Worn & Wound
DUG: The New Kids on the Block in Glashütte
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. The DUG workshop 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...
