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Grönefeld One Hertz Titanium Watches

Grönefeld One Hertz Titanium Watches

by Ariel Adams | July 9th 2012 | 10:15 am

Pride and humility are both terms we would use to describe the small but important community of independent high-end mechanical watchmakers in the Netherlands. While the Dutch aren’t widely known for their watchmaking skills, some of the modern horological world’s most creative thinkers are from outside of Switzerland.

  • One Hertz Titanium Ruthenium
  • The back and mechanism of a One Hertz Titanium

One of the most important independent Dutch watchmakers is Grönefeld, comprised of brothers Tim and Bart Grönefeld. With Swiss training, the Grönefeld brothers have already made a strong name for themselves in the industry after releasing a small but satisfying collection of innovative high-end watches. Their most important wristwatch to date is likely the One Hertz, which now comes in titanium-cased versions.

The 'One Hertz' name refers to the seconds hand in the watch. Unlike most mechanical watches with a sweeping seconds hands, this one 'ticks' in one second increments. This is often referred to as a 'stop' or 'dead' seconds indicator and has been used for a long time in historical precision clocks. The One Hertz watch is extremely unique because the dead seconds indicator relies on a totally independent gear train and power reserve for the seconds indicator. This is to prevent it from interfering with the main gear train that runs at three Hertz.

  • One Hertz Titanium Classic
  • One Hertz Titanium Ice
  • One Hertz Titanium Fire

Modern in its design, the One Hertz watch is 43mm wide and offered in at least four versions in titanium, while the very first One Hertz watch was in platinum. The attractive dial is multi-levelled and offers an off-centred time display, an off-centred large subsidiary dead seconds display, as well as a power reserve indicator. There is also a crown function indicator on the dial. The calibre G-02 manually wound movement is comprised of almost 300 parts and has a 72-hour power reserve – all produced in house by Grönefeld. Through the rear of the watch, one can view the hand-decorated and -assembled movements.

While classic in concept, the One Hertz watch has a very contemporary design which befits the avant-garde nature of the timepiece. It requires a serious horological enthusiast to understand the nature of the stop seconds complication, as ticking seconds are most often associated with quartz and not mechanical watches. The One Hertz Titanium model styles range from active to formal, but our pick is the One Hertz Fire model with its sporty orange accents. Each Grönefeld One Hertz Titanium watch is limited to just 30 pieces each.

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