Independents

A huge report on visit to Gronefeld watches :)

 

Hey everyone…I am very excited to post this absolutely awesome opportunity I had of meeting up one of the coolest brothers ever in watch business, Bart and Tim Gronefeld

I am in Netherlands for a few weeks with work and had the weekend off. It occurred to me that Netherlands has its own watch-maker to boast of, and so-what if work didn’t permit me to go to Basel, I should make use of this opportunity. I called Gronefeld contact no at the website and to my surprise, Bart was most forthcoming for a meeting and next day I was on my way from Deb Haag to the Gronefeld workshop.

The Gronefeld workshop is in the remote area of Oldenzaal, right on the border of Netherlands and Germany, although just to be clear, it is in Netherlands J it is almost a two hour journey from Den Haag, and Bart and Tim were kind enough to come to the train station to pick me up in their very cool Jaguar the best thing about visiting the actual workshop is that I saw the old and new tools, the actual tables and such cool stuff which was often J

About Gronefeld:

Bart and Tim come from a long history of watch makers. Their grandfather was a watch maker, whose diploma, an award in watch making and various old watch-makers tools are all spread around the house. Their father also followed in the tradition, mostly working in repairing and servicing watches. The coolest part is that Bart and Tim’s dad still manages and works on the mechanical massive clock on the church in Oldenzaal, the picture of which I have shared below. That was a very cool thing and I wish I could visit the inner workings of that too but it was then not possible.

Their grandfather’s equipment:

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Their grandfather’s award from, I guess, 1914:

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The church clock their father is looking after:

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Hence, we see that getting into the watch business was quiet natural for Bart and Tim. They studied at a technical school in Netherlands, then at WOSTEP and got first hand work experience early on working for the awesome Renaud et Papi. Both brothers worked on exceptional complicated watches as early as when they were barely 23 and they worked nearly seven years at Renaud et Papi. Bart specialized in Minute Repeaters and Tim specialized in Tourbillon. After long work experience, they decided to start their own company, but for that to happen they needed a strong foundation while they worked on their own projects. During this time they found work repairing and servicing Breitling watches, but eventually succeeded in coming up with their own models and have now moved far beyond in watch-making.

It is useless to add, but is genuinely true, that it was an absolute pleasure meeting the very sweet and amazing brothers at their place J

Bart, left, and Tim Gronefeld:

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The Boutique/Workshop:

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The workshop is on the higher floors of the boutique. It was another surprise and a real pleasure to see that the Independents are a close and such sweet group, in that the Gronefelds had Peter Speake-Marin pieces to display too and they also had a Sarpaneva, both awesome watch makers and their products reflect that. Tim and Bart talked longingly about their friendships with Peter Speake-Marin and Sarpaneva and a lot of the other independents. They had huge praise for their works and specifically mentioned the work of Gruebel-Forsey J

The PSM and Sarpaneva watches I enjoyed at Gronefeld’s

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A PSM with my Omega Seamaster GMT

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I was also lucky to see the personal collection of Bart. What I really liked was that there was a huge variety of stuff, and not just very special horological stuff, but lso simple stuff he wore in his early years, a quartz Seiko, a tuning fork watch, but also a military Glashutte chronograph and a Russian military diver which we measured to be at 60mm diameter. All was put up on display J

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The Russian diver on my seven and some change wrist J it still works well J

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Most of the inner parts, computer simulations and production,  is done by Renaud et Papi for Gronefeld, on their specifications. Everything, even the buckles and all are made in Switzerland to the highest standards, as can be seen. The hand finishing of parts and assembly takes place in Oldenzaal at the workshop, with Bart, Tim and nine watch makers doing all the work by hand. I even took a picture of the screws that are used in this work, and there were some I could not even see and took the picture of the screws under magnification with a loupe J

The picture with a loupe J

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The inventory

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That was just a joke..the inventory is extremely sophisticated and records are kept on softwares J there are so many small parts and drawers upon drawers of equipment.

