Watch manufacturers in unusual countries - The Netherlands

I have lately been interested in watches made in the "Western countries" outside of Switzerland and Germany.

And once you start researching what is out there, it becomes very surprising how many actually exist, from high-end movement manufacturers, through expensive "emboiteurs", to basic low-end quartz watch producers.

Four of the these western countries with the most watch manufacturers are the Netherlands, France, Italy, and the US.

The Netherlands itself alone has 7 producers that I know of:

- Christiaan van der Klaauw: this is a very interesting manufacturer in Heerenveen (Friesland), which bases his design on the heritage of Friesian Astronomer Eise Eisinga, who built a Planetarium near there in the city of Franeker. He uses ETA movements, but seems to have created his own as well, called KB 52824-2

- Van der Gang: based in Dokkum (also Friesland!), produces IWC Portuguese look-a-likes based on ETA 2992-A2 and Valjoux 775x.

- Steiner Limited: based in Maastricht, also produces Portuguese look-a-likes based on Valjoux 775x. Anecdote: I know someone who has one, and it is really impressive quality.

- Van Ree: is in Bussum, produces "the first watch ever to store the DNA of the owner"

- Dingemans: located near Rotterdam, makes 12 watches a year, customised to the future owner's wishes.

- Pelikaan Timing: in Utrecht, make a nice looking "Aviator" type watch based on a Unitas 6498-1 movement.

- Kiber: in Den Haag, seems to have a big collection of low cost watches, mostly on Japanese movements

I am in Friesland often for family reasons, and I certainly hope to go check out Christiaan van der Klaauw and one day buy one.

SIHH - what is it?

The SIHH in Geneva has kicked off today.. just for those who don't know, the SIHH stands for the "Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie" and it is the commercial fair set-up by those watch manufacturers that are part of the Richemont group, one of the world's leading luxury goods group. These watch manufacturers are for example Vacheron Constantin, A.Lange & Sohne, Roger Dubuis, Piaget, IWC, Panerai, Cartier, and Montblanc. In addition, there also a few "friendly" brands such as Gruebel-Forsey (Richemont is minority sharelholder), Ralph Lauren (who use Richemont group movements) and Girard-Perregaux and JeanRichard (both belong to the Sowind group, of which another luxury good giant, PPR, owns a minority stake) at the SIHH.

Because this fair was so specific but nevertheless important, other manufacturers have set up parallel fairs in Geneva to "catch" the same buyers visiting SIHH, plus some brands have set up individual presence in hotels in Geneva at the same time. The "parallel" fairs are GTE (Geneva Time Exhibition), WPHH (World Presentation of Haute Horlogerie) and Horlogers Artisans d'Art.

In my opinion, GTE is the most interesting "parallel" fair with presence of high-end watches from Ateliers de Monaco, Alain Silberstein, Antoine Preziuso, Aquanautic, Artya, Aspen, BRM (Bernard Richard Manufacture, France), Cabestan, HD3, Ladoire Genève, Linde Werdelin, Louis Chevrolet, Magellan, MCT – Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps, Peter Rebellion Timepieces, Snyper, Steenman Watches, Cargo Titanium, Volna, and Valbray..

Buying second hand

I have a rather large collection (maybe too large!) of vintage and second hand watches which I've bought these over various channels in Europe. I've bought over eBay, from Bonhams auction house, over Chrono24, and from watches.co.uk . All have different things to be aware of.

For eBay, the important thing is to "buy" the seller, so check out his credentials and satsifaction points. There are a lot of fakes on eBay.

Buying at Bonhams (the others auctions houses that sell watches in Europe are Antiquorum and Patrizzi) is easier than you think, but I do recommend viewing the watches first hand before bidding on anything.

For Chrono24, I'd only buy from someone who is identified as a "Trusted reseller".

There are many direct dealers who sell second-hand, and watches.co.uk is just one that I can recommend. I particularly like the way they rate their watches on a scale of 10, and if you buy one rated 10/10 (which they mostly have), you'll get a watch in pristine and almost new condition.

Some final points:

- second-hand and vintage watches may need to be serviced, so don't always expect these watches to keep perfect time! I would recommend budgeting the £200/EUR 240 -£300/EUR 360 for service in your calculations.

- Vintage watches usually have plexiglass which can scratch easily, they also might not be waterproof, and the lume might be worn off (hands and numbers won't be visible in the dark).

Watch info of the day:

A "chronometer" is a watch tested and certified to certain precision standards, for example, through the C.O.S.C. (Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres), the official Swiss Chronometre testing institute.

A "chronograph" is a watch with both timekeeping and stopwatch functions, which will typically have 2 or 3 sub-dials to enable this. A typical chronograph is the latest version of the Breitling Chronomat.

The watchman

First entry in the blog.. wearing my vintage 1966 Breitling Navitimer, known as the "806"