Glashütte Original

we have a long weekend here. feeling a bit tired after going out for last two days. today was just resting at home and took this opportunity to take out some of my watches from the boxes to clean them up and also polish them. just realized that i have three vintage GUB Glashutte watches in my collection. the most interesting thing for collecting this GUB watches is because they can be linked to today's Glashutte Original or Union Glashutte.

these German watches were made in different periods of time (but i am not able date the exact year of production for my watches), they were representing interesting transition of this great watch maker from post-war to before the Germany reunion. among these three watches i have, two of them are manual winding, another one is named as "Spezimatic" which means it is self-winding watch.

of two manual winding watches i have here, i luckily got one Q1 grade movement which is a chronometer standard watch! in GUB time,Q1 mark meant the official high quality seal. however, according to the monograph of "Wristwatch Chronometers" by Fritz von Osterhausen, chronometer wristwatches from Glashutte have exclusivel 70.3 Calibre, which differs from Calibre 70.1 which i am currently having here. but Osterhuasen did not explain why Glashutte still housed KAL.70.1 into a chronometer case as the one i have.

anyway, without further delay, here are some pics of my small collection of this beautiful vintages for your pleasure looking.

stefan

a family photo of my three Glashutte

another view of putting them together

the following elegant watch with date function housed with GUB KAL.69.1,17 jewels. this model series was produced from 1960-71. the dial of this watch looks very close to the modern GO Sixties, especially the font of the hour markers 12 and 6. this is the first one vintage Glashutte i got more than 2 years ago, i like this one very much, especially i like the dome-shaped crystal!

(caseback view of GUB KAL.69.1) please note, "MADE IN GDR" instead of "MADE IN GERMANY" engraved on the caseback.

below is a very rare Q1 chronometer grade made by GUB housed with GUB KAL.70.1, 17 jewels. this model series was produced from 1960-71. in some earlier mode, there is only "Q1" printed on the dial, but in later period, GUB also printed both "Q1" and "Chronometer" on the dial. this is one of the examples.

(caseback view of GUB KAL.70.1) you can see clearly there is rounding words "CHRONOMETER" near edge of the case.

in GUB watch history, there was two automatic models produced, namely Spezimatic and Spezichron. the one shown as below is the Spezimatic with GUB KAL75, 26 jewels (production period from 1964-80) which has lower speed compared with the high speed of 28,800 v/hr successor - Spezichron.

(caseback view of GUB KAL.75)

nt

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Additional info to your GUB75 calibers. Spezimatic (short form of Spezialautomatic) is the round shaped automatic caliber from GUB. It had two version: GUB75 with date indication (that's is in your watch) and GUB74 is without date (that's in my restorated GUB74):

thanks, Ger. i did not know Spezimatic to be form of Spezialautomatic. interestingly to learn new thing.

looking from your Spezimatic, it looks more handsome without date!

stefan

Especially the Grand Mother of the 60ies, and the Chronometer.

Any chanvce to have some movement pics?

Best,

Nicolas

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hi Nico, managed to find these two movement pics from my hard drive, but both of them were taken by the sellers. the quality looks not too bad. from observing from these two pics, their movements look a like!

stefan

. . . as I came to Glashütte Original only in the last nine years. I don't think I've ever seen a vintage GUB outside of the Museum. A few must've made their way to America (Steve G has one), but their profile here was practically non-existent until the start of this decade. Same with Union. A shame, really, because many of these models, as yourself and a few others have demonstrated, are really quite handsome, even if the movement finishing isn't nearly up to par with today's models.

Thanks much for sharing your collection and indulging Nico with movement pics . . . warmest regards, Art

Hi Stefan,

beautiful GUBs you have there! I almost got my hands on a very nice sample of the "Sixties", but unfortunately "almost" only.

The difference between cal. 69.1 and 70.1 is that cal. 69.1 features the date while 70.1 does not.
(Btw: cal. 67.1 is the automatic version of 69.1 and 68.1 is the automatic version of 70.1)

Best,
Martin

Hi Stefan,

relooking at your pictures I saw one real difference that I overlooked the first time: The cal. 70 has screws in the balance rim. That makes it the higher quality cal. 70.4 instead of 70.1. (hard to tell a 4 from a 1 in the picture.)

Best,
Martin

P.S: If you intend to "do your homework", you may give me a PM. There is an interesting book (English/German) about vintage GUB watches. Quite expensive though :-(

 

... i saw that, the additional screws in the balance rim usually came with the high quality movement.

thanks once again, Martin.

stefan

GUB didn't make it easy for future generations: there are three different versions of your caliber 70.1, all stamped 70.1 on the plate, as shown on yours.

