BY MARTON RADKAI
WEMPE:
CHRONOMETERS
FROM SHIP TO WRIST
For more than ten years, under the guidance
of Eva-Kim Wempe, the fourth-generation
company leader, Wempe has staked its claim
in the world of watchmaking with a solid
portfolio of products that have attracted quite
a following.
MANY BRANDS HAVE PERFECTED THE ART OF “RICH MINIMALISM.”
BY THIS, I MEAN WATCHES THAT SUCCEED AS A RESULT OF THE
VISUAL TENSION THAT ARISES BETWEEN WHAT IS AND WHAT
MIGHT HAVE BEEN. NOTHING AGAINST AN ELABORATELY
DECORATED TIMEPIECE, MIND YOU, BUT SOME LILIES REALLY
DO NOT NEED GILDING.
says. In fact, making watches has been in the family DNA, as it were.
“Wempe has been manufacturing ship’s chronometers for more than 100
years and is world market leader in the field of main and secondary clock
systems with our Wempe Chronometerwerke Maritime division,” she points out.
Anyone cruising with the MS Europa will have arrived at their destination thanks
to a Wempe chronometer.
A disproportionate number of brands known for their minimalism make their “As a manufacturer we see everything through watchmakers’ glasses,” Wempe
home in the small town of Glashütte, Germany. Among these – A. Lange & Söhne, adds. “We know the difficulties arising in connection with development, production,
Nomos, Glashütte Original, to mention a few – there is one that, thanks to a very and operations. As you see, both sides complement each other perfectly.”
bold growth strategy, has been quietly and steadily expanding: Wempe Glashütte
i/SA (the i/SA, by the way, stands for “in Saxony,” one of Germany’s sixteen TIME AND SPACE
federal states, or Länder). It was Kim-Eva Wempe who had the clever idea of purchasing the little, quite run-
The name Wempe may best be known to watch fans as a successful and global down, observatory in the hills above Glashütte from then-owner Nomos and opening
retail purveyor of top-level brands, including the likes of Patek Philippe and the company’s watch division there. She had seen pictures of her grandfather,
Breguet. The company currently operates thirty-two boutiques worldwide, most Herbert Wempe, together with Otto Lange (grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange,
of them on the opulent thoroughfares of major cities, You’ll find Wempe on Fifth founder of A. Lange & Söhne who was essentially the midwife of the Saxon watch
Avenue in New York, Rue Royale/Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, Kurfürstendamm in industry) in front of the pretty structure, and had heard stories about Glashütte,
Berlin, New Bond Street in London, and on and on. which, in her youth, was stuck inside East Germany like some Brigadoon.
Less known is the fact that the company is also a full-fledged maker of fine The observatory itself is not just a cute folly, by the way. It once played a major
watches. For more than ten years, under the wise guidance of Eva-Kim Wempe, role in the Glashütte watch industry as a means to set the time according to the
the fourth-generation company leader, Wempe has staked its claim in the world of stars. Back then, the signals coming from the Berlin observatory were simply not
watchmaking with a solid portfolio of products that have attracted quite a following. accurate enough, partly due to the haze of pollution in the city air, partly due
to the slight delay in the electrical signaling. So an association of watchmakers
NO CONFLICT
Selling watches and making watches is no conflict of interest, Kim-Eva Wempe
decided to build a local observatory to do the time calculations themselves. The
facility was inaugurated in 1910.
WINTER 2018 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | 49