Mühle-Glashütte GmbH nautische Instrumente und Feinmechanik (nautical instruments and precision engineering) is a German maker of nautical instruments, ship's timepieces and

wristwatches A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...

, based in

Glashütte Glashütte [] is a town in Saxony, Germany, known as the birthplace of the German watchmaking industry and has a population of about 7,000. Historically, it was first mentioned in a document circa 1445. In January 2008, the former municipality Re ...

, Saxony, founded in 1994, and refounded in 2007 following bankruptcy.

Family and business history

Mühle-Glashütte S.A. was founded in 1994 by Hans-Jürgen Mühle, father of the current CEO Thilo Mühle. The Mühle family has more than 140-year history of instrument-making craft in and around the area of Glashütte. The roots of the family business date back five generations - from the year 1869, when Robert Mühle founded his own company in Glashütte, manufacturing precision measuring instruments for the local watch industry and watchmaker school.

1869-1921: Robert Mühle

Robert Mühle was born in 1841 in Lauenstein and completed a training as toolmaker at the watch manufacturer

Moritz Grossmann Moritz Grossmann is a manufacturer of luxury wristwatches based in Glashütte, Germany. Annual production is approximately 200 pieces. History During the financial crisis of 2007-08 Christine Hutter (who had previously held positions at Wempe, Mau ...

. In 1869 he founded his own company in Glashütte. He manufactured precision measuring instruments for the Glashütte watch company and the watchmaking school. The measuring instruments produced by Robert Mühle were of great importance for the Glashütte area watchmaking industry, which needed precise measuring instruments for the production of their clockworks. Besides this, they developed leading-edge technology, because the Glashütte factories used the new metric system of measurement, not the standard for the Swiss watchmaking typical Paris line used. With its precise measuring instruments in the tradition of Robert Mühle, the Mühle, the family feels obligated to the present: the precise measurement.

1921-1945: Rob. Mühle & Son

Under the leadership of Paul, Max and Alfred Mühle, the sons of Robert Mühle, the company could expand its product range. And so from about 1925 onward, speedometers, rev counters and car clocks were made. These not only are used in cars of the brands

Maybach Maybach (, ) is a Automotive industry in Germany, German luxury car brand that exists today as a part of Mercedes-Benz. The original company was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach and his son Karl Maybach, originally as a subsidiary of ''Lufts ...

and

DKW DKW (''Dampf-Kraft-Wagen'', en, "steam-powered car", also ''Deutsche Kinder-Wagen'' en, "German children's car". ''Das-Kleine-Wunder'', en, "the little wonder" or ''Des-Knaben-Wunsch'', en, "the boy's wish"- from when the company built to ...

, also BMW motorcycles were equipped with Mühle-tachometers. The

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

caused a deep cuts in the corporate's manufacturing industry. Shortly before the end of war the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

bombed and destroyed large parts of Glashütte and the Mühle company.

1945-1970: Hans Mühle

While the names of most Glashütte area watch factories have disappeared, the name "Mühle" still was connected to the center of the German precision watchmaking and a precise measurement industry. Hans Mühle founded a new company in December 1945 which manufactured dial trains for pressure and temperature measuring instruments.

1970-2007: Hans-Jürgen Mühle

After the death of his father, Hans-Jürgen Mühle (b. 1941), took over his father's business. In 1972 the Mühle family suffered dispossession for a second time. The company was initially transformed in a national enterprise and in 1980 converted into the Glashütte Watchmaking Plants (VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe). Hans-Jürgen Mühle was still in active operation, and later became sales manager of the Glashütte Watchmaking Plants. The

German unification The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...

enabled him to revive the company of his ancestors, so in 1994, he founded "Mühle-Glashütte GmbH nautische Instrumente und Feinmechanik" (nautical instruments and precision engineering). At the beginning Mühle produced professional marine chronometers, ship's timepieces and other nautical instruments such as

Barometer A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ...

hygrometer A hair tension dial hygrometer with a nonlinear scale. A hygrometer is an instrument used to measure the amount of water vapor in air, in soil, or in confined spaces. Humidity measurement instruments usually rely on measurements of some other qu ...

. Two years later the production was extended to mechanical wristwatches, which quickly became the main business of the company. Mühle used in house refined Swiss movements for production of its watches. In 2005 it came into a legal dispute with a different manufacturer (

Nomos Glashütte NOMOS Glashütte is a German watchmaking company based in Glashütte, Saxony, which specializes in artisan manual-winding and automatic mechanical watches. It was founded by Roland Schwertner in January 1990, two months after the fall of the Berli ...

) about whether the movements go along with the so-called "Glashütte rule" (i.e., 50% of the adding value of the movement has to be realized in Glashütte). The dispute escalated and Mühle had to file for insolvency in October 2007.

2007-2011: Thilo Mühle

Thilo Mühle (b. 1968) joined the family business in 2000. In October 2007 he took over the management of the company to pull it back from

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. Under the leadership of Thilo Mühle the watchmaker has steadily expanded its vertical integration. In addition to the already developed in 2003 and patented a woodpecker regulation, the newly developed Glashütte three-quarter plate and the Mühle rotor, the company now has two movements with their own caliber name: the chronograph movement MU 9408 and the in March 2011 introduced manual winding movement MU 9411.

Watch models

Mühle-Glashütte, in contrast to vendors such as

Glashütte Original Glashütte Original is a German producer of luxury watches founded in 1994 by the privatization of VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB), an East German conglomerate formed in 1951 from the watch companies based in Glashütte. Glashütte Original ...

or A. Lange & Söhne, doesn't produce luxury watches, but focus on the medium-priced market segment with high-quality steel watches by mostly sober and restrained

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

. Most models are available with stainless

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

bracelets or

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...

bands, for divers watches

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

bands are available. The timepieces of Mühle-Glashütte are divided into four product lines. Currently (as of 06/2013) models are available in the following lines: * Nautical Wristwatches: Marinus, Marinus GMT, Rasmus 2000, Seebataillon GMT, S.A.R. Flieger-Chronograph (Pilot's Chronograph), S.A.R. Rescue-Timer - the watch of the captains of the rescue cruiser of the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service. * Classic Timepiece: Teutonia III Handaufzug (with the new movement MU 9411), Teutonia II Chronograph, Teutonia II Kleine Sekunde, Teutonia II Chronometer, Teutonia II Quadrant Chronograph, Teutonia II Quadrant Medium, Teutonia II Medium, Antaria Chronograph, Antaria Kleine Sekunde, Antaria Datum, Antaria Medium * Sporty Instrument Watches: Terranaut Trail I to III, Terrasport I to III, 29er Chronograph, Big 29er, 29er, City 99, Lady 99, M 29 Classic * Limited Special Editions: S.A.R. Anniversary-Timer, Marinus Chronograph

Literature

* Hans Heinrich Schmid: ''Encyclopedia of German watchmaking industry 1850-1980''. Sponsors Clock Industry Museum Association, Villingen-Schwenningen, 2005, . S. 491st

References

* Mühle - Glashütte GmbH nautische Instrumente und Feinmechanik Gemeinsames Registerportal der Länder * Impressum von Mühle-Glashütte: http://www.muehle-glashuette.de/impressum.html

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Muhle Glashutte Watch manufacturing companies of Germany Watch brands Companies based in Saxony Glashütte Volkseigene Betriebe