Laco, which began as Lacher & Co. in Pforzheim in 1925, was one of the businesses hired to make pilot watches for the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War.

In keeping with history, Laco continues to build some of the most well-liked flieger watches in the business, including some highly expensive timepieces that use Swiss movements as well as more reasonably priced timepieces that use Japanese movements to make them accessible to a wider audience.

But that doesn't mean they only provide aviation-inspired timepieces; they also carry a wide variety of divers and an outstanding selection of dress watches.

Founded: 1925
Founder: Frieda Lacher and Ludwig Hummel
Headquarters: Pforzheim, Germany
Official website: https://www.laco.de

In 1861, Erhard Junghans founded the business that bears his name. With an output of more than 3 million clocks that year, Junghans was the largest clock manufacturer in the world in 1903.

Many years later, the company produced its first wristwatch, setting it on the way to becoming one of the major players in the watchmaking business in the 1950s.

Max Bill, a Siwss designer, worked with Junghans to develop some of their most recognizable watches, which were influenced by the Bauhaus movement. This is how Junghans is known today.

Founded: 1861
Founder: Erhard Junghans and Jakob Zeller-Tobler
Headquarters: Schramberg, Germany
Official website: https://www.junghans.de/en

Unlike other businesses with origins in Glashütte's long history, Sinn was established in Frankfurt in 1961 as Helmut Sinn Spezialuhren by Helmut Sinn, a veteran WWII pilot, thus the company's focus on pilot watches.

Later, in 1994, Lothar Schmidt bought it and changed the name to Sinn Spezialuhren, retaining the company's strong focus on extremely practical tool watches and moving even further away from the conventional German aesthetic.

The U1 diving watch, made of German Submarine Steel with a bezel treated with the company's Tegiment technology, which further raises the hardness level, is one of their most cherished timepieces.

Founded: 1961
Founder: Helmut Sinn
Headquarters: Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Official website: https://www.sinn.de/en/

Another business that flourished after the collapse of the Soviet Union is Nomos Glashütte. Roland Schwertner started it immediately following the fall of the Berlin Wall in January 1990, and only two years later, in 1992, did its first collection become available.

They are well renowned for their coveted Bauhaus style watches, such the OG Tangente 38, but they have veered off course with sportier collections like the Ahoi divers and the Autobahn racing clocks.

Founded: 1990
Founder: Roland Schwertner
Headquarters: Glashütte, Germany
Official website: https://nomos-glashuette.com/en/

Even though Glashütte Original as we know it today was established in 1994, the company's history is a little more complicated and has roots that date all the way back to 1845, when the first watchmakers arrived in the little Saxony town of Glashütte, making it the hub of German watchmaking.

Following the end of World War II, the Soviet Union unified all of Glashütte's watch manufacturers under the name Volkseigener Betrieb Glashutter Uhrenbetriebe, or GUB. This watchmaking conglomerate was permitted to be privatized in 1994 as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and, of course, the Berlin Wall, giving rise to Glashütte Original as we know it today.

The business continues to use all of the conventional watchmaking methods that it has employed throughout its lengthy history.

Founded: 1994
Founder: The state-owned VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe
Headquarters: Glashütte, Germany
Official website: https://www.glashuette-original.com/

The name A. Lange & Söhne should sound very familiar to the majority of watch fans because it is one of the most prestigious and recognizable German watch companies to emerge from Glashütte. Ferdinand Adolph Lange, a renowned watchmaker, launched the business in 1845, which is where the company's history begins.

One of the most recognized brands in the world, A. Lange & Söhne watches are known for their level of creativity and meticulous attention to detail.

Their signature and corporate logo, a testament to their extraordinary craftsmanship and artistry, is the magnificent Lang floral pattern, which is manually carved on the balance cock of each of their clocks.

Founded: 1845
Founder: Ferdinand Adolph Lange
Headquarters: Glashütte, Germany
Official website: https://www.alange-soehne.com/

Despite being a family-owned business that was founded in 1924, Archimede didn't begin producing timepieces for sale until 2003. The unique quality of Archimede is that it is one of the few watch businesses that designs, prototypes, crafts, and finishes every single one of its cases internally.

The stainless steel cases, known as Ickler cases, are machined from a single stainless steel block and utilized for the whole line of Archimede watches as well as being made available to other German watchmakers.

Founded: 2003
Founder: Ickler family
Headquarters: Pforzheim, Germany
Official website: https://archimede-watches.com/

When Damasko was established in 1994, the company's creator believed that the high performance materials he had created for the aerospace sector would make for some of the world's most resilient timepieces. In order to create some of the world's toughest timepieces, Konrad Damasko started out on his mission.

Even up to 2002, Damasko supplied Sinn with armored watch casings. The business creates its own internal movements and has also created other advances in the industry, including a silicon escape wheel and its own EPS spiral balancing spring made of silicon.

Founded: 1994
Founder: Konrad Damasko
Headquarters: Barbing, Germany
Official website: https://www.damasko-watches.com/

Mühle Glashütte, the oldest family-owned watchmaking business in Germany, has a long history that dates back to Saxony in 1869. The interesting thing is that they only produced time measuring instruments for the German Watchmaking School and motorcycle speedometers, automobile dashboard counters, and onboard timers for military planes, forced by the demands sparked by the two world wars, before their first wristwatch was released in 1996.

The S.A.R. Rescue Timer and S.A.R. Flieger Chronograph, both made for the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service, are two of their most well-known timepieces. Despite having military roots, the Mühle Glashütte watch brand now features a number of luxury and sports styles.

Founded: 1869
Founder: Robert Mühle
Headquarters: Glashütte, Germany
Official website: https://www.muehle-glashuette.de/

MeisterSinger was founded in 2001 with the specific intention of producing timepieces that are "unmatched in simplicity and clarity".

This gave rise to the intriguing idea of timepieces with just one hand, which was included in the very first clocks ever made and was influenced by ancient sundials. MeisterSinger made the decision to start from scratch.

Despite being relatively straightforward, their designs are some of the most distinctive in the watchmaking sector, including the No. 01. A simple dial with a single hand and huge Arabic numerals.

Founded: 2001
Founder: Manfred Brassler
Headquarters: Münster, Germany
Official website: https://www.meistersinger.com/en/

Montblanc was established in 1908 by German financier Alfred Nehemias and engineer August Eberstein, despite having its manufacturing facilities in Switzerland. We'll go ahead and declare this a German corporation since the company's headquarters are in Hamburg.

The fact that this watchmaker is more than simply a watchmaker and hasn't been for a very long time is another intriguing aspect of them. Montblanc initially produced high-end pens and leather items, and it didn't start making watches until 1997.

However, they decided to build them from the ground up rather of simply buying a decent watch and adding their name to it, which helped them become well-known in the watchmaking community.

Founded: 1906
Founder: Claus-Johannes Voss
Headquarters: Hamburg, Germany
Official website: https://www.montblanc.com/en-us/home.html

Walter Storz founded Stowa in 1927, and the company attained its highest output in the 1930s and 1940s while producing Bauhaus-inspired timepieces and later pilot watches for the Luftwaffe to enable German fighter pilots in World War II.

The pricey watch business was handed down from father to son before being purchased in 1996 by Jörg Schauer from Walter Storz's son Werner. Stowa most recently merged with Tempus Arte GmbH & Co. KG in 2021.

Stowa now does its business entirely online and is renowned for its remarkable watch collections, Flieger and Antea.

Founded: 1927
Founder: Walter Storz
Headquarters: Engelsbrand, Germany
Official website: https://www.stowa.de/en/