Horological Meandering - Considering a Dornblüth

Considering a Dornblüth

Jul 25, 2013,13:16 PM

Greetings. I have been contemplating a new watch for some time and I think I have settled on a Dornblüth. I have to thank the PuristS for making me aware of this great brand. I love the fact that it is bespoke and made to fit your needs. It meets nearly all of the needs I wanted in my next watch (leather strap, open caseback with in-house movement, reasonable price (<$7,000) and a grey dial.) While the movement is not technically "in-house" the substantial modifications and incredible movement finishing far outweighs this. In my opinion the movement finishing is more beautiful than many watches 4x the price. I also love manually wound calibres because they fill so much more of the larger modern case backs. I dislike when the movement is small and the case extremely large (e.g. Cartier Calibre). My last wish list item (grey dial) is not immediately apparent, but I've requested a custom dial from Dornblüth and they are willing to accommodate. The dial finish I was thinking of is something similar to a few of the watches below: Chopard L.U.C. Classic Mark III, L.U.C. 1937 Limited Edition, Ball Officer Trainmaster. I think it would be great on this watch, but I'm not 100% sure if this is the right move. So far I've settled on the following specs:

Dornblüth 99.1

Stainless Steel

White or Custom Grey Dial

Silver appliqued numerals

Polished bezel

Blued hands

Brown strap

Tang buckle

Undecided on Quattro Arrett

I can't decide if the Quattro Arrett is necessary. It's a cool feature, but I'm not sure it's worth the extra money. Only downside to order this watch is I've never seen one in person or been able to try it on. I'm sure I'll be very happy with it, but still a little disconcerting to buy one without trying it first.

Would love to hear your thoughts, and if you guys have any pictures to share, I would of course be happy to see them!

This message has been edited by pmb600 on 2013-07-25 13:17:48 This message has been edited by pmb600 on 2013-07-25 13:20:02

Comments: view entire thread

Several years back, a close friend who's owned a few Dornblüths . . .

By: Dr No : July 26th, 2013-11:14

. . . was also considering the very iteration you're contemplating. Dirk prepared a graphic to demonstrate . . . [image created by Dirk Dornblüth] . . . how it would look in the metal. Unfortunately, this special project never came to pass, but like all g...

Great picture

By: pmb600 : July 26th, 2013-11:26

Thank you very much Art. I actually did see that somewhere online when googling "Dornbluth grey dial." I think the look works very well. I would love if Dirk can create a dial similar to the other watches I posted with the "sunburst" effect, but the solid...

While applauding your decision for a Dornblüth

By: amerix : July 26th, 2013-11:18

I would not try to dress it up or make it lose its basic character and origin. For years my 99.2 in SS has been the first watch that I wind every morning, followed by a dozen others. It is what it is. However, I am sure that the Dornblüths will be most ac...

I am struggling with that same question

By: pmb600 : July 26th, 2013-11:27

I also wondered about ruining the basic character of the Dornbluth watch, so I am still undecided as to the dial.

Highly Recommend....

By: mac : July 29th, 2013-06:06

It's a great company to deal with. Dirk provides exceptional service and the 99 series is a very good value. In terms of Quattro Arret, I would recommend the feature if your budget allows. It's not too expensive to add and it works like promised. I would ...