TRIPLE THREAT

Moritz Grossmann CEO Christine Hutter re-introduces us to the brand, which we have been following from afar. Hutter is possibly the only independent founder, owner and business leader at a watchmaking firm who also happens to be a watchmaker

- ASHOK SOMAN

Watchmaking is often about a remembrance of things past – one might even say it is about living history, and keeping the past always in the present tense. While true of all spheres of watchmaking, exempting perhaps the quartz watch and the smartwatch, it is particularly true of haute horlogerie. In this rarefied realm, the work is often about bringing the techniques and knowledge of the past into the present, and ultimately onto people’s wrists again. When an old name returns once more to the dial of a working timepiece, it is a special moment. Well, it can be when done right, and that is exactly what Christine Hutter did on November 11, 2008 when she resurrected the Moritz Grossmann name from her kitchen table in Dresden. This is the Glashütte-based manufacture that produced all the pieces you see here, of course

Obviously, there is more to it than that oft-told story about the firm’s rebirth. First of all, Hutter was deeply interested in all things mechanical from the moment she graduated from university in 1986. This nascent passion was nurtured by master watchmaker Wilhelm Glöggler in Munich, where Hutter entered the world of watchmaking as an apprentice. By the time she finished, she was top of her class, according to the brand’s biography of her.

In 1989, the world changed dramatically, and the path was suddenly open to Glashütte, the mecca of German fine watchmaking. In due time, Hutter had completed stints with the watchmaking trade in both Switzerland and Germany. In fact, Hutter gained valuable sales and marketing experience at no less than Glashütte Original and A. Lange & Söhne, before she embarked on her entrepreneurial journey to establish the Moritz Grossmann manufacture.