About GZ

GZ

GZ, the Goldschmiede-Zeitung, is Germany's long-established trade magazine for goldsmiths and silversmiths, watchmakers and jewellers, published under the tagline "Das Magazin für Schmuck und Uhren" (the magazine for jewellery and watches). Appearing monthly since 1948, it serves as the official organ of the Bavarian regional association for the gold and silversmith craft and reaches its professional readership through a combination of trade journalism, technical features and industry news. Since 2012 the magazine has been produced in Hamburg and Pforzheim by the Untitled-Verlag und Agentur, after more than six decades with the Stuttgart-based Rühle-Diebener Verlag. With its mix of craft coverage, business reporting and product presentation, GZ is one of the oldest continuously published specialist titles in the German jewellery and watchmaking trade, and it remains the central print medium for a craft sector that combines artisanal tradition with luxury retail.

Overview

The Goldschmiede-Zeitung, universally known in the trade by its initials GZ, is a monthly German-language specialist magazine devoted to the crafts of goldsmithing and silversmithing, watchmaking and jewellery retail. Its readership consists of master craftsmen and craft businesses, jewellery retailers, watchmakers, designers and suppliers to the trade, as well as the members of the professional associations with which the magazine is affiliated. The title is the official organ of the Landesverband Bayern für das Gold- und Silberschmiedehandwerk, the Bavarian regional association for the gold and silversmith craft, and it is delivered free of charge as the association's official publication to the members of the Zentralverband für Uhren, Schmuck und Zeitmesstechnik, the central association for watches, jewellery and timekeeping technology.

Editorially, GZ covers the full spectrum of its trade: craftsmanship and workshop technique, design trends in jewellery and watches, business management for craft enterprises, vocational training and succession, trade fairs and industry events, and news from the associations and guilds. The magazine also reports on the luxury and fashion context in which jewellers operate, since many of its readers run retail businesses that sell both handcrafted pieces and branded watches and jewellery. Regular supplements and special issues, published under titles such as GZ plus, Technik special and Magic moments, allow deeper coverage of technical topics and seasonal product themes. The Munich city guide supplement reflects the magazine's connection to the Inhorgenta jewellery and watch fair held in the Bavarian capital.

GZ is published by the Untitled-Verlag und Agentur, which operates from Hamburg and Pforzheim, the latter being Germany's historic centre of the jewellery and watchmaking industry. The magazine's website, gz-online.de, extends the print offering with news updates and an online presence for the trade. In an industry where personal networks, trade fairs and association life remain central, GZ functions as a professional community medium as much as a journalistic one, documenting the craft's developments and providing a forum for the exchange of technical and business knowledge across generations of goldsmiths.

History

The origins of the Goldschmiede-Zeitung go back to the immediate post-war period, when the German craft trades were rebuilding their professional organisations and their specialist press. The first issue appeared in 1948, and the magazine quickly established itself as the voice of the goldsmiths' and silversmiths' craft in the young Federal Republic. Its predecessor was the Nachrichtenblatt für das Goldschmiede-, Juwelier- und Graveur-Handwerk, a trade bulletin that had served the craft before and during the war years, and the new Goldschmiede-Zeitung inherited both its readership and its mission of professional communication.

For the first six decades of its existence, the magazine was published in Stuttgart by the Rühle-Diebener Verlag, a publishing house with deep roots in the specialist press for the craft trades. During this period the title absorbed the Deutsche Goldschmiedezeitung, consolidating its position as the leading German-language journal for the goldsmithing trade. At times the magazine also appeared under variant titles, including Deutsche Goldschmiedezeitung and European Jeweler, reflecting the publisher's ambitions to address an international readership within the European jewellery trade. The Zentralverband für das Juwelier-, Gold- und Silberschmiedehandwerk, the central association of the trade, was involved in the magazine's publication from the early years, giving it the character of an association organ alongside its independent editorial content.

A new chapter began in 2012, when publication moved to the Untitled-Verlag und Agentur, with editorial and production operations in Hamburg and Pforzheim. The move reflected the changing economics of the specialist press and brought the magazine closer to Pforzheim, the city whose jewellery and watchmaking industry has been the economic heart of the German trade for more than two centuries. Under the new publisher the magazine retained its monthly frequency and its role as the official organ of the Bavarian regional association, while refreshing its design and expanding its supplements. Since 2018 the title Uhren, Juwelen, Schmuck has appeared as part of the magazine's family of special publications, addressing the watch and jewellery retail segment in greater depth.

