a pre-loved Glashutte Original Senator Steel Automatic, reference LW14234. It’s absolutely great value and indeed a lot of watch for your hard-earned cash.

With a 39mm stainless steel grey dial, the  automatic movement chronograph features matching indexes and polished hands. 

We are currently offering finance on this piece plus the option of one of our NFT certificates!

Montblanc

Montblanc was founded in Berlin in 1906, and currently based in Hamburg but started as a distributor of luxury goods, including pens. In 1997, Montblanc revealed its first watch collection. Today, Montblanc forms part of the Richemont group. Its sister companies include luxury brands Cartier and Van Cleef.

Montblanc has released some eye-catching models for the 2022 edition of Watches & Wonders, including two watches for diving and flying.

We like something different here at Luxe Watches and the 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Dateis certainly that. Its dial is notable for its texture which mimics ice found in glaciers. Designers took inspiration from the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice) found in the Mont-Blanc Massif. 

The dial appears to be thick and fractured with splintered ice but it is actually just 5mm thick.

Lange & Söhne

This was one of the brands that established Glashutte as a city for watch making back in the 1800s. The company, restarted by the founder’s great grandson, Walter Lange, in 1994, is often mentioned in the same breath as the top Swiss watch brands such as Patek Philippe.

Since Ferdinand Adolph Lange’s day, its watches have always been characterised by traditional craftsmanship and incredible attention to detail. Known for its innovation, each watch contains parts that will never be seen by anyone but a watchmaker, yet are meticulously beveled and polished by hand, with all movements assembled twice, to be sure they work properly and are clean.

The German company only produces a few thousand watches each year and generally in  platinum or yellow, white or rose gold. Platinum is the metal chosen for this year’s 1815 Rattrapante Platinum  – and we love it.

Colloquially known as a split-second chronograph, rattrapante watches add an additional seconds hand over the regular seconds hand. Often regarded as one of the most sophisticated complications, and a must-have in any collection, the brand has mastered it with a double and even a triple rattrapante (respectively able to split the seconds and minutes, or the seconds, minutes and hours). 

Here to help

If you need help to find the perfect watch – German or not, we can help! Our time-served team is based in Epping so pop along to see us, or visit our extensive collection online.