A brand new model is the speak of the watch world at this time, and the newest instance of a development we’ve seen growing during the last a number of years. GRØNE is the brand new venture from Bart and Tim Grönefeld, the brothers behind the Grönefeld model, one of the vital acclaimed indies on this planet. Following within the footsteps of the M.A.D. 1 venture, Kurono Tokyo, and others, the model exists as a manner for admirers of a excessive priced unbiased maker to purchase into the aesthetic and perspective of the model at a way more inexpensive value level. The primary launch from GRØNE, the Manueel One, carries a retail value of simply 2,150 Euros. At retail, Grönefeld watches begin at round 50,000 Euros and go up from there. They’re additionally very low manufacturing, with fewer than 100 items made annually.
The Manueel One, in keeping with Bart and Tim, was impressed by a want to carry their watches to “our our watchmakers, our kids, and our associates.” If this sentiment sounds acquainted, it’s almost equivalent to Max Büsser’s reasoning behind the M.A.D. 1 venture, which was initially solely provided to associates of the model, together with companions that Max and his staff had labored with for years. Just like the M.A.D. 1, the Manueel One borrows some aesthetic and design rules from the upper priced watches the model is understood for, but it surely does so with out the intense consideration to craft and watchmaking you’d get with an atelier made timepiece. That’s to be anticipated, after all. Anybody pondering that an order for the Manueel One is an order for the stainless ending discovered on a Principia, as an illustration, ought to critically mood their expectations.
So what do you get with the Manueel One? It’s a sector dial of types, with a tremblage interior part in a salmon tone, with an outer steel ring the place you’ll discover hour and minute markers. The salmon colorway and tremblage ending are each aesthetic options borrowed from Grönefeld’s atelier-made watches, but it surely’s value mentioning that the tremblage end right here is utilized with what I’m certain is an excellent stamping course of. True tremblage, which entails painstaking work of making micro textures with a tiny hammer and chisel, isn’t one thing anybody ought to count on on a watch at this value level.
The case strains are clearly impressed by the model’s Rementoir and Principia, and have distinguished scalloped lugs. The design is definitely fairly advanced, with a bezel that’s domed between the lugs however concave alongside the case flanks. The stainless-steel case is polished and measures 38.5mm in diameter and 9mm tall (not together with the sapphire crystal). It’s notable, I feel, that the Grönefeld brothers have made an try and evoke their well-known case designs on this watch. A simple comparability level, the Kurono Tokyo watches designed by Hajime Asaoka, take pains to evoke the watchmaker’s aesthetic within the dials, however the instances, normally, lack a lot of the complexity of his greater priced items.
The motion is a manually wound Sellita SW210. Curiously, the model claims that the caliber has been “torque adjusted” to attain a winding really feel most popular by the Grönefeld brothers. What does this imply, virtually talking? It’s unimaginable to know with out actually getting our fingers on the watch, however this too represents a barely totally different method to this kind of watch than what we’ve seen from different manufacturers dipping their toes into the inexpensive fanatic pushed market. Winding really feel is very subjective, however I feel most watch lovers at one level or one other have skilled a manually wound motion that simply feels nice (Naoya Hida, I’m you), so my curiosity is piqued as to what winding this watch will actually really feel like.
The Manueel One’s existence took us unexpectedly at this time, and judging from commentary on Instagram and the Worn & Wound+ Slack group, opinions are actually in every single place. Along with the standard eye rolls about value that appear to accompany actually each watch (as a result of no watches are pretty priced – it’s a common fact), questions have come up in regards to the varied techniques used to promote the Manueel One, particularly using the time period “tremblage” to explain the dial ending, which has already garnered a response and clarification from Bart Grönefeld himself on Instagram. There’s additionally, I feel, a debate that’s as a consequence of happen on what it means for prime finish indies to enter the inexpensive fanatic market, significantly within the wake of the massive success of the M.A.D. 1. It may be seen as an altruistic gesture by these manufacturers on the one hand in getting cool stuff within the fingers of true fanatics (hopefully), however the alternative to leverage a luxurious model title for a fast (and substantial) money infusion can’t be ignored. To not indicate this or any comparable watch is a “money seize” within the conventional, overwhelmingly detrimental manner that time period is regularly used, however reasonably I’m questioning if making extra inexpensive watches alongside greater finish items underneath a unique model title could possibly be a wholly new mannequin that would assist some unbiased manufacturers maintain themselves.
GRØNE is making 388 examples of the Manueel One, with pre-orders opening on November 19. All indications on the model’s new web site would appear to level to extra watches coming ultimately, however there don’t look like any hints as to when that may be or what it would imply.
