independent watch projects

Born in 1971 in Köln, Germany, master watchmaker Dirk Maier went to work within the Swatch Group (Omega, Longines and Rado) before starting his own business.
He registered the brand Rheinmeister by taking cues from the Rhein (Rhine), one of the most important European rivers that serves as natural border between Switzerland and Germany.

Maier tries to source all of his parts in Germany and Switzerland and assembles himself the watches, which can be purchased directly from his workshop or through selected retailers in Germany. Prices for 2010 range from EUR 1630 to EUR 2230. Besides his collections, Meier can assemble custom pieces and source bespoke engine-turned dials.

Besides classical watches with the Rheinmeister signature hands, Maier has been working on a new diving watch resistant to 100 bar (static depth of 1000 m).

Germany-based Karl Falk sells watches that feature a single hand. There is an online store (Singlehandwatch.com) dedicated to the genre. Karl Falk is featured there alongside another brand like Defakto, but award-winning Meistersinger is missing from the Web site list.

Back to Karl Falk. The brand’s name is that of a 19th century watchmaker. Their flagship and only model, the Einzeiger (traduction: one hand), draws inspiration from tower clocks (and car speedometers I would assume) to create a minimalistic watch that displays time by 5 minutes increments.

The single hand dial is a poetic call to drop the stressfull to-the-minute accuracy in favor of a more laid-back approach of time. In substance, it doen’t provide indication of time to the second, but it still does provide enough information to meet appointments.

The Einzeiger uses ETA calibres 2824-2 and 6498. Prices are aligned to a little bit less than USD 1500, which then leaves the presence of an automatic winding system up to personal choice. Technically I tind it hard to justify since the 2824-2 is know to be more expensive than the 6498. Anyway, the watch comes in a nice packaging which includes a change of bracelet and strap, a tool kit for swapping the strap and adjusting the bracelet, and a nice catalog.

German-based furniture designer Lars Amhoff, Chicago artist Nigel Dennis and German jeweler Martin L. Riedel teamed up to create Opus Duæ, an Art watch only released in 25 pieces.

The Opus Duæ watch comes with a stainless-steel 45 mm case with screw-down crown, water-resistance to 10 bar and hardened curved mineral glass. The dial uses a laser-etched sterling silver disc plated with platinum.

The movement is an ETA 2824-2 and each of the 25 timepieces assembled in Germany are sold for EUR 1200 or USD 1800.

Hat tip to OceanicTime editor Tlex for pointing out to his May 2010 article for precisions.

This year, Italian watchmaker Anonimo unveiled Drass, a spinoff of their eponymous brand. Anonymo has been building watches since 1939, and its history is linked to that of more prestigious Officine Panerai.

In activity since 1927, DRASS is the oldest supplier of commercial diving equipment. After a collaboration with Anonymo, DRASS was left to develop its own watches.

Drass uses a bronze copper alloy called Tungum for some bezels and cases, and all their watches are powered with SW200 calibres supplied by Selitta.

Based in Bologna, Italy, North Eagle Military Watches sells Italian armed forces-themed watches. They offer the possibility of using custom dials and their automatic range starts with a Miyota automatic at EUR 220 up to a Dubois-Dépraz modular chronograph for EUR 850.

Watches can be ordered directly from their Website at www.northeagles.com.

Hat tip to Tlex of OceanicTime.com

We have already discussed Lindburgh & Benson‘s brand of sports watches Schaumburg.
The German watchmakers have recently released a new diving watch.

 
The Aquamatic III comes in 44 mm of diameter and features an inner rotating ring controlled by the stem at 2 o’clock. This is a system which efficiency is subject to caution: On one hand, having a securely locked crown controlling the inner ring’s rotation allows to comply with the ISO 6425 standard: « Such a device shall be protected against inadvertent rotation or wrong manipulation. »
On the other hand, a screw-down crown that might have to be unlocked underwater defeats the purpose of having a screw-down crown in the first place. This is a contradiction most watchmakers do not seem to pay close attention to.

One of the explanations is this “escalation of ever-higher pressure resistance” observed amongst makers of diving watches:

source: LaCoteDesMontres.com

History tells us that the Swiss did not invent watches: the anchor eschapement is based on the findings of Dutch Astronomer Huygens and the foundations of mechanical movements were laid in France, which explains the use of all those French terms in watchmaking. The Swiss inherited watchmaking industry as it was being outsourced and imported on their land by French Huguenots fleeing from religious persecution. To their merit however, the Swiss did invent and perfect waterproof watches.

In 1954, Blancpain started selling wrist watches that could withstand a static depth of 50 Imperial fathoms, which corresponds to 300 feet or 91.44 meters. That water-resistance can be rounded down to 9 BAR, a more adequate indication of water-resistance in watches.

After 50 years of refinement, Swiss case makers have improved the design of cases, crystals and gaskets so that it is neither difficult nor particularly expensive to built a watch that can withstand pressures up to 30 BAR (300 static meters of depth).

