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On a warm and sunny Saturday in June, I visited the inauguration ceremony for DUG workshop. DUG (Deutsche Uhrenmanufaktur Glashütte) is the eleventh company to establish itself in the watchmaking town of Glashütte. The last brand to open a workshop in this town were young independent duo, Kallinich Claeys.
The DUG workshop is just around the corner from Lange HQ, across from Glashütte Watch Museum, and on the steep road leading up to one of Nomos’s workshops. The building previously belonged to C.H. Wolf, and there is still some old signage around the building. It is a modern and fairly large building for a micro-brand to occupy. It has tall ceilings and a row of new watchmaker benches along with a few administrative and conference rooms. It could easily host a medium size watch company.
Toni Brodführer, founder and Managing Director of DUG, is planning to move in there before the end of the year with three watchmakers. He is also open to sharing the space with other small watch companies. At the opening ceremony, I was pleased to run into Thibault Claeys and Johannes Kallinich, who were impressed by the building and seemed to like what Toni is doing. Before I get back to my observations about the brand and the newest watches, I interviewed Toni to get some background and context of owning and operating a new micro-brand in Glashütte.
Toni’s journey of DUG began with a personal passion for watches. He had been fascinated with watches since his childhood and recalls the excitement of his first watch at the age of 14 — a Casio, purchased with money gifted by his grandmother. This early fascination evolved into a deeper appreciation for mechanical watches and eventually turned into obsession with creating a watch company that offered good quality contemporary watches for everyone.
Toni recognized a gap in the market: while Glashütte-made watches are admired for their craftsmanship, they often come with a hefty price tag that puts them out of reach for many enthusiasts. Through digital sales channels and a direct-to-consumer model, DUG aims to offer high-quality mechanical watches at a more accessible price point (around 1,000 Euros). Nomos, Muhle, and Tutima offer watches in the mid-priced segment. Bruno Söhnle offers entry-level watches in quartz and a few mechanical watches meant for traditional retail shops. DUG aims to offer contemporary mechanical watches in the 1,000 Euros price range aimed squarely at the enthusiast segment.
To bring this vision to life, DUG formed strategic partnerships with well-established players in the watch industry. Toni states he was fortunate to leverage his existing friendship with industry veteran and Laco’s CEO, Uwe Rücker, who is also the primary investor in DUG. Uwe was able to utilize the existing infrastructure of Bruno Söhnle, a company that is under the ownership of Laco’s parent company. Together, they approached Sellita for sourcing movements. Incidentally, Sellita has a facility in Glashütte, which made it easier to establish a relationship and procure movements.
DUG adheres to the Glashütte Ordinance, which mandates that a watch must have undergone at least 50 percent of its “essential manufacturing stages” in Glashütte for the town’s name to appear on the dial. Bruno Söhnle owns a sister company in Glashütte named Malon. I visited the company during my trip. It is a small outfit that specializes in precision engineering that was established in 1998. The workshop makes (Sellita) base plate modifications, perlage finishing on movements, modified skeletonized rotors, thermally heated blued screws, and, more recently, thermally blued hands. Malon also has an engraving machine for any type of customization. They also do laser engraving for DUG’s metallic warranty cards. All of the modifications by Malon help DUG in passing this ordinance to qualify as “Made in Glashütte.” Soon, assembly of the watches will be taken over by DUG in their own workshop. Toni managed to hire two out the three watchmakers from Glashütte Original manufacture.
In my conversation with Toni, he states that apart from keeping the watches affordable, design was his top priority. For his first model, he wanted to design a modern GADA (Go Anywhere, Do Anything) watch with a contemporary dial, applied numerals, a 40mm size to fit most wrists, a Sellita automatic movement with a nicely finished rotor, and a high-quality leather strap and bracelet with micro-adjustment. With such specifications, it was a tall order to offer the watch made in Glashütte for DUG’s target price point.
DUG launched its first collection with a limited run of 1,000 watches, a strategic move to achieve the retail price just above 1,000 Euros. However, Toni did not compromise on the quality of the watch. For example, he insisted on a matching date wheel, even though it had an additional cost to send the date module to Switzerland for customization. Some of his parts do come from Asia, but they are further modified in Glashütte. This is already a standard practice with many large and small watch companies in Germany and Switzerland. For a micro-brand it is cost prohibitive to make everything in Europe.
The brand’s inaugural Purist model features clean lines and dial colors in black, white, and blue. They are offered in two variations – Arabic numerals with or without date, or simple applied index markers with or without date. All the dials have the modern textured surface. The dials are manufactured by Taratec. Taratec is an Indian company with a long history of manufacturing dials in India. The parent company also owns India’s largest watch retail chain called Ethos. The company acquired the famous Swiss-based Estima dial and hand manufacture in 2019. Taratec supplies parts to over 50 Swiss watch companies.
At the inauguration celebration, Toni unveiled two new models. The first was a new Purist in a unisex 37mm case with 200 meters of water resistance. Some of his early supporters from Germany had requested a tapered bracelet with micro-adjustment, so Toni stated that new watches will have such a bracelet. The 37mm model will be released just in time for the holidays.
The second model is the Nautic dive watch with a 42mm case, short lugs, 300 meters of water resistance, and unidirectional ceramic bezel. The watch very much resembled the Purist design with applied markers and a textured dial. The Nautic will be offered without a date complication, keeping the focus on the time and bezel for diving. There will be an option for rubber or sailcloth straps, or a steel bracelet. Pricing will be similar to the Purist in the low 1,000 Euros range.
Post celebration, over a beer in the evening, Toni explained he has big ambitions to develop the brand. The ceremony guests included Glashütte Mayor Sven Gleissberg, and Saxony’s State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Thomas Kralinski. Toni is working with Mr. Kralinski on a long-term investment plan for the workshop for future growth and developing movements.
Now, Germany is DUG’s largest market, and it started out with reviews of the Purist watch posted on German social media, forums and YouTube. He has the U.S. market in sight and is looking to broaden DUG’s reach by attending regional watch fairs and deploying digital marketing campaigns targeted at U.S. enthusiasts. His biggest challenge at the moment, though, is meeting the production demand. So far, he has delivered 700 of the 1,000 Purist models and is working on delivering the rest by the end of the year. DUG is also planning limited-editions with more colorful dials.
I was personally impressed by Toni’s pragmatic approach towards affordable watches made in Glashütte. This watchmaking town may be small, but it can be intimidating for a newcomer when you have the keen eyes of bigger brands watching every move closely. Both Thibault Claeys and Johannes Kallinich said that more fresh blood and new thinking is needed in this town. While the duo is making amazingly technical pieces that can hold their own against the likes of Lange, Glashütte Original, and Moritz Grossmann, DUG is doing the same to redefine what should be considered as an affordable watch from Glashütte. DUG
