It’s hard to believe that the Grönefeld brand is now 10 years old. Seems like yesterday I was visiting them for the first time at Baselworld five years ago. As I have written in the past, the Dutch Horological Brothers have an infectious positive vibe about them. You cannot spend a few minutes in their presence and not sense the passion, love, and attention to details they apply to each of their watches. It has been 10 years of Grönefeld, what could the brothers have to show and make me like the niche brand even more? Read on for a brief first look at the 2019 novelty and also an up coming summer special feature with them.
1941 8-seconds Remontroire in Checkered Pattern
The flagship model from the Grönefeld brothers is the 1941 Remontroire. It has won various prizes, including GPHG 2016 prize for best men’s watch. The central feature of the watch is the movement that includes the remontroire d’égalite (or constant force escapement) with a small window on the dial to show the spinning escapement every eight seconds. When you turn the watch over, you also understand why collector rave about Grönefeld watches, the finishing of the movement and the attention to detail is there is spade.
So what is new this time? Well, over the years, the brothers have released various iterations of the 1941 that included different dials and straps. There is even an option for you to customize the dial and make your watch unique. Working with Kari Voutillanen and other artisans, the resulting dials have kept the model fresh and unique for collectors.
For 2019 the new 1941 model includes a special dial we had not seen before: a white dial with checkered pattern in the middle. The resulting watch has a unique look not only because it’s the first white dial from the brothers but also because the middle checkered pattern give it a playful feel. The 1941 watches are not limited, however, the different dials have limited production and overall the 1941 Remontroire movement has a limited production, so if you’ve been contemplating one for your collection, it’s time to reserve one.
Grönefeld Decennium Tourbillon
To celebrate 10 years since opening shop in Oldenzaal, The Netherlands, the brothers have decided to release another tourbillon watch. Instead of a variation on their previous award winning Parallax Tourbillon, this time the tourbillon is added to the beloved 1941 case. The resulting watch is more in line with the current models that have become the flagship and the core collection of the brand.
The Decennium Tourbillon includes the case, in platinum, and some aspects of the dial for the 1941 watch but shows a tourbillon escapement at 6 o’clock. The purity of the line and simplicity of the hour and minutes hands and the of the tourbillon escapement used as a 60 seconds indicator, result in everything we love about the brand while also making this model special. Limited to 10 exemplars.
Bart and Tim Grönefeld have managed to create a bespoke independent brand that produces some of the most interesting and beautiful classic watches in the industry. By restraining their designs, never compromising the quality of their movements, and the finishing of the watches, they have created some of the most sought after watches in the industry. With an understanding of their collectors they also allow you to create bespoke versions of any of their models, which gives everyone more reason to like them.
For their 10th anniversary the brothers have stayed close to the elements that have made the brand successful with a unique limited tourbillon watch. Using the same case and dial design of their most iconic watch, they replaced the remontroire with a tourbillon escapement. A tour de force for such a small brand and for a 1941 design that have made me dream every time I have seen one and had the pleasure of trying one on.
As I will be visiting The Netherlands this summer for business, I have arranged to visit the brothers at their factory in Oldenzaal and will get to see first hand where the little Dutch marvels are created. I will be sure to write up a summary of my visit with plenty of original photography and hopefully some unique stories. grönefeld.com
Editor’s note 09/25/2019: a previous version of this post indicated that the Decennium Tourbillon watch’s dial could be customized. That is incorrect. The 10 limited edition watch will all have the same blue dial as shown in photos above.
One of the winners in the 2019 GPHG awards in the first week of November was a two year old upstart watch brand from Kuala Lumpur named MING Watches. The young brand won best watch in the Challenge category at the Geneva show to the delight of its founder and watch aficionados who have regularly helped sell out the brand’s 11 prior releases since its debut of the 17.01 watch.
MING watches are not limited per we but are produced in small batches of a few hundreds, which in effect make them limited. A quick perusal to their web site shows that all models, except for the two new 2019 models have sold out. Interestingly the new models are also priced much higher than the previous ones. However, before getting ahead of ourselves, how does one go about seeing or trying on a MING watch?