If you have an ear to the world of high level independent watchmaking, you’ve no doubt at least heard of Grönefeld. A small operation by the equal parts burly, charming, and talented Dutch brothers Tim and Bart Grönefeld, their watches are rare, highly sought after, and mighty hard to get your hands on. The Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire Constant Force was the first of their creations to garner the brand international praise, taking the Best Men’s Watch prize at the GPHG awards in 2016.
Looking at it head-on without knowing what a remontoire mechanism actually is, you’d likely be thinking that this watch is just another pretty and well built time-only dress watch. As is the case with all things Grönefeld, there’s much more to it than that. A remontoire is a constant force mechanism that was first developed for marine chronometers by John Harrison in 1739, but due to its complexity is seldom used in the world of watchmaking. Being 3rd generation watchmakers, Tim and Bart are no strangers to the industry, and the origins of the 1941 Remontoire is a real family affair. The watch pays tribute to that in a couple of ways. Its design is inspired by a church clock that the family has cared for for two generations, and the 1941 in its name is the birth year of their father Sjef.
The idea behind and function of a remontoire is relatively simple. With a conventional mainspring, the amount of force delivered to the balance wheel over time will no doubt vary. This means that you’re going to have a varying level of accuracy in your watch depending on whether it’s fully wound, or running on fumes. A remontoire is an additional spring that loads up a small amount of energy, and after a certain number of seconds (in the case of this Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire, eight seconds), dumps that energy towards the balance wheel. Because you’re dealing with a smaller power load, this delivery is equal across the entire winding of the mainspring, and leads to very accurate timekeeping.
An especially nice touch on the Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire is the small cut-out seen on its dial at 9 o’clock. What you’re seeing here is a decoratively designed governing weight, used to slow the rewinding of the remontoire spring. Every eight seconds, you’ll notice it rotate as the power transfer from remontoire to balance takes place. That’s not to say that the dial and hands of this watch are any less worthy of attention, don’t get me wrong. The stepped dial features a subtle frosted finish, highly polished baton indices, and in the case of this example, beautiful flame blued hands.
Before we make it around to the caseback, the case design and finishing of this watch is equally noteworthy. Often offered in precious metals, this is example is one of few made of stainless steel. Its lugs are hollowed, and its case profile has a slightly bulbous profile. Even its crown is uniquely finished and stands out without seeming out of place. Much like the dial, a cursory glance at this case would make you think that its simpler in execution than it really is. It’s comprised of 66 individual parts, if that’s any indication for you.
Now we’re onto the real show—the movement of the 1941 Remontoire. There’s so much going on here. Mirror polishing, snailing, hand-beveling, and even doses of very modern feeling microblasting is distributed throughout its bridges, wheels, and mainplate. I’ve seen some amazingly detailed finishing from horological masters of all shapes and sizes, but there’s something to the finishing codes of the Grönefeld brothers that gets me every time. To make a movement that pays homage to centuries old watchmaking tradition, and to deliver it in such a manner that is as much traditional as it is modern, well that’s no small feat.
Put simply there are a ton of reasons to watch this watch. It’s technically impressive. It’s beautifully finished. It’s rare. What’s more, at 39.5mm in diameter and 10.5mm thick, it’s incredibly wearable day in and day out. If that hasn’t sold you on it, I don’t know what will.