Glashütte Observatory

Glashütte Observatory (Sternwarte Glashütte) is an observatory located in Glashütte, Saxony, Germany.

From 1904 to 1910 the Glashütte Student Association Urania established an observatory in Glashütte. The inauguration took place 1910 on 26 June.

The history of the observatory Glashütte as a place of watches began in the late 1930s with Otto Lange, grandson of the founder of saxonian watch industry Ferdinand Adolph Lange and Herbert Wempe, owner of the Chronometerwerke and the watch store chain Wempe. They collectively founded the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sternwarte Glashütte” (Observatory Glashütte Working Group) with the aim of building a research and training center for young watchmakers as well as a regulator institute. The Second World War destroyed these plans. The observatory was then owned by local authorities and forgotten, until Kim-Eva Wempe and her father Hellmut Wempe in 2001 had the idea to operate a separate production facility for chronometers in Glashütte.

On January 24, 2005, the Hamburg-based family Wempe renovated the observatory in Glashütte and installed a permanent establishment for watches as well as an independent chronometer certification, which is associated with the Regional Office for Measurement in Thuringia (LMET) and the Saxon State Office for Measurement and Verification Engineering (SLME) in Glashütte.

From July 4, 2006, watches are officially tested for their precision according to the German quality standard DIN 8319.

• Chronometerprüfstelle Sternwarte Glashütte