Stowa

Stowa was founded in 1927 by Walter Storz in Hornberg in the Black Forest, the name formed from the first letters of his surname and forename; the company moved to Pforzheim in 1935. In 1938 it presented wristwatches in the plain, Bauhaus-influenced style that survives today as the Antea line, and from 1939 it was one of five German firms that built the 55 mm B-Uhr observation watches for Luftwaffe navigators, alongside A. Lange & Söhne, IWC, Laco and Wempe. The Pforzheim building was destroyed in the bombing of February 1945, and production was rebuilt in Rheinfelden, where Stowa continued through the post-war decades under the Storz family.

In 1996 the watchmaker Jörg Schauer bought the company from Werner Storz and moved it to Engelsbrand near Pforzheim. The catalogue rests on three historical designs: the Flieger, a faithful successor to the B-Uhr; the Antea, in a 2014 form refined with designer Hartmut Esslinger; and the Marine, derived from deck watches. Since July 2021 Stowa has been part of Tempus Arte, a group of German watch manufacturers.