In the case of their Aquamatic III, Lindburgh & Benson chose to aim for a pressure resistance of 65 BAR, even though they certify the watch to 50 BAR. That leaves a margin of 15 BAR for any unexpected pressure the watch may undergo. The case design shares similarities with the Master Divers, a 44 mm watch from the brand San Antonio Watch Company, which we presented on this blog. It is not uncommon for brand to use the same supplier, more so in the niche field of diving watches.

In terms of calibre, it comes with a Selitta SW20 that can either be standard or COSC-certified. Regardless of the efficiency of the crown-controlled rotating ring, the watch seems to be manufactured according to the high standard of its bigger sister brand Lindburgh & Benson.

Azimuth somehow managed to source new old stock vintage movements such as the Fontainemelon 96 and a Marvin/Election hand-wound calibre. They took extreme care in designing limited series of military watch homages that met great success. Featuring vintage movements or modified contemporary UNITAS calibres, those timepieces boast a good reputation and now count amongst the very few watches that sell with an added value on the second-hand market.

credit: www.righttime.com

From there, Azimuth started working on more conceptual timepieces:

source: www.TimeZone.com

The brand also started using a Chinese full calendar module on Swiss ETA movements:

Their prices  are between USD 1,000 and 5,000, which is a bit steep, but the collection is worth taking a look at.
Ariel Adams has recently published an article about their new diving watch Sea-Hum and saturation diving watch Deep Diver on aBlogToread.com. The latter has already been discussed by Tlex on OceanicTime.com.

I’ve had them on my To Do list for quite some time, but their Web site looks and navigation could sure benefit from a little nip and tuck and some Web 2.0 Mojo.

Based in Asia (I am going to assume Japan), Koony Sun has been developing and selling watches and accessories inspired by aviation. Their early collections, the First Aviator Museum Watch and the Heroic Pilot both seem to have met success.

Selling for USD 1,498.00, the First Aviator Museum Watch pays tribute to “Glider King” Otto Lilienthal. Featuring a 925 silver case, it is powered by a 21 jewels automatic movement (I am assuming Miyota 8205). The quartz Heroic Pilot, on the other hand, is designed with pilots in mind and features a gradient bezel that allows to use the 24h hand as a solar compass.

The company has been working on new designs with black PVD-coated stainless steel cases and luminous dials and hands, which I do find particularly colourful. The following watches are quartz-powered and retail between USD 2,000 < 2,500:

The Spirit of St-Louis Museum Pilot Watch pays tribute to Charles Lindbergh.

The Concorde Museum Pilot Watch pays tribute to the defunct turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner manufactured through a joint venture between the Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation.

The Airline Captain Museum Pilot Watch features a luminous dial with BIG numerals and 24h time reading.

Hat tip to Ariel Adams for his article on How To Make Your Own Watch.

Born in Oregon, Keaton Myrick learned watchmaking in Pennsylvania. He gained experience working for MKII before attending the Lititz Watch Technicum and becoming a certified watchmaker.
After holding a position at Rolex USA, Myrick eventually opened his own workshop in Oregon and relates about it on the blog Horologically Tempered. He has been planning to manufacture watches by hand before an article in the local newspapers drew in an overwhelming amount of restoration commissions.

Lately, Watchmaker Myrick was working on a wrist watch based on his own movement design.

Besides the minimalistic looks that makes extensive us of of finished metal surfaces, the watch reveal its true value through the transparent back that shows the manufacture movement designed by Keaton Myrick.

The watchmaker has now set his mind on a pocket watch, which he will be posting pictures of soon.

Since our first presentation of the brand, Benarus has been beefing up its collections with new chunky models.

Watch collectors were able to get their hands on the Megalodon, which like the prehistoric shark it takes the name from, is resistant to the strong pressure of deep waters. Two hundred and fifty BAR to be accurate, the same pressure found at 2,500 meters under sea water.

photo credit Uwe Willert, Germany

The Moray and the Remora collections are now available in a plethora of case finish and Super-Luminova prints and colours. The brand released the GMT Worldiver before Summer 2010.

They are now working on a bronze version of the Moray. On a technical note, Benarus developers have chosen UNI 5275 aluminium bronze, which is an alloy based on copper with added aluminium, nickel and iron.
Bronze alloys (and UNI 5275 in particular) are extremely resistant to corrosion, which makes them the perfect material for building a saturation diving watch that will endure the salinity of sea water and body sweat.

Copper and aluminium are metals that let their surface oxydize to create a protection “skin”. When they are combined in a bronze alloy, the resulting material takes a natural patina over time.

Steel is such a hard metal that it must be stamped a couple of dozen times to take form. Bronze has a Young’s modulus worth roughly half of that of steel, so it is a little bit easier to work with. As a consequence, the Moray 2 Bronze cases do not necessarily have to be mass-produces. Benarus has the cases and bezel lathed and hand-finished, which might explain why they chose to produce only 20 pieces.