And So, Glashütte Ticks On
My travel piece on the heart of German watchmaking, out now in The Spectator
“Nobody needs a watch. Your smartphone will tell the time more accurately than any you can buy. Besides, the most expensive, complicated watches usually live in glass cases, bought as investments or just because you can. In an era where watches are not needed to show the time, they’ve often just become a way to show you’re rich.
But that’s not what the best of watch culture is. It’s not about beautiful hotels and black limos and spending piles of cash. It’s not why Pete, who has worked at Lange for sixteen years, perfectly carving balance cocks, or the tattooed Mark, another worker, assembles those tiny bicycle chains, or the ladies in the hillside Nomos Chronometrie building — giggling as they try to avoid tour-group cameras — arrive at six in the morning to start assembling watches.”
Out now in January edition of The Spectator: my piece on the watchmakers of Glashütte. Read it now!