Dear Chrono24 users, as many of you already know,
since the end of 2016, not only can you buy
used and new watches on Chrono24,
but also directly from the manufacturer.
One of these manufacturers is
Jochen Benzinger.
We got to know one another some time ago.
We also visited your workshop.
I've visited many watchmakers and manufacturers before
and was always impressed and surprised
by how highly automated everything was.
Numerous CNC machines, everything controlled by computers.
When we visited your workshop, however,
the only thing requiring electricity was the light.
That was pretty impressive.
So we got to talking and now we are here
to speak some more about Benzinger watches.
Tell us a little bit about your brand,
your workshop, and how it all came to be?
Yes, you visited us in Pforzheim (Germany).
We are a small, German manufacture brand based in Pforzheim.
We build custom watches,
refine watches for other manufacturers,
and construct limited editions for
large manufacturers, but we primarily work on our own timepieces.
Our models showcase three handcrafted techniques
including hand engraving, hand guilloché, and hand skeletonizing.
We are a manufacture in the truest sense of the word.
"Manufactum" means "done by hand."
Most manufacturers aren't truly manufacturers
since they make nothing by hand.
But we do nearly everything by hand.
We have old guilloché machines that are over 100 years old.
They are operated by hand.
Our engraving work is done with
gravers that haven't changed for the last 500 years.
Albrecht Duerer used the same type with his engraving plates.
When we skeletonize, it's not done with a machine, but by hand with
a goldsmith saw.
When I saw those machines
I asked you what happens if one of them breaks down.
You replied that they haven't broken down in 100 years
and they won't do so now. That's really how it is.
The machines are all manually operated.
This really impressed me.
Could you tell us how one of these watches is created?
What exactly goes into it?
We begin with a Swiss basis movement that we then disassemble.
All modifications are done by us in-house.
The Regulator, for example,
or the Subscription, where we shift the hours and minutes
to the top of the watch.
Everything is done on the ébauche first,
then drafts are made by hand.
Not in a CAD system, but actually drawn by hand.
Then the individual plates are coated
with a lacquer and held taut in the machine,
aligned, centered, and then cut by hand.
When we skeletonize a piece,
first the pattern is either engraved
or skeletonized and then sawed, which differs from typical
Swiss skeletonization, where pieces are skeletonized first
and the resulting webs then finished and engraved.
We do it the other way around.
And that's what makes your skeletonization so special.
You've brought a few timepieces with you.
Let's take a look and perhaps you can tell us a bit more.
Sure.
You can easily recognize the typical
frosted Breguet finish,
the white shade on the dial.
I have to say that we are perhaps the only manufacturer
that still applies the original Breguet Frost.
It isn’t a varnish and isn’t sandblasted, rather we use
sterling silver as a base material. That is, 925 silver.
This means out of 1,000 pieces, 925 are silver
and the rest are alloy materials.
After the guilloché process, we place the dial directly into the fire,
allowing it to oxidize until it’s black.
Then we wash it with diluted sulfuric acid and put it
back in the fire.
We wash it once more with the acid solution
until the surface is free of any impurities.
Then the pure fine silver shines through.
Brequet used it for tarnish protection before there was varnish
to protect dials.
We continue the tradition with this technique.
The frosted white dials are
a typical characteristic of our watches.
Even the blued hands served a practical function for Breguet.
There was only iron, rather than steel, available for hands
and they would rust in no time at all.
The thermal bluing process, the synthetic oxidation,
protected the hands from rust.
These techniques really have a long tradition.
Let's take a closer look at the individual timepieces.
The gold piece here is a typical
Benzinger Regulator modification.
A classic Regulator features the minutes in the middle with just the
hours shifted upwards.
First, we shifted the minutes slightly downwards so
we’d have more space for the hours above.
The watch has a typical double dial
with a ground dial and top dial so it has more depth.
Here we have a double mechanical modification and
a skeletonized case back.
So I can look directly at the movement.
Our trademark watches are the Regulator,
the Subscription, which has the hours and minutes shifted upwards and
a double dial.
We also have a model without any numbers, it’s aesthetically
streamlined with a large guillochéd dial and open small seconds.
The back also features our characteristic skeletonization.
You shared that you also take on many custom-made productions
and accommodate individual customer requests.
What are some of the unique requests that you can accommodate?
The most unique was when a customer sent in a nude portrait of his wife
and asked that we skeletonize and engrave it
into the back of his watch.
Do you know if she was happy about that?
That I can’t say, but I believe he wears the watch.
We also had a customer that requested
a tourbillon and minute repeater.
We had to search for a basis movement that had both complications.
We found an appropriate movement and modified it in-house.
We custom-built a platinum case for it.
The watch was very expensive,
upwards of 400,000 euros.
A film was made during the production process and
we delivered the timepiece to the USA.
The client picked the watch up and immediately dropped it.
We got to take it back home with us straight away.
A watch should always be personal and tell a story.
That’s definitely possible with us.
A customer can actively participate in the creative process.
If he has a special request, he can pass it on to you and we
will fulfill nearly every wish.
I think it’s great that a traditional company using
such classic craftsmanship is open to forming
a partnership with Chrono24.
We find it fantastic.
I feel it shows how tradition and innovation come together
in your watches and in your workshop.
Thank you very much for the partnership and for coming
here today and telling us about Benzinger timepieces.
Thank you!
Likewise, thank you for the invitation.
I look forward to working together.