Over the years writing about watches, you are bound to develop great friendships and admiration for the many in the industry who have dedicated their lives to the watchmaking art. Two of the folks I hold in highest esteem and am generally happy to call friends are the Horological Brothers from the watch brand Grönefeld.

Since I was traveling to the Netherlands in September, I used the opportunity to take the train and criss-cross the country to spend a few hours with Tim and Bart. I even got a chance to meet their dad as well as Tim’s son. It’s truly a family affair in Oldenzaal, the Netherlands. This report will give a thorough recount of this short but memorable visit early fall of 2019.

Two years ago I had an opportunity to visit one of the most technical, yet affordable, watch manufacturer on the planet: Sinn Spezialuhren of Frankfurt am Main. I wrote about the experience late this summer, and as I mentioned in the post, Sinn was in transition to a larger, comprehensive head quarters remaining in their beloved Frankfurt.

I even included some shots of the new manufacture during construction. Well, it’s been two years since that visit and Sinn has moved to the new location. And as I was again in transit through Germany, I contacted the good folks there to see if I could finish my initial visit and see the new digs.

I’ve had various opportunities to visit German manufactures but never Swiss. So after this year’s Baselworld, I've had the honor to rectify this and finally visit a Swiss brand. I took a short trip from Basel via train to Biel/Bienne to visit Armin Strom.

Armin Strom (AS) is a small, young, somewhat independent brand, that is known for producing watches with a unique design language and in particular that are heavily skeletonize. I discovered the brand when I was first branching out to explore independents after acquiring watches from the main brands, e.g., Rolex and Omega. 

NOMOS is the modern German watch brand that is perhaps today the most known in the US and maybe around the world. It seemingly has a little cult following amongst mechanical watch aficionados such as myself. Much has already been written and discussed on various blogs about the brand, as many are also fans and own some of their watches. 

However, what I want to do here is to give you a inside view of the Manufacture and get a chance to see first hand how the watches are made in Glashütte. This is precisely the opportunity I was offered as I visited Germany for other business in October 2016, while also taking a couple of days to visit Dresden and Glashütte.

So in late 2016, as I visited Frankfurt, for a second time in two years, I connected with the good folks at Sinn to see if I could have a tour of the factory and get a first hand experience of what makes a Sinn watch. In particular I was interested in finally seeing where my seemingly indestructible U1 was created.