Hand-finished mechanical movement
Glashütte · Est. 1919 · Sachsen

VollmerManufaktur

Four watchmakers. Fewer than sixty watches a year. Sixty is not a target — it is the ceiling of what four pairs of hands can finish without hurrying a single bridge. Beyond it, the work stops being ours.

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01 — EthosWhy Vollmer exists

We were never trying to grow.

A watch is a promise kept across a lifetime — so we make it the way a promise deserves to be made.

Vollmer began in a room behind a house in Glashütte, where one man refused to let a bridge leave the bench until its black polish held a candle flame without a flaw. Three generations later, the room is larger and the bench is the same. We do not chase collections, seasons, or applause. We answer to the movement and to the person who will wear it. Everything else is noise we have chosen not to hear.

Annual output< 60watches, hand-finished
Hands at the bench4watchmakers, no apprentices rushed
Founded1919Glashütte, Saxony
ServicingLifeof the watch, and beyond it
Anglage by handBlack polishUntreated German silverScrewed gold chatonsSwan-neck regulationAnglage by handBlack polishUntreated German silverScrewed gold chatonsSwan-neck regulation
02 — CollectionFour references

Four watches. Nothing we could bring ourselves to add.

Each reference is finished by a single watchmaker from first bridge to final regulation. Prices are complete — case, movement, dial, and the years of waiting that make them possible.

Ref. 01
Kadenz
The three-hander we would keep if we could keep only one. Time, told plainly, finished obsessively.
€48,000
Detail
Kadenz — time only
Calibre
VM-1, manual
Complication
Hours, minutes, small seconds
Case material
Polished stainless steel, 38mm
Power reserve
62 hours
Waiting time
14 months
Price
€48,000
Ref. 02
Reserve
A power-reserve indication rendered as a quiet arc, so you always know how long the promise still holds.
€61,500
Detail
Reserve — power reserve
Calibre
VM-2, manual
Complication
Power reserve, small seconds
Case material
18k rose gold, 39mm
Power reserve
72 hours
Waiting time
20 months
Price
€61,500
Ref. 03
Nacht
A jumping seconds — the deadbeat beat of a pocket-watch, made new. Precision you can hear.
€84,000
Detail
Nacht — jumping seconds
Calibre
VM-3, manual
Complication
Jumping (deadbeat) seconds
Case material
Platinum 950, 40mm
Power reserve
56 hours
Waiting time
28 months
Price
€84,000
Ref. 04
Ewig
A perpetual calendar that will not need correcting until the century turns. Our most patient work.
€142,000
Detail
Ewig — perpetual calendar
Calibre
VM-4, manual
Complication
Perpetual calendar, moonphase
Case material
18k white gold, 41mm
Power reserve
68 hours
Waiting time
36 months
Price
€142,000
03 — MovementInside the case

The finishing no one is meant to see.

Ninety percent of what we do is hidden behind a caseback — invisible to everyone but the watchmaker who signed it and the light it was finished under. We finish it anyway. That is the whole point.

Hand-bevelled bridges
i.

Hand-finished bridges

Every bridge is bevelled and its edges polished by hand against a rotating zinc lap. An inward angle cannot be machined — only a human wrist can cut it clean. Each one takes a full day.

Black polish
ii.

Black polish

Steel worked flat enough to reflect light in only one direction — mirror-bright at one angle, jet-black at another. There is no coating. It is geometry, achieved by hours of hand-lapping on tin.

Screwed gold chatons
iii.

Screwed chatons

Each jewel sits in a gold chaton held by three heat-blued screws — a way of setting jewels abandoned by most because it is slow, exacting, and entirely unnecessary. We keep it for exactly those reasons.

Engraved balance cock
iv.

Engraved & regulated

The balance cock is engraved freehand — no two are identical — and the watch is regulated by a swan-neck adjuster to within a handful of seconds a day, then worn, tested, and set right again.

04 — WorkshopFour people

The whole company fits around one bench.

There is no marketing department, no sales floor, no growth plan. There are four watchmakers, a shared kettle, and the low light of a Saxon afternoon. Everyone here has finished a watch you might one day own.

Master watchmaker
Anselm Vollmer
Master · Régleur
Third generation. Sets and regulates every escapement. Has not missed a day in nineteen years.
Watchmaker, finishing
Ilse Brandt
Finisher · Anglage
Responsible for every bevel and black-polished surface. Learned the wrist from Anselm's father.
Engraver
Tobias Reuter
Engraver · Assembly
Cuts each balance cock freehand and assembles the calibres. Believes a signature should be earned.
Casemaker
Mara Köhler
Cases · Final QC
Turns and polishes every case, and is the last pair of eyes before a watch leaves the room.
05 — PatienceThe waiting list, honestly

We will not pretend the wait is short.

You are not buying a place in a queue — you are reserving a share of four people's hands for a stretch of the coming years. Here is exactly how it works, with nothing softened.

i.
You enquire, we talk
No deposit yet. We prefer to understand what you are after and whether one of the four is right for you.
ii.
You reserve, with a third down
A place on the register is confirmed with a one-third deposit, fully refundable until work begins.
iii.
We begin, and we tell you when
Depending on the reference, that is fourteen to thirty-six months out. We will name the month, and keep to it.
iv.
You visit, if you wish
Many owners come to Glashütte to see their watch on the bench before it is cased. The kettle will be on.

Servicing, for as long as it runs.

A mechanical watch is never finished — it is looked after. Every Vollmer we have made is ours to service for its entire life, at cost, with the same hands that built it.

When those hands one day pass to the next generation, the obligation passes with them. A watch bought today will be understood, opened, and set right in Glashütte long after all of us are gone.

Lifetime servicing
Carried across generations
06 — ContactJoin the register

If the wait does not frighten you, write to us.

Tell us a little about yourself and which reference has caught you. One of the four will reply — not a form, not a bot, one of us.

Atelier
Uferstraße 7
01768 Glashütte, Sachsen
By appointment
Tuesday – Friday
Mornings preferred
Write directly
register@vollmer.de
+49 35053 000 00