# GlashÃ¼tte Spezichron From 1979



## wotsch (Jan 5, 2011)

I'd like to show you a GlashÃ¼tte Spezichron I aquired last year. I've done some research into the watch and its background, and the results are summarised below. There doesn't seem to be too much detailed information available in English on the history of watch making in GlashÃ¼tte, which is a shame considering the splendid products, so most of my sources are in German. I hope you find the summary interesting.

I found the watch in the small ads. It was bought in 1979 by the grandfather of the previous owner and spent the last 15 years in a cupboard.

I bought the watch on the original strap:










...but that was soon replaced with a much more elegant dark brown leather strap:



















The watch is gold-plated and in very good condition considering its age.










Spezichron, short for "Spezial Chronometer", was the name for the Kaliber 11 movement family and was the last movement produced by the East German VEB GlashÃ¼tter Uhrenbetrieb (GUB) before the fall of the iron curtain and the reunification of Germany. The movement was produced between 1979 and 1985 and was the successor movement to the well-respected Spezimatic (short for "Spezial Automatic"). The Kaliber 11 is a 22 jewel movement running at 28,800 bph.

Originally, six variants of the Spezichron were planned, three hand wound and three automatic:


11-22: hand wound, no calendar

11-23: hand wound with date

11-24: hand wound with day and date

11-25: automatic, no calendar

11-26: automatic with date

11-27: automatic with day and date


Only the 11-26 and 11-27 were produced in any large numbers (approx. 291,000 and 73,000, respectively according to this source). The hand wound variants were never produced and there is some debate whether the 11-25 was ever put into mass production, with a number of sources stating that there was only a "Nullserie" of somewhere in the range of 300-1000 pieces produced. This number is doubted by some, though, with some estimating a higher number of around 3-5000.

A number of different dials and bodies were produced, the next picture shows the three movement variants in one of the more common bodies. To see some of the different variations, click the links here, here and here.










The GlashÃ¼tter Uhrenbetrieb (GUB) was formed in 1951 as a fusion of a number of nationalised watch, clock and instrument companies from in and around GlashÃ¼tte, near the Czech border south of Dresden. As with other state-owned conglomerates in East Germany, the GlashÃ¼tter Uhrenbetrieb was a "Volkseigene Betrieb" (VEB) which translates more or less a "People's Company".

The companies combined into GUB included VEB Mechanik Lange & SÃ¶hne (which was the nationalised A. Lange & SÃ¶hne) and VEB Messtechnik (which was the nationalised MÃ¼hle & Sohn).

Following the reunification of Germany, VEB GlashÃ¼tter Uhrenbetrieb was re-privatised by the Treuhandanstalt, an organisation set up to take control of the many thousand VEBs and either privatise or close them. After privatisation, the company became GlasshÃ¼tter Uhrenbetrieb GmbH (GmbH is the equivalent of a Private Limited Company).

The new company used the Kaliber 10-30 movement family, which had been developed during the GDR period, as well as other movements inherited from VEB GlasÃ¼tter Uhrenbetrieb. Swiss ETA movements were also used. Watches were produced under the brand names 'GUB' and 'GlashÃ¼tte Original'.

Privatisation was completed in November 1994, with the brands 'GlashÃ¼tte Original' and 'Union' being used. In 1997, a spin-off company Union Uhrenfabrik GmbH GlashÃ¼tte was created for the 'Union' brand. Both companies were purchased by the Swatch Group in 2000 and continue to produce under the two brands 'GlashÃ¼tte Original' and 'Union GlashÃ¼tte'.

In December 1990, the great gransdon of Ferdinand Adolph Lange (who had founded the GlashÃ¼tte watch industry in the 1840s) established a new company Lange Uhren GmbH with support from International Watch Company (IWC). The company purchased the brand 'A.Lange & SÃ¶hne' from the Treuhandanstalt. Lange now belongs to the luxury goods comapny Richemont (as does, for example, IWC).

In 1994, the MÃ¼hle family, who had owned MÃ¼hle & Sohn until disappropriation at the end of World War II, aquired the company back from the Treuhandanstalt, and today produces under the brand 'Nautische Instrumente MÃ¼hle GlashÃ¼tte'.

-wotsch

Sources (most in German):

http://watch-wiki.de/index.php?title=VEB_Glashütter_Uhrenbetriebe_(GUB)

http://watch-wiki.de/index.php?title=VEB_Mechanik_Lange_&_Söhne

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkseigener_Betrieb

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkseigener_Betrieb

http://watch-wiki.de/index.php?title=GUB_11-25

http://www.glashuetteuhren.de/kalib...er-uhrenbetriebe/kalibergruppe-11-spezichron/

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treuhandanstalt

http://watch-wiki.de/index.php?title=Glashütter_Uhrenbetrieb_GmbH

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glashütter_Uhrenbetrieb

http://watch-wiki.de/index.php?title=Union_Glashütte/Sa

http://watch-wiki.de/index.php?title=Lange_Uhren_GmbH

http://watch-wiki.de/index.php?title=Mühle

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautische_Instrumente_Mühle_Glashütte


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## Sparky (Nov 2, 2005)

Very interesting, thanks for posting. That is a smart looking watch, congrats

Mark


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## The Monk (Dec 23, 2010)

Lovely watch, and a fascinating post. :good:


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## wotsch (Jan 5, 2011)

Funny, I was just looking something up about GUB on watch-wiki.org and noticed that the very detailed overview of the company in German now also has a corresponding page in English.

So I clicked on the 'en' link and, lo and behold, some of the text from my post above has been copied in word-for-word.

My post above used the German-language watch-wiki, amongst others, as a source. Indeed, watch-wiki is a very good source on many watch-related topics. However, I did explicitly state in my post that I was summarizing a number of sources. I also linked all of those sources in the post.

Should I be indignant that my text has now been copied back into watch-wiki without permission or reference to this post? I would expect at least a link, or am I being unreasonable?

What do you think?

-wotsch


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Go into watch-wiki yourself, do a small change or two to the text and reference a link to youself - that's how the BIG Wiki works here anyways, if you open an edit, you can add in a link youself :yes:

It is very naughty, I've had a whole website "stolen" the same way, had to take action with "nominet" and ICAAN to stop the guy! :0

:weed: ldman:


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## wotsch (Jan 5, 2011)

Interesting idea, Mel.

I do like the idea of contributing back to the watch-wiki, as that's been a really good source of information for me, and I mean a bit more than just adding a link back to my post. The English language parts need some improvement, to say the least.

Question: would anyone else be interested in improving the English-language content on the watch-wiki site also?

BR,

-wotsch


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