German company Grieb & Benzinger’s latest masterpiece of skeletonisation uses a rare platinum A. Lange & Sohne tourbillon as its starting point.
The heavily modified watch from Grieb & Benzinger celebrates the 20th anniversary of A. Lange & Sohne’s relaunch in 1994 after a 50 year hiatus caused by Germany’s division.
The unique Blue Merit will retail for €385,000 (£316,046) and is based on A. Lange & Sohne’s Tourbillon Pour le Mérite, which was one of the first watches from the German company to launch it into the highest echelons of watchmaking.
Development of the piece took Grieb & Benzinger 12 months to achieve with complete movement modification and guilloché carried out by hand. In places the work necessitated moving original drillings by less than one-twentieth of a millimeter, a process that required careful reassembly, adjustment and disassembly to be carried out numerous times.
One bridge had to be recreated to accommodate the work and the components were coated with rhodium and rose gold while the sterling silver dial was embellished with a Breguet frost finish. Finally the base plate was coated with Grieb & Benzinger’s signature blue platinum.
