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| In Saxony's most glorious epoch, during the reign of | Augustus the Strong, Dresden evolved to become a metropolis of the arts and sciences. The watchmaking trade received particular attention and was also actively promoted, because the awareness of the exact time of day was a key to the co-ordination of events and celebrations on the court agenda. |
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J. C. Friedrich Gutkaes, born in 1785, had also taken up the watchmaking profession. He oversaw a reputed workshop on Schlossgasse in Dresden, where exquisite precision timepieces were made for an illustrious clientele. As a highly respected master of his trade, Gutkaes in 1831 was appointed "mechanicus" of the royal timepiece collection that was on display at Dresden's famous late-baroque Zwinger. In this position, he was also responsible for the tower clock of the city palace; it governed daily activities at the Saxon court. |
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Gutkaes' most famous work is the digital | five-minute clock which he built for the Semper Opera in 1841. But he must share the fame with another man whose history begins in the following chapter. |
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