Company
Owner & Founder
Martin Althaus
Martin, born in 1977 in Liestal, Switzerland, is the son of Heinrich and Christine Althaus-Lehman. He obtained a BMS Diploma in mechanics of high precision. Later, he acquired work experience in a variety of fields, such as medical technology, mechanical production and mechanical engineering. He spent three years in Charlotte, NC USA, in charge of maintenance and installations of large scale equipment. Later, he broadened his horizon working all over the world in the industrial market. Back in Switzerland, he took over tasks in the field of service project management and maintenance suppport. These and smaller technical, organizational and marketing-oriented projects helped him to acquire the needed experience to feel capable of starting his own business. In January 2016, his father handed down his clocking business. That’s where Martin took off. New and modern ideas shall be cleverly combined with experience. Father and son are persuing this path together.
In his family, consisting of his wife Simone Zahler Althaus and two daughters, Martin finds his balance. His passion for traveling and photography add to his understanding of art, tradition and culture.
Heinrich Althaus
Heinrich, born in 1941, is the son of Heinrich and Elisabeth Althaus-Plattner. He grew up in Oberdorf, Switzerland. Already as a child, he was fascinated by his grandfather named Robert Plattner, who worked in Niederdorf as a watchmaker (Rhabilleur und Pivoteuer). However, when Heinrich was older, he couldn’t follow his childhood dream to become a watchmaker, but instead he got into the educational field. He was awarded his teaching license in Schiers, GR. A few years later, he got into further education in the USA at the Orthogenic School of the University of Chicago, where he studied psychology under the renowned psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim. At the age of 41, he finally realized his childhood dream and enrolled as a part time student at the watchmaker’s school in Solothurn. In 1987, he set up his clock making workshop, which has become Althaus Uhren. In the following years, he successfully undertook many interesting clock making restorations. Nonetheless, the highlight of his work as a clockmaker is definitely the construction and assembly of his own movements and clocks.
With his wife, Christine Althaus-Lehmann, he has two sons: Heinrich and Martin. Today, Christine and Heinrich are proud grandparents of two girls and a boy.
