 On May 8, 1945, just hours away from the cease-fire, Russian bombers wreaked havoc over Glashütte, severely damaging the metropolis of German watchmaking skills. Under the East German government, the factories were later merged into a state-owned combine; and the famous Glashütte trade names vanished from the face of the watches. Tutima, however, survived and found a new domicile in West Germany.
Coincidence or not: Dr. Ernst Kurtz, successful head of UROFA and UFAG, had packed his belongings and left Glashütte just one day before the terrible bombings. That same year, he set up a new company, Uhrenfabrik Kurtz, in the South of Germany. In 1951, the company moved to Ganderkesee in Lower Saxony. Together with former Glashütte employees, Kurtz picked up where previous developments had left off. The inscription "Kurtz Glashütter Tradition" on the dials unequivocally announced their intention of maintaining the watchmaking standards of the past.
This was not just an empty boast. As early as 1949, one of several new developments launched by the company was the fine 11½-ligne traditional caliber "Kurtz 25", which featured elaborate details such as chaton-set jewels, "super shock resist"-system and Breguet hairspring. By 1956, the promising, less expensive 5¼-ligne caliber Kurtz 570 was ready to go into series production. By that time, however, the financial resources of Dr. Kurtz were exhausted.
But the brave entrepreneur's project had already taken root in Lower Saxony. A new generation of watchmakers, trained in keeping with the strict principles of Glashütte traditions, had meanwhile come of age. Werner Pohlan, former associate and close friend of Dr. Kurtz in Glashütte, continued to run the company under the name NUROFA - Norddeutsche Uhrenrohwerkefabrik, alongside a previously founded distribution company, TUTIMA UHREN. The historic name of Tutima celebrated a glorious comeback in Lower Saxony. In 1959 Dr. Kurtz resumed management of the ebauche factory, giving it the venerable name UROFA, after the factory which he himself had founded and which no longer existed in Glashütte.
In the years 1958/59, NUROFA / UROFA produced the remarkable number of around 70,000 ebauches of caliber 570. Just one year later, ebauche production was finally discontinued. The same fate, however, was not in store for the watchmaking sector nor for the name of Tutima. |
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| Dr. Ernst Kurtz founded Urofa-Ufag Aktiengesellschaften in Glashutte in 1926 and managed the company until it closed down in 1945. As early as the 30's, Dr. Kurtz played a decisive role in the successful development of the German wristwatch industry. |
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| Kal. Kurtz 25 |
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