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| Tutima German Watches |
Tutima watches have been around for more than seventy years now. Its beginnings were in Saxony's Glashutte, one of the most important centers of German watchmaking until World War II. The best products of the Glashutter Uhren-Rohwerke¬Fabrik (UROFA), managed by Dr. Ernst Kurtz, were distributed under the name Tutima, a word that is derived from the Latin word tutus (meaning secure, protected).
Dr. Kurtz left Clashutte just before the end of the war, saved the brand name from the fall of the iron curtain, and in the same year founded a new watch production in southern West Germany. In the year 1951 he moved Watch Factory Kurtz to a very northern region of Germany. When he set up his company again, Dr. Kurtz did not forget Glashutte's high-quality standards and ensured that the production of his watch movements was based strictly upon them. The brand name he chose, Kurtz Glashutter Tradition, also indicated this high level of quality for all to see on the dials. In Ganderkesee he created N urofa, Norddeutsche Uhren-Rohwerke-Fabrik, for the production of ebeucnes, and next to it the company sales and marketing offices of Tutima-Uhren. In 1959 lack
of profitability forced him to stop production of his watch movements.
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The fortunes of the Tutima-Uhren brand then passed to a young businessman and former associate of Ernst Kurtz, Dieter Delecate. What Delecate had inherited with the Tutima brand, however, was not going to be easy to continue. Nobody was interested in tradition in those days; instead the demand called for large amounts of inexpensive watches. The tiny watch factory on Germany's northern coast nevertheless managed to survive the great plague that was killing off watch brands at the time of the quartz shock and became popular again during the renaissance of the mechanical watch in the late '80s with high-quality instrument watches that were manufactured exclusively in Germany with movements from Switzerland.
The current model palette has long since outgrown its humble beginnings when the military chronograph designed for tender and issued by the German armed forces in 1985 ruled the collection. Functional pilot's watches are still the center of attention, but the range now runs from a detailed remake of the Tutima pilot's chronograph 1941 to the modernly styled
FX model in a cool steel look. The small watch factory in Ganderkesee employs around fifty people. An active troop of field representatives ensures that the watches from Lower Saxony are available in 150 selected outlets in Germany. In the U.S.A. Tutima has made quite a name for itself with spectacular actions such as being the official timekeeper at the San Francisco Fleet Week, the most impressive air show in the United States, keeping its image close to that of aviation.
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Tutima Watch Company
PO BOX 525
Sanna
Vrigin Islands, USA
Tel: (967) 1-286390
http://us.tagheuer.com
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