Five Things You Didn't Know About Tutima
A 27-year-old lawyer, a space station, a sound laboratory, and a movement factory that supplied one of the most famous names in German watchmaking. Tutima's history resists summary.
The founder was not a watchmaker. Ernst Kurtz registered the Tutima brand in 1927 at the age of 27. He was a trained lawyer. By the mid-1930s, his factories in Glashütte employed 1,000 people. His movement company, UROFA, became one of the largest caliber suppliers in Saxony. Kurtz died in 1996 in Ganderkesee, aged 97 — two years after seeing his Flieger chronograph revived for the modern collection.
Germany's first chronograph wristwatch was a Tutima. Built in 1941, the Fliegerchronograph used the Cal. 59 movement produced at UROFA. Ernst Kurtz's brother Walter was a test pilot. Around 30,000 units were produced between 1941 and 1945. Today, original Cal. 59 movements sell for €6,000 to €10,000 on the secondary market.
UROFA supplied movements across the industry. In the 1930s, several Glashütte firms lacked wristwatch production capacity. Kurtz's factory filled the gap. The supply relationships are documented but seldom mentioned. Glashütte was a small town; the manufacturers were neighbors as much as anything else.
The Bundeswehr rejected quartz and chose Tutima. In 1984, at the peak of the quartz crisis, the German military commissioned a mechanical chronograph. The result was the NATO Chronograph, Ref. 798, bearing NATO Stock Number 6645-12-194-8642. It was flight tested at 1,500 meters and 15 kilometers altitude. One unit spent a week aboard the MIR space station. The German military still maintains two dedicated workshops for repairing these watches.
The Hommage minute repeater was developed with the Fraunhofer Institute. First wrist minute repeater developed entirely in-house in German watchmaking history. It contains more than 550 components. Fraunhofer — the same institute responsible for the MP3 audio codec — helped engineer the acoustic properties of the case. Total production: 25 pieces, 20 in rose gold and 5 in platinum. It won the Couture Time Award in 2013.
The brand was registered in 1927. A new building is under construction in Glashütte now, with completion targeted for the centennial in 2027.