A Contribution to Watch CultureSixth Class of Watchmakers Begins Education at Glashütte Original’s Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking
Selected out of over 200 applications twelve beginning watchmakers began their education at Glashütte Original’s Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking August 21st, 2006, at 9:30 am. With a plea to their honesty and commitment Glashütte Original’s managing director of production Günter Wiegand turned the new apprentices into the hands of Uwe Bahr and his educational team during a formal ceremony. This is the fifth class to go through the school since its opening in 2001. Glashütte Original’s school of watchmaking is the largest internal educational institution in the little "watch city."
The manufactory places a great deal of value on a practically oriented education. Educational field trips, foreign language classes (English and French), in-house internships, and partner programs with Switzerland’s WOSTEP (Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program) complete this sound international education. Its graduates thus become ambassadors of "handmade in Germany" in general and of Glashütte’s art of watchmaking in particular throughout the world.
Managing director Günter Wiegand gave these new employees a rare promise at the start of their education: If they end their studies with an aggregate grade of 2.0 or better (equal to a 3.0 average in the American grade point system), they are guaranteed a job in the Glashütte Original manufactory or in one of the sister companies of the Swatch Group AG.
Since the founding of the German School of Watchmaking by Moritz Grossmann in 1878, watchmakers have been educated in Glashütte, located in Saxony’s Müglitz Valley. Maintaining and continuing knowledge collected for generations, and thus securing the continuance of the traditional craft of watchmaking in Glashütte, is an express goal of the Glashütte Original manufactory. Completely in the spirit of Grossmann, the future of watchmaking is placed in the hands of the youth, in every sense.