Grail Watch 9: Moritz Grossmann × Kari Voutilainen Benu 37 ‘Silver Bullet’

Introducing the Grail Watch 9, and their latest collaboration with Moritz Grossmann, a limited edition of six pieces with a beautiful sterling silver guilloché à main Kari Voutilainen dial.

Here are the broad strokes on our latest collaboration with Moritz Grossmann. It’s a 37mm in diameter Benu timepiece, just like our previous watch with the wonderful Glashütte based brand, featuring the ravishing, hand-finished three-fifths-plate caliber 102.1 with hand engraved escape wheel and balance cocks, and flame purpled screws. It features a sterling silver guilloché à main Kari Voutilainen dial, made using a vintage engine-turning machine. This is paired with an 18K white gold case and one of the most stunning straps I’ve ever set eyes on — a matte Himalayan alligator strap made by the very cool Delugs company here in Singapore. It also comes with a kudu leather strap in gorgeous anemone for versatility. The resulting timepiece that I’ve nicknamed “Silver Bullet” is just epic.

Now here comes the hard part — we were only able to make six examples of the watch.

Six watches is not a lot, particularly when the watch is a stunning work in monochromatic nuance. So, instead of getting straight into the details of the Benu 37 “Silver Bullet,” I want to take this opportunity to explain why I love Moritz Grossmann so much.

Each time I hold a Moritz Grossmann watch in my hand, I am struck by the pure straightforward beauty of the movement — the perfect expression of the brand’s eponymous spiritual father who championed the creation of “simple but mechanically perfect watches.”

I am always charmed by the brand’s quirky yet mechanically efficient innovations such as the Hamatic automatic winding mechanisms. I am consistently romanced by the movements’ innately Saxon hallmarks, from the flame-treated purple screws to the gold chatons, to the Glashütte stripes on the German silver two-third plate, the sumptuously engraved balance and escape bridges and the choice of white sapphires over traditional rubies. My sense of aesthetics is always piqued by the charm of its “tremblage” dials, an ancient hand engraving technique to decorate the German silver dial using different tools. But perhaps most of all, I find myself moved by the story of immense perseverance and unrelenting resilience that is expressed by the extraordinary woman behind the brand.

To me, Moritz Grossmann’s CEO Christine Hutter is one of the most innovative, disruptive and courageous visionaries in modern horology, who has ably resurrected — one could argue created — a brand that is poised to absolutely skyrocket in awareness and appreciation.

Moritz Grossmann CEO Christine Hutter. Photo credit: Ronald Bonß

Born in Eichstätt, Germany, Hutter trained as a watchmaker, then found her way into sales, marketing and distribution, which would all help her become the well-rounded leader she is today. In 1996, she made her way to the town of Glashütte which is located in the former East Germany, or German Democratic Republic (GDR). The transformation there in what was once a somnambulant tiny village about 40 minutes’ drive from Dresden was incredible. On December 7, 1990, following the reunification of Germany, the genius watch entrepreneur Günter Blümlein and Walter Lange accomplished the seemingly impossible. They resurrected the once perished A. Lange & Söhne. Suddenly, Glashütte was awash in energy. Mechanical watches were manufactured in Glashütte until the 1980s, even during GDR times, when the Saxon watch manufactories were nationalized. Thus, the culture of mechanical watchmaking was alive and well in this region.

In 1994, Lange presented its first watches and the statement was clear: Glashütte intended to contend the greatest entrenched heavyweights of Swiss watchmaking. Hutter, like any young German watchmaker, was deeply moved by the events she saw unfolding. By 1996, she had decamped to Glashütte, her mind brimming with positive ambition.

She said, “To be in Glashütte at this time was amazing. We had the feeling that anything was possible. And we took immense pride in bringing our vision of German high watchmaking to the rest of the world. The prevailing feeling was, we had to do our best, to tell the world who we are, and to express the real value of Saxon horology, which we knew to be so beautiful.”

