Gerhard Wempe made a daring decision in 1907: he founded his “flagship store” at the fashionable address of “Schulterblatt 141” in Hamburg. An enormous clock with three dials on the store façade was a magnet for customers.A mere seven years later, Gerhard Wempe had already opened four more stores in Hamburg. By the beginning of World War I, the company was producing several best-sellers: “GDW” watch chains (named after the founder’s initials), 25 different models of wedding rings, starting at a price of just eight marks; and Wempe’s reasonably priced “Möwe” watch. Herbert Wempe, had not been recruited to the front in World War I due to his poor health and was therefore able to attend to the business in the evenings. The company’s founder, Gerhard Diedrich Wempe, passed away on 4 May 1921.