Benzinger – custom-made timepieces

When it comes to personalising a timepiece, Benzinger is the name to turn to. His skill in hand guilloché, hand engraving and hand skeletonising allows him to create an individual piece to a client’s wishes.

The machines

For his guilloché work he uses machines that are 100 years old. There is no software involved: the results come from long experience, talent and skill.

Vintage lathe with a stack of brass discs and an orange wax stick for holding parts — A guilloché machine with its stack of patterned rosettes

Stack of thin brass rings mounted on a machine spindle with a belt pulley at the side — The rosettes on the spindle

A design for each client

Before a watch is made, Jochen Benzinger draws a design agreed with the client. Two examples are a watch made for the Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner in Luxembourg and one for a German client.

Hand drawn sketch of a skeleton watch back with coloured annotations and a date in the corner — Design drawing for the Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner

For the Fondatioun project the logo was skeletonised and engraved in the train bridge, and the whole skeleton was shaped as the mane of the lion, the foundation’s mascot.

The finished Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner watch

Hand drawn sketch of a skeleton watch dial with coats of arms and handwritten notes on paper — Design drawing for the Baden-Württemberg watch

For the German client, Jochen Benzinger engraved and skeletonised the client’s initials in the train bridge. The rotor of an automatic movement carries the coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg, skeletonised, guilloché and engraved by hand. As the movement is hand wound, the rotor has no function, but it turns through 360°.

Skeleton watch seen from the back with an engraved coat of arms in gold at the centre of the movement — The finished Baden-Württemberg watch

Rotors

Two examples of customised rotors, both with cars:

Engraved sports car emblem with gull wing doors on a dark background, workshop photo — A rotor engraved with a gull-wing sports car

Engraved gold and silver car emblem with Z8 lettering on a laurel ring, workshop photo — A rotor engraved with a car and the lettering Z8

More custom-made watches

The “Black Lizard” works leather into the watch: the lower dial is covered in a special leather and the upper dial is in rose gold.

Yellow gold watch with blue textured dial, Roman numerals and small seconds on a black strap — “Black Lizard”

The “Water Tower” carries a client’s cottage, applied on the fully skeletonised rose gold main plate, together with the client’s initials. It is hand engraved, hand guilloché and hand skeletonised.

Gold watch with a skeletonised dial showing a tower and gears, black strap — “Water Tower”

The “Ritz” has a rotor made as a roulette table, small seconds as a roulette wheel and the logo of the Ritz at 1 o’clock.

Back of a watch with a roulette wheel as the rotor, black strap — The “Ritz” – the rotor as a roulette table

The “Ritz” – small seconds as a roulette wheel

The “Phoenix” has a dial engraved entirely with the phoenix motif.

Silver watch with an engraved phoenix dial and a small date window, black strap — The “Phoenix”

The “coat of arms of the Netherlands” carries that coat of arms on the dial, hand engraved, guilloché and skeletonised.

Silver watch with a gold and blue coat of arms on a skeletonised dial, black strap — The coat of arms of the Netherlands

The “Chinese dragon” has a lower dial of natural mother-of-pearl with the dragon applied on top, skeletonised and engraved, and a bezel and lugs set with diamonds.

Watch with a mother-of-pearl dial and a multicoloured dragon, diamond-set bezel, white strap — The “Chinese dragon”

There are almost no limits to personalisation, and every client can have a timepiece that is entirely their own.

Benzinger watches can be ordered through Watch Collector – see Benzinger or get in touch.