How our success story took off
The two founders of Schmidt & Bender, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Bender, first started producing riflescopes in a simple laundry room with limited manpower, but with ambitious visions and a lot of manual expertise in precision mechanics. What began 65 years ago with modest means developed into a major brand after only a few years. This marked the beginning of our success story as a premium manufacturer of riflescopes.
From "two-man-show" to the world market leader.
While the founding friends spent the first years of their company's history purely as a two-man show, they later established the company in 1968 under the name S&B Fellh. Wetzlar along with their 12 employees set up their new company headquarters in Fellingshausen (which has been Schmidt & Bender's central location of to this day).
Werner Schmidt and Jürgen Wagner tinker with the inversion system.
What drives us forward: Research and development
We produced the first riflescope with variable magnification as early as 1974. Just four years later, we accepted our first major military order. Our productivity and reputation have continually developed as the workforce has continued to grow and additional locations were added in Hungary and the USA. Research and development have always played a vital role in this process. They continue to drive our expanding product range to this day. From the advent of the illuminated reticle in 1996 and FlashDot illumination through to specifications in parallax adjustment, all have been critical milestones in our history, to name only a few among many. Last but not least, all these innovations have earned us numerous tender awards over the past decades and strengthened our vision of offering uncompromising quality as the world market leader for premium riflescopes.
We, at Schmidt & Bender, now have over 160 employees distributed over several locations worldwide. We are proud of our growth, our innovations and last but not least, our expert workforce, which has made it its mission to meet the wide range of customer requirements in the best possible way.
PM II product series with the 3-12x50 PM II and parallax adjustment.
Each and every one of us is Schmidt & Bender
What does that mean? Every company is only as good as its employees. This also holds true for us at Schmidt & Bender. They make all the difference when it comes to precision. After all, intricate craftsmanship is very important to us and ensures the unrivalled premium quality that our customers have come to appreciate so much over 65 years.
Find out more about our riflescopes
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Protect your riflescope
High quality optics from Schmidt & Bender deserve special protection. Whether Protective Lens Covers, Tactical Bags or Cleaning Kits: find everything for protection, cleaning and other useful accessories here.
Clean your riflescope
Now you know what is so special about Schmidt & Bender optics. It is very important to keep your high quality optics in good shape. Therefore, we recommend to check out our information of how to clean your riflescope properly.