Throughout its history of more than 75 years, GZ has documented the profound transformations of its trade: the mechanisation and later digitalisation of workshop processes, the rise of branded luxury watches as a dominant retail category, the challenges of vocational training and business succession in the craft sector, and the impact of globalisation on a trade that was once organised in small local workshops. The magazine's archive is consequently a unique record of the German goldsmithing craft in the post-war era.

Content and Sections

The core of GZ's editorial offering is craft and technical journalism for the goldsmithing and silversmithing trades. Workshop technique features explain traditional and modern methods of jewellery making, from hand-forging and stone-setting to CAD design and 3D printing, laser welding and modern casting processes. These articles are written for practising craftsmen and combine step-by-step technical instruction with assessments of new materials, tools and machinery. The Technik special supplement concentrates this technical coverage, giving suppliers and equipment manufacturers a platform to present innovations to the trade.

Design and product coverage forms the second pillar. GZ reports on jewellery design trends, presents new collections from manufacturers and designers, and covers the major trade fairs, above all Inhorgenta in Munich, the leading European trade fair for jewellery, watches and gemstones. Fair reporting includes trend analyses, exhibitor portraits and assessments of market developments, providing readers who cannot attend with a comprehensive picture of the season's novelties. Watch coverage has grown in importance over the years, reflecting the significance of branded timepieces in the turnover of many jewellery retailers.

Business and association news addresses the economic side of the craft. Articles cover business management for small craft enterprises, marketing and retail presentation, vocational training and the recruitment of apprentices, as well as legal and tax issues relevant to the trade. News from the guilds, regional associations and the central association keeps readers informed about professional politics, collective agreements and the work of their representative bodies. Portraits of craft businesses, master craftsmen and young designers add a personal dimension, celebrating the individuals who carry the craft forward. The supplements GZ plus, Gold-Report, Der Ring and Magic moments provide themed deep-dives, from the gold market to wedding jewellery, while the Munich city guide serves visitors to the Inhorgenta fair.

Publisher and Organization

GZ is published by the Untitled-Verlag und Agentur, based in Hamburg and Pforzheim. The publishing house took over the Goldschmiede-Zeitung in 2012 from the Rühle-Diebener Verlag of Stuttgart, which had produced the magazine from its first issue in 1948 until 2009. The choice of Pforzheim as a publishing location is significant: the city in Baden-Württemberg has been the centre of the German jewellery, watch and precious-metal industry since the eighteenth century, and the proximity to the trade's manufacturers, suppliers and the Hochschule Pforzheim's renowned jewellery design faculty gives the publisher direct access to the industry it serves.

The magazine is the official organ of the Landesverband Bayern für das Gold- und Silberschmiedehandwerk, the Bavarian regional association for the gold and silversmith craft, and it is supplied free of charge to members of the Zentralverband für Uhren, Schmuck und Zeitmesstechnik as the association's official publication. This association linkage gives GZ a guaranteed core circulation within the organised craft and underlines its role as a professional community medium. The magazine appears monthly in German. Detailed current information on the editorial leadership is not publicly confirmed in the sources consulted; the publisher's imprint on gz-online.de carries the legally required editorial responsibility details.

Digital Presence

The online presence of GZ is centred on gz-online.de, the magazine's website, which extends the monthly print edition with trade news, event coverage and information about the magazine's supplements and special issues. The site serves the professional community with updates between print issues, covering trade fair announcements, association news and product launches in the jewellery and watch sectors. As a specialist B2B title for a craft trade, GZ's digital strategy is oriented toward its professional readership rather than a general consumer audience, and the website functions primarily as a service platform for subscribers, association members and advertisers.

The magazine is also present on the professional networks and social media channels where the jewellery trade communicates, though its core identity remains the print edition, which continues to be the medium of record for the organised goldsmithing craft in Germany. The combination of the monthly magazine, its themed supplements and the online platform gives the Untitled-Verlag a cross-media offering for advertisers from the jewellery, watch, gemstone and workshop-equipment industries. In a trade where trust, craftsmanship and personal reputation are paramount, GZ's seven decades of continuous publication give it an authority that newer digital-only competitors cannot easily replicate, and the magazine remains the reference publication for Germany's goldsmiths, silversmiths, watchmakers and jewellers.