About us
Watzl Minerals OG, located in the city of Freistadt, Austria, specializes in buying and selling fine mineral specimens from all localities over the world that have yielded high quality minerals for the advanced collector. Based on their 25+ years experience as avid mineral collectors, Rudolf Watzl and his elder brother Anton established Watzl Minerals in 2007. The newly launched website watzlminerals.com is dedicated to share the thrill of mineral collecting with all real mineral freaks, and all those beginners who are going to become fully hooked on minerals, too.
Rudolf grew up in a mineral collecting family and got captivated by the beauty of minerals at an early age. His first collection mainly consisted of self-collected specimens from the Austrian Alps. Later on, as his knowledge and interest in worldwide specimens grew, he started travelling to collectors and museums around the globe to see some of the most amazing mineral treasures on earth. In 2009 Rudolf graduated with a degree in eco ecology technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Wels.
Anton started assembling his first mineral collection at the age of 6. His father, also Anton, had already been an experienced collector at that time, and he proved to be a very helpful teacher and mentor in early years of collecting. Still being a child, Anton regularly attended several mineral shows every year, and he has missed no “Mineralientage München” show since 1984. Today Anton puts his main focus on highly aesthetic samples of colourful and scarce mineral species in the miniature size range. In 2003 Anton graduated with a degree in architectural engineering from the Technical University of Vienna. Besides his activities as a mineral dealer, he has been running his own architectural office since 2006.
Living in Austria has of course led to a special knowledge and appreciation of alpine mineral species. Over the last decades Rudolf and Anton made many field-collecting trips to remote areas in the Austrian Alps. Anton`s most important find is a 12 cm gem grade diopside crystal from the Rotkopf mountain in the Zillertal Alps, which is considered to be one of the best of its kind. In 2004 Rudolf opened a great pocket which yielded several dozen ironroses at the nearby Mörchnerkar area. Some years later they found nice specimens of sphene, feldspar and skeleton quartz in the famous Habach valley, and wonderful green and purple fluorite specimens on the Weisseck mountain in Salzburg.
Collecting minerals has become our life-long passion, and we look forward to hunting and handling many more amazing crystal treasures. Last but not least we want to say thanks to our girl friends Lisa and Petra, and all our friends who generously support our mineral activities, and who share the thrill of collecting and discovering the next latent wonder of mother nature.