Benzinger unique – Black Lizard

Collecting · · by Christian Bissener


Benzinger Black Lizard with rose gold case, dark dial with gold Roman numerals and small seconds, on a black strap

At a manufacturers’ fair in October 2011 Benzinger met Matthias Vickermann, one of the owners and directors of Vickermann & Stoya, a workshop for fine custom-made shoes in Baden-Baden. A tour through the leather stock gave Benzinger the idea for a joint project: leather meets watch.

An exclusive strap, perhaps in something exotic, would have been the obvious step, but Benzinger went further. A piece of black lizard leather was treated to become the dial itself. Against it, the gold case and the gold hour and minute indication give an otherwise classical watch an exclusive touch.

Rose gold Benzinger skeleton watch seen from the back, with rubies, blue wheels and a black alligator strap
The hand-skeletonised movement

Specification

  • 18kt 750/000 rose gold case made in Pforzheim, 42mm, screwed-in strap lugs
  • Hand-engraved, hand-guilloché and hand-skeletonised