In 2015, Dutch brothers Tim and Bart Grönefeld launched the 1941 Remontoire from their family atelier in Oldenzaal, eastern Netherlands. The name references a date stamped on the Grönefeld family workshop building, a piece of personal history from a watchmaking family that has been operating in Oldenzaal since 1912. The watch was the third reference from the Horological Brothers after the 2011 One Hertz and 2014 Parallax Tourbillon, and their most commercially important design to date.
The defining feature is the 8-second remontoire, a spring-driven constant-force mechanism visible through the sapphire caseback. A remontoire is a small auxiliary spring that sits between the mainspring and the escapement, re-tensioned at regular intervals by the going train. The Grönefeld remontoire re-arms every 8 seconds, releasing identical energy impulses to the balance wheel regardless of the main mainspring's state of wind. The result is near-constant amplitude, a meaningful accuracy gain over an uncompensated train, and a mechanical signature that makes the remontoire wheel's stop-start motion visible from the back of the watch.
The visual identity is just as distinctive. Arched stepped bridges reference the architecture of Dutch village churches in the brothers' region of origin, and the front-side dial is built around raised stepped chapter rings and deeply recessed sub-dials (time at 2 o'clock, seconds at 7 o'clock, power reserve at 11 o'clock). Anglage is cut entirely by hand to a standard routinely compared to Philippe Dufour. The 1941 Remontoire won the Men's Watch Prize at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix (GPHG) in 2016, the brothers' first major international accolade and the watch that put Grönefeld on the global collector radar.
The 1941 Remontoire is offered in 39.5mm cases of red gold, white gold, platinum, and, from 2020, stainless steel. Calibre G-05 is hand-wound, beats at 21,600 vph, and carries a 36-hour power reserve. Dial options include silver, salmon, blue, anthracite, and a matte-black edition. Retail runs from roughly €55,000 (stainless steel) to €90,000+ (platinum). Annual production of the 1941 Remontoire sits at around 25 pieces per year; waitlists historically run two to three years. The watch remains the entry point into Grönefeld's collection and the clearest demonstration of what the brothers set out to do: a mechanically meaningful Dutch dress watch finished to the top tier of independent haute horlogerie.
