Brand
GRÖNEFELD 1941 Remontoire Limited Edition
This limited edition is available in a small run of 12 pieces, all made by hand and assembled in the Netherlands by Bart and Tim Grönefeld. The watch, which reveals only the hours, minutes, and seconds, is anything but simple from the back – though few outside the innermost circles of horological understanding would be able to tell why. The remarkable movement features a remontoire d'egalite, which serves to deliver a constant amount of power to the escapement using a secondary wheel, and is quite simply one of the most beautiful calibers made in the world today.
The 1941 Remontoire was first introduced in 2016 and was instantly acclaimed for its visual and technical prowess – noted as one of the most complicated time-only watches ever made. The original watch, which features an exposed speed governor at nine o'clock, was the winner of the Men's Watch Award at the 2016 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, and quickly found a home on the wrist of some of the most astute collectors in the world. One collector that was so impressed by what the Grönefelds had achieved with the 1941 Remontoire was our own Ben Clymer. In 2016, he approached the Grönefelds about making a unique piece with a closed dial to be told that in order to do so, the entire caliber must be re-engineered and the cost associated with that would be simply too high. But what if we were to make a series of closed-dial 1941 Remontoires?
Bart and Tim set out to re-think the governor so that it could be recessed into the movement, instead of sitting laterally above as they had conceived it. At this level of craft, millimeters matter, and it took them over a month of engineering to decide if it could be done at all. Eventually they conceded it could be done – and the order was placed for a new, full, three-piece salmon colored dial with blue "oranienbaum" numerals. Not only is the governor now concealed, but several small details of the dial have been reduced – gone is the "Eight Seconds Remontoire" above the seconds register, as is the silvered track, and the signature below six o'clock is a nod to where the Grönefelds do their work: the Netherlands. The governor itself is now flatter, the pinion for the governor much shorter, and in fact an entirely bridge has been created.
The Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire Limited Edition for fashiontourbillon.com is sized at 39.5mm in a stainless-steel case. Only 12 pieces of this special closed dial watch will be made, and they are available exclusively through the fashiontourbillon.com Shop. Each watch retails for $58,000 and will be accompanied by two straps – one in blue alligator and a special fashiontourbillon.com Reid Goatskin Strap with black stitching and quick-release spring bars.
The package will also include a Grönefeld presentation box and special fashiontourbillon.com carrying case. And, like all watches purchased through the fashiontourbillon.com Shop, each owner will benefit from free, expedited shipping around the world, digital storage of paper work, and an additional year's extended warranty. We think it's the least we can do.
*NOTE: This watch may be purchased via wire transfer with a 10% credit card deposit of $5,800. Once your order is placed with the $5,800 deposit, fashiontourbillon.com Shop representatives will be in touch to provide wire transfer instructions, and confirmation of wire transfer for the balance must be provided within 24 hours.
Grönefeld, founded by brothers Bart and Tim Grönefeld, is among the finest watch manufacturers in the world. Their small atelier based in Oldenzaal, Netherlands, produces no more than 60 watches each year, all completely engineered, assembled, and finished in-house. They are known for coupling their incredibly complex, technical creations featuring tourbillons, dead-beat seconds, and remontoires, with casual, and wearable case materials. Graduates of WOSTEP, and alumni of Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi, Bart and Tim are regularly recognized as among the most talented independent watchmakers alive today.
