====== Wempe ======
{{wst>menue|Wempe}}

**Wempe**, a Hamburg-based family company, is not only a renowned chain of luxury shops in the area of watches and jewelry, but meanwhile has become a watch manufacturer and a meritorious promoter of the high-quality mechanical watch in Germany.

===== From watch store to shop chain =====
The trained watchmaker [[Wempe Gerhard D.|Gerhard Diederich Wilhelm Wempe]] ventured on May 5, [[1878]] with 21 years to start his own business with an initial investment of 80 marks in Elsfleth, a small town near the North Sea, located on the lower Weser. Wempe is a marketing talent. He puts the watches decoratively on homemade velvet-covered boards, the "cartridges", and builds large display windows and display cases in the room of his aunt.

When the shipbuilding goes through a crisis in his homeland, in [[1894]] Wempe changes to Oldenburg, where he founds a shop for watches and jewelry. It expands rapidly. [[1907]] Wempe dares to take the plunge into the city of Hamburg, where at the street "Schulterblatt 141" he opens what is now called a "flagship store". On the facade attracts a large watch with three dials. In just seven years arise four other shops in Hamburg.

The "Seagull" [[pocket watch]] is produced exclusively for the first time in the vicinity of [[Geneva]] for a German retailer. When the war starts, revenue drops abruptly by 75 percent. The ailing soldier [[Wempe, Herbert|Herbert Wempe]], son of Gerhard D. Wempe, who entered the company already with only 15 years, is not sent to the front and can take care of business in the evening. Company founder Gerhard D. Wempe dies on May 4, [[1921]].

In the year of inflation [[1923]] Herbert Wempe buys the house at the Hamburg stone street, that is called "Haus Gülden Gerd" and becomes the company's headquarters. [[1925]] the good relations with the watchmaking in Switzerland bear fruit the company receives the exclusive Hamburg representative for the Swiss watch manufacturers [[Omega]], [[Longines]], [[Movado]] and [[Zenith]].

On January 1, [[1938]] [[Wempe, Herbert|Herbert Wempe]] takes over the [[Hamburger Chronometerwerke]] (Hamburg Chronometer Plants), which had been founded in 1905 by the great German shipowners from Hamburg and Bremen. [[1942]] Wempe developes a patent for a unit chronometer, which today is still produced in Hamburg.

After the war, the son of [[Wempe, Hellmut|Hellmut Wempe]] takes over the corporate management. The company expands again and in [[1953]] has five branches in Hamburg. [[1960]] more stores are opened in Lübeck, Bremen, Berlin and Hannover. A decade later with the branch in Frankfurt follows the step beyond the borders of northern Germany. In the style of [[Tiffany]] and [[Cartier]] operations are now located in the prime downtown locations of big cities.

[[1987]] [[Wempe, Kim-Eva|Kim-Eva Wempe]] officially joins the company. She works as a designer at the creation of the jewelry collections and takes increasing responsibility in the management.

===== The venture abroad =====
[[1980]] Wempe, with the opening of an office in New York's Fifth Avenue, dares to go a big step, and some time later he opens also in Paris on the Place de la Concorde, one of the best and most desirable locations at all. His approach is proving to be a success and ensures the company a place among the major providers of luxury goods. In Vienna and [[1997]] in London at the New Bond Street shops arise in the best city locations.

===== Expansion and new impulses in East Germany =====
After the fall of the wall, it is obvious for a Wempe, to expand also into the east. So between [[1991]] and [[1996]] shops open in the Maedler Passage in Leipzig, at the Old Market in Dresden and in central Berlin at Friedrichstraße.

Wempe is also involved in [[Glashütte]] He restores [[2005]], the [[Sternwarte Glashütte|Glashütte Observatory]] and therin builds in a permanent establishment for watches as well as an independent [[chronometer certification]] office.

===== Wempe as manufacturer of high quality mechanical watches =====
In cooperation with [[Nomos]] Wempe develops an own series of watches, which he brings on the market under the brand name **Wempe Chronometerwerke Glashütte i/SA**. It is presented on 16 October [[2006]]. So for the first time after 36 years there is again a German wristwatch [[chronometer]].

Wempe presents two watch series [[Wempe Zeitmeister]] (time champion) with round cases and Wempe Chronometerwerke in [[tonneau]] form ([[Wempe Chronometerwerke Handaufzug]], Calibre CW 1, [[Wempe Chronometerwerke Tourbillon]], Calibre CW 2).

===== Wempe Today =====
As of [[2018]], Wempe operates 26 branches in Germany plus locations in Beijing, London, Madrid, New York, Paris, Vienna, and stores on two MS Europa cruise ships.

Wempe stores carry many major watch brands, including [[Richemont]] ([[A. Lange & Söhne]], [[Baume & Mercier]], [[Cartier]], [[IWC]], [[Jaeger-LeCoultre]], [[Montblanc]], [[Panerai]], [[Piaget]], [[Roger Dubuis]], [[Vacheron Constantin]]), [[LVMH]] ([[Hublot]], [[TAG Heuer]]), [[Swatch Group]] ([[Breguet]], [[Glashütte Original]], [[Longines]], [[Rado]], [[Tissot]]), and other brands ([[Rolex]], [[Patek Philippe]], [[Breitling]], [[Chopard]], [[Junghans]], [[Mühle-Glashütte]], [[Nomos Glashütte]], [[Parmigiani Fleurier]], [[Tudor]], [[Tutima]], [[Ulysse Nardin]]). Notably absent are [[Audemars Piguet]], [[Zenith]], [[Omega]], and others. Wempe also sells their own Wempe Glashütte brand.

===== Address =====
Gerhard D. Wempe Kommanditgesellschaft\\ Steinstraße 23\\ 

20095 Hamburg\\ Tel. +49.(0)40.334 48-0\\ Fax. +49.(0)40.334 48-666

===== Weblinks =====
  *[[http://www.wempe.com/|Wempe]]
  *[[http://www.chronometerwerke-glashuette.de/|Wempe Chronometerwerke Glashütte]]
  *[[http://www.chronometerwerke-glashuette.de/bereich4.htm|Chronometerprüfstelle Sternwarte Glashütte]]


{{tag>Watch_brands Watch_retailers Watch_brands_Germany}}