Discovering Moritz Grossmann at Tempi Moderni, in Trento.

The watchmaking panorama has never been so vast, the vision of a private individual and of operators such as traders, retailers, distributors or freelancers can really range on different fronts. I have already said it and I repeat it, it is an absolute good that today there is this breadth.

A saying goes: “If there is wind of change, do not try to catch it, adjust the sails and take advantage of it”. Vintage? Second wrist? New? Tall or short? Independents? We have so many options on the market today.

The visit to Trento at Tempi Moderni, retailer for Moritz Grossmann

Here begins the journey of the owners of a shop in Trento whose fascinating vision leads them to create a very elegant hybrid that has a sense of quality even if it is not “standardized” in a single context. Many times you are limited to a certain competence and therefore “branded” as traders or retailers (officials).

Giampiero Caserini and his wife Veronica decide to leverage their strong expertise in the vintage world to expand their offer with contemporary watch brands. Quite often the opposite happens.

I find this path interesting because as I often go to retailers I think that sometimes they have lost a little the magic of describing a product, victims of a job that is more oriented towards serving the customer who has a request rather than proposing something new. The feeling of having found something rare, well preserved, with a compelling story to tell, of making the public desire it by treating the watch in question with a bit of mystery are purely vintage market activities.

They therefore decide to lay the foundations on what is the market niche that comes closest to their modus operandi.

Here they enter: Lang&Heyne, Speake-Marin, Schwarz-Etienne, the interesting Kudoke and Moritz Grossman with his classicism. To top it all off two smaller independent brands such as Qlocktwo and Squale to provide a unique and qualitatively competitive entry level.

The independent creations of Moritz Grossman

Before Christmas we had the pleasure of being able to touch the Moritz Grossman collection firsthand at an event they organized in Trento together with some friends of Forchette e Lancette. I haven’t seen their collection since before the covid in Basel: classicism and Teutonic savoir faire have remained intact.

Who is this gentleman meanwhile? Like so many watchmakers of our world no longer with us, Moritz-Grossman was one of the founding fathers of watchmaking Saxony as we know it.

The Hamatic and the Tremblage

Of all of them, I particularly liked two models: the Hamatic from a technical point of view and the Tremblage from an artisanal and therefore aesthetic point of view.

Innovations from a technical point of view always put a smile on my face. Hamatic has a manufacture movement with a peculiarity that affects the winding of the watch: instead of having a traditional rotor that creates energy through the motion of the wrist, it has a pendular-type hammer weight.

Yes, a pendulum in a wristwatch.

The Tremblage is my favorite model. This takes its name from the French tremblage technique, here the Teutonic fantasy expresses its best. Leaving aside the jokes tremblage = to shake, to tremble.

How are Tremblage dials created?

We start from a silver base, which is worked by a master engraver. As with guillochè, there are no schools that teach this type of art. Only with a lot of practice and a lot of patience can you become an expert in mastering this technique. The operator will then make some light incisions on the silver base.

First level of difficulty: they must be homogeneous, because if we want to have a uniform texture the pressure applied must be constant.

Second level of difficulty: don’t press too hard because you risk scratching the dial.

Third level of difficulty: the numbers and the logo are obstacles because they are carved into the base. They are not applied. They are then polished to create this spectacular matte shiny contrast which makes this watch very alluring.

Conclusions

Like any independent creation, Moritz Grossmann amazes us with the passion and technique he displays in his watches. Now we’re curious to know your opinion: let us know if you’re going to see them in Trento and what you think!

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