The basic version had a ring balance and incabloc shock protection on the balance jewel.

The step up, "Guteuhr", had a 16-screw balance and an inhouse, proprietary shock protection system (see yours, which looks like a rectangle).

The highest, "Guteuhr Chronometer" had the same construction as the one above but was timed and adjusted to chronometer specs.
This was documented on a certificate that was issued with the watch.

Thus, your watch is consistent with the highest quality 70.1 version, as it has the screw balance and GUB shock protection, and is labeled
Chronometer on the dial.  The icing on the cake would be the original chronometer certificate, which should carry both the case number and the
movement serial number on it.  A long shot, but maybe one of the modern Glasshütte companies still has the old GUB chronometer records.  Could be
worth a email...

Enjoy your beautiful pieces,

Tom

... after reading your informative post. learnt some more thing new.

thanks very much for your valuable input, Tom.

stefan

GUB changed their numbering system from the 60 series to the 70 series.

For the 60 series, they distinguished the "1Q" movements with a different number:

GUB 60 - small seconds, basic
GUB 60.1 - sweep seconds, basic
GUB 60.2 - small seconds, Guteuhr
GUB 60.3 - sweep seconds, Guteuhr

The 60's were not issued in chronometer spec, unlike the 70.

The 60 Guteuhr's were distinguished with a few finishing differences as well: better finish on the visible winding wheels, for example.
GUB seems not to have done this with the 70, opting for functional performance and a screw balance for example.

Anyway, your examples are very attractive; maybe your should make it a Glasshutte week on the wrist!

Tom

Tom, really appreciate for your additional info. by the way, where did you find these excellent data? would like to learn more from you.

stefan

. . . and I wouldn't be surprised if there are caches of these movements waiting to be cased. Spezimatic movements are used by the boutique watchmaker VDB . . .

. . . cordially, Art

.... that looks really nice and stunning. can tell us a bit more what is that watch? any pic of the dial, please?

stefan

news.watchprosite.com 0

. . . cordially, Art

...at two particular German reference sites (noncommercial) for Glashütte movements; I'll send by PM as I'm not sure about posting them here.
You can run them through babelfish or break out your German dictionary!

I got interested in the vintage Glashütte movements by way of my fascination with Dornblüth watches.  I have an 04.0 Midi model, whose movement Dirk Dornblüth created from a GUB 60.2 1Q ebauche.  (He somehow acquired 100 or so NOS movements).  I am in awe of how he took this:

....and created this:

The post WWII Glasshütte movements are in some ways remarkable and appealing.  Left without quality tooling and machinery (destroyed or carted off after the war) the Saxon watchmakers designed and built several generations of workable, robust movements.  They aren't too pretty to look at, for the most part, but they work well due to their straightforward layout, large and thick construction, and relatively easy serviceability.  They are the epitome of practicality born from restrictions and as such are a great match for a watchmaker like Dornblüth, who rebuilt their sturdy simplicity into an interpretation of Glasshütte's traditional watchmaking past, one that went dormant in the 1945-1990 period.  The 04.0 Midi thus encompasses both aspects of the Saxon heritage: the 19th century pocketwatch 3/4 plate beauty and the simple and robust practicality of GUB, forged together into a modern piece.  Truly "Made in Germany".

Tom

... i think all these GUB vintage watches are understated. but i am sure there are some collectors collecting these simple and accurate timepieces.

for modern German watch, except Lange or GO are most popular, others very good ones, like UG, Nomos, Stowa and Dornbluth are still understated too.

by the way, Tom, thanks for the info.

stefan

. . . that the Dornblüth 04.0 was based on a 1950's GUB movement, and I recall seeing a photo of one of the stock movements they acquired prior to performing any work . . . the transformation they wrought was near miraculous!

...as the GUB 60 series was in production from 1952 to 1961.  The "1Q" versions of the movements were produced beginning in 1954 and made up about a third of total 60 series production.  I believe Dirk kept the wheel train from the GUB 60.x movements and produced most of the rest himself.  "50% new, 50% old" is how I remember him putting it.

Dirk also used the GUB 60 ebauche in an earlier, very limited series of 25 watches dubbed the 03.0 "Mini".  This was a 33 mm diameter ladies' model (the 29.4 mm movement is shoehorned in!) with the classic silver Dornblueth deck watch dial.  Roger G. has written about the 03.0 on his Dornblueth blog.

(As you can tell, I love talking about this!)

cheers,

Tom

 

Indeed, they look like Quality Movements, well, simply built.

Serious.

Best, my friend.

Nicolas

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