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The workshop has hand working equipment where finishing is done:

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Another detail that was fascinating is that the bridges and movt. parts are made in steel and have different uniform finishings rather than the typical geneva stripes etc, so that the bridges can always be restored to original condition whenever serviced even after decades, as geneva striped or coated bridges or parts can never achieve the same finishing when re-worked. That’s called thinking for the future J

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Unfinished movements:

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Tim’s table:

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Bart’s table:

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General assembly area:

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The Works:

Plastic models of the watches, very cool stuff J

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In one model, the first for the one hertz, they put in a picture of the movem3ent and since this as the first and they were excited and happy about it, they put gold screws at the back. Real nice J

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The first watch they made was one that was meant to awe and shock, and show fully the abilities and expertise of both Tim and Bart, so they came up with the astonishing Minute Repeater Tourbillon: a hand-wound, minute repeater and tourbillion that incorporates the expertise of both brothers in one product. It comes only in Platinum or Red Gold, he prior costing 385,000 Euros and the later 325,000 Euros. I must admit, having this on my wrist was unbelievable, not only because of its exclusivity and all, but the feeling is so royal, its like a dream J and hearing that minute repeater is a true symphony J

Tim with the Minute Repeater Tourbillon:

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On my wrist

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The case has hollow lugs for acoustics, and the sides of the case are also very thin for sound transmission.

And the fabulous movement in the display back:

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The repeater tourbillion watch was launched while the economic environment was not the most conducive, and naturally a second simpler model was in order. Thus came the hugely successful and beautiful One Hertz watch. Its initial steel models are all sold out, and titanium and gold ones are still in production. But I could be wrong because with such a small number produced and independent status of the makers, I guess anything can be personally ordered J barely twenty to thirty of these are made in a year and at that level of production, a lot of personalization is possible the One Hertz is every bit as refined and special as it looks in pictures, and actually a lot more. It is classy, cool and extremely easy to use, in that a push on the crown changes between winding and setting modes, so no crown pulling out, no screwing down, and very clear indicators to show the 72 hour power reserve and other indications J this watch rightly won the timezone watch of the year J

Design phase of the one hertz:

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These are all pages only detailing the parts put on the dial, extremely detailed work:

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I got to see four versions: the Technik (open dial), the Fire (orange accents), the Ice (white accents) and the Classic.

Ice:

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Classic:

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Fire:

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Technik:

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All together and some random shots:

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My Omega again:

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The Movement:

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Two:

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Three:

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Awesome case work:

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I was also told in the visit that unlike the fact that people associate a dead-beat seconds with Quartz watches, the very early pendulum clocks actually ‘ticked’ and then when people saw the smooth sweep second pocket watches, they thought there is something wrong with them..hehe..so it’s a very traditional complication actually and they had this pendulum clock that had a dead beat seconds, but it was only around forty years old though.

The Dead Beat seconds pendulum clock:

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The Surprise:

Finally, I have a super surprise that will come in full bloom in the future, but is still an absolute pleasure to behold, is a very special and unique movement, which they Gronefelds said they will put in a case soon. The story is, Bart worked many extra hours at Renaud et Papi and instead of making money on that, he asked to be paid in parts. And he designed and executed this beautiful minute repeater movement. Seriously man, that’s one awesome story of passion. It sounds absolutely wonderful, but I will upload videos later. For now, you will have to take my word for it J

A poster image of the said movement:

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The super movement:

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Dial side:

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Conclusion:

I was really pleased to have the opportunity to visit Bart and Tim. It is not only that they are doing a wonderful job of their work, but they are amazingly frank, open and sweet people. I cannot express the joy of meeting them and I wish them the best of luck for the future J

Bart and Tim in their element:

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Me outside the workshop with the wonderful cap they gave me J

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Oh, and the awesome Jaguar

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p.s. I apologize to Bart and Tim if any information I have put up is wrong, because I have written this report out of memory. And I request the mods to edit this report as they deem fit for the forum and I request the mods to edit in any way this post to make it better because I see excellent posts here and I would appretiate professional help thanks in advance.