Wempe In 1878, with 80 Marks in his pocket, young watchmaker Gerhard D. Wempe opened a watch and jewelry business in his aunt Caroline?s house in the small German town of Elsfleth close to Bremen. Business went well for the young entrepreneur and in the years to come he moved his venture to Oldenburg and finally to Hamburg, where he established the ?Stammhaus? or ?flagship store? of the company in 1907. In 1914 Wempe had opened 4 more stores in Hamburg, but with World War I sales dropped considerably. When Gerhard D. Wempe died in 1921, his son Herbert took over, concentrating on exclusive connections to Swiss watch brands like Omega and Longines and further extending the business, buying in 1938 the famous ?Hamburger Chronometerwerke? factory, an important manufacturer of ships chronometers and still in existence today, producing high precision nautical instruments. World War II again brought personal and professional difficulties. Several stores were destroyed, 80% of the workforce were without housing. In 1945 the company management was handed over to a trustee, in 1951 19 year old son Hellmut had to take over the business. By 1953 Wempe again had 5 stores in Hamburg, by the 1960?s there were stores in several German cities as well. 1980 finally Wempe entered the international scene with the opening of its now US flagship store in New York on Fifth Avenue, to be followed by stores in Paris, Vienna, London and Madrid. Since 2003 daughter Kim-Eva Wempe, who joined in 1987, officially heads Germany?s most respected watch and jewelry retailer with over 500 employees and 26 branches worldwide, also operating in Hamburg the largest watch repair and service facility of any retailer in Europe.