[3] After successfully petitioning the King of Saxony for a business loan, Moritz Grossman founded the German School of Watchmaking in the town of Glashütte in 1878.

Known for their high quality, Glashütte timepieces grew in popularity until World War I and the depression caused by hyperinflation in Weimar Germany that followed, which dramatically impacted sales.

With many wartime reparations mandated by the Western Allies, the Soviet Union seized much of the remaining watchmaking machinery from Glashütte.

[7][8][9] While Western watchmakers were developing technology related to and weighing the impact of the quartz crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, GUB, significantly insulated from capitalist market demands by the Iron Curtain, instead continued to focus on traditional mechanical movements.

This school is named after the Glashütte-based watchmaker, Alfred Helwig, who invented the flying tourbillon in 1921, a major horological innovation that can be seen on extremely high-end timepieces.

This contributes to exclusivity, since a maximum of 9,999 pieces per model are possible, as well as prevents counterfeiting where, in the event of theft, a specific timepiece can be returned to the original owner.