During her time in Glashütte, Hutter often came across the name Moritz Grossmann, one of the most influential watchmakers in Glashütte’s history and the founder of the German School of Watchmaking in 1878. In the 19th century, Grossmann helped to define the core values of German watchmaking as well as formalize the signature aesthetic and functional codes of Saxon horology — the flame bluing of screws, the use of chatons to hold rubies in place, the two-third plate, the micrometer screw, the engraving of balance cocks. All of these values and codes coalesced during his time.

Hutter’s passion and interest thus stoked, she decided to become the world’s greatest living expert on Grossmann. Then, she came across something rather remarkable. The name Moritz Grossmann had become dormant. Without a moment’s hesitation, she decided to purchase it, with a vision to create a brand inspired by all his immense contributions to German watchmaking, expressed through fun, modern and mechanically perfect timepieces.

Hutter’s first model, Benu — named after the Egyptian deity linked with the Sun, creation, and most importantly, rebirth — was first launched in 2010, and collectors with a discerning eye were immediately struck by the beauty of the movements, the stunning snailing on the ratchet wheels, the majesty of the decoration to the plate and bridge, and the stunning detail of the hand engraved escape wheel cock. But in 2010, Hutter embarked on another incredibly daring and brilliant journey, and that was to create one of the most complete in-house manufactures in modern watchmaking. (Hutter founded Grossmann Uhren GmbH on 11 November 2008).

Set on a hill overlooking the town of Glashütte with a view of Lange below it, the creation of the Moritz Grossmann headquarters and manufacture took immense courage. “From the beginning, I wanted to create the infrastructure that would allow us to build movements to a capacity that would make us a significant presence in modern watchmaking, and at a quality that would be the best in the world.”

Today, many of Grossmann’s watches are sold out and the factory is at full capacity with an annual production of less than 400 watches. Hutter admits with a chuckle, “Now it is really a bit of struggle to meet demand. We are effectively sold out for two years. But we are trying to do our best. One thing we will definitely not do is compromise on our quality. This is everything to us.”

The creation of the "Silver Bullet"

I started to become truly intrigued by Grossmann in 2018, when Hutter launched the Benu 37, a 37mm in diameter watch that I found to be truly marvelous. The size was perfect. The heat-treated purple hands were intriguing. And, in particular, the movement — the three-fifths-plate, hand-decorated German silver masterpiece named the MG 102.1 — was magnificent. The Moritz Grossmann Benu 37 Steel with Grand Feu Enamel Dial for Revolution and The Rake was our first collaboration together, based on the Benu 37 but with a dial inspired by a stunning pocket watch from the brand’s past.

Our latest collaboration, Grail Watch 9: Moritz Grossmann × Kari Voutilainen Benu 37 “Silver Bullet” came about during my trip to Grossmann’s manufacture in Glashütte. There, inside a wonderfully sunlit room, I noticed a few pièce unique watches made for clients featuring dials created by Kari Voutilainen and his dial factory, Comblémine. I’ve always loved guilloché à main, or as the English call it, engine-turned dials. It is my opinion that the most ravishing in the world are made by Kari at his factory where he has one of the greatest collection of vintage rose engine machines.

Grail Watch 9: Moritz Grossmann × Kari Voutilainen Benu 37 "Silver Bullet" features all the stunning hallmarks of the brand’s in-house movement, from signature flame-treated purple screws to exquisite engravings

When asked what our next Benu 37 could look like, I proposed something that was as clean and Zen reductionist as the previous collaboration, but using two totally different materials.

For the dial, I loved the idea of sterling silver, which has been stabilized so it will not oxidize. For the case, both Hutter and I immediately thought of a white gold case. For the nickname of the watch, I decided on “Silver Bullet.”

Why? Yes, the dial is crafted from a massive piece of sterling silver. And well, of course, in folklore, a silver bullet was the only thing that was capable of slaying a werewolf. But I like the second meaning of the term, based on the Oxford Dictionary definition, which is “a simple and seemingly magical solution to a highly complicated problem.” This has always reminded me of Moritz Grossmann’s mission statement to make “simple but mechanically perfect watches,” something that Christine Hutter continues to make her life’s work today.