AboutTime Winter 2021 Winter | Page 33

The Birth of Tutima

In Glashütte , world-famous since the mid-nineteenth century as the ‘ city of timepieces ,’ the belief in the future during the 1920s was tangible . Even amid global strife , we saw technical innovation , film , photography , and , from the United States , jazz , all of which turned the decade into what we now call the Roaring Twenties .
In the midst of German ’ s own post-World-War-I crises , two companies were founded : Uhren-Rohwerke-Fabrik Glashütte AG ( UROFA ) and Uhrenfabrik Glashütte AG , known as UFAG . Ernst Kurtz , an attorney who recognized that the future belonged to the wristwatch and not the still widely utilized pocket watch , led both companies . With his eyes on that future , Kurtz brought the two manufacturing entities together in 1927 under one roof , combining them and implementing modern work structures .
Because he expected his watches to be especially reliable and durable , he chose the name Tutima , for the new company . Derived from the Latin , Tutima means “ safe and secure .” A brand was born .
Kurtz successfully moved the Tutima to what became West Germany just prior to the end of World War II . By the 1960s , when Dieter Delecate took the helm of the company , Tutima strategically expanded until its aviation expertise again earned renown as the Tutima Military Chronograph ref . 798 was named as the official pilot ’ s watch of NATO in 1984 . The company announced its return to Glashutte in 2011 under continued guidance of the Delecate family and with enhanced watchmaking expertise .
Today , Tutima designs and develops its own watch movements , including its Caliber 617 ( utilized within its Patria collection ) produced on CNC tooling machines and finished by hand . Tutima ’ s self-produced spring barrel , gear train , and oscillating system are also utilized in the Hommage minute repeater that Tutima debuted in 2011 . Most recently , in 2017 , Tutima debuted the much-heralded Caliber T659 , a 236-component in-house caliber that features a flyback function , was known by its German name “ Tempostopp ” when it first debuted in the 1940s . --Source : Tutima Glashütte
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