Always follow the Needle

From the armchair you are sitting in right now, would you know where north is? The pocket compasses made by Norbert Fritz in Schwabach could point you in the right direction. And they might even tell you something about the course of the world.

At the moment, Norbert Fritz cannot do with people wanting something from him – or even those who merely breathe. He is fitting tiny magnetic needles onto almost invisible bearing points. It takes very steady hands and good eyesight. The 53-year-old works in a 40-square-metre room on an industrial estate in Schwabach, accompanied only by a radio, shelves of gleaming, oil-coated specialist tools and five sage-green machines dating from the 1930s, used to assemble his compasses.

“For the counter-bearing, I fit rubies. Their hardness allows the needles to turn northwards smoothly and reliably,” he explains. He is particularly pleased with this feature. “That is what sets my compasses apart from cheap models that you don’t get much pleasure from.” Wearing a red checked shirt, he strokes his small white goatee.

Then he gets up, loosens his stiff finger joints with a series of satisfying cracks and points towards the old machines.

“I need a different machine for every operation on the partly assembled case: punching holes, riveting, fitting the glass,” he explains. “And I perform each operation hundreds of times in succession. You have to stay completely alert. Not everyone can do that.”

A needle that changed the world

Norbert Fritz makes sturdy, no-nonsense pocket compasses, 45 millimetres in diameter, housed in gleaming brass cases. His enthusiasm for them keeps him going....

story & pics by Angelika Jakob