Mühle-Glashütte GmbH nautische Instrumente und Feinmechanik (“nautical instruments and precision engineering”) is a German maker of nautical instruments, marine timepieces and

wristwatches A watch is a timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another type of ...

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. The family business was founded in 1869. The brand was re-started in 2007 following bankruptcy.

History

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 A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by Consanguinity , blood, marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business a ...

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. Mühle-Glashütte S.A. was founded in 1994 by Hans-Jürgen Mühle, father of the current CEO Thilo Mühle.

1869-1921: Robert Mühle

Robert Mühle was born in 1841, in Lauenstein and completed a training as toolmaker at the watch manufacturer Moritz Grossmann. 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 German luxury car brand owned by and a part of Mercedes-Benz AG. The original company was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach and his son Karl Maybach, originally as a subsidiary of ''Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH'', and it was ...

and

DKW DKW (''Dampfkraftwagen'', – the same initials later also used for ''Des Knaben Wunsch'', ; ''Das Kleine Wunder'', and ''Deutsche Kinderwagen'', ) was a German car- and motorcycle-marque. DKW was one of the four companies that formed Auto U ...

, also

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

motorcycles were equipped with Mühle-tachometers. The

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

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 a process of building the first nation-state for Germans with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without Habsburgs' multi-ethnic Austria or its German-speaking part). It commenced ...

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 that measures humidity: that is, how much water vapor is present. Humidity measurement instruments usually rely on measurements of some other quantities, such a ...

. 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 economy of Germany, German watchmaking company based in Glashütte, Saxony, specializing in artisan manual-winding and automatic mechanical watches. It was founded by Roland Schwertner in January 1990, two months after the ...

) 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 deb ...

. 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 then 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 the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

. Most models are available with stainless

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

bracelets or

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

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. Types of polyisoprene ...

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

References

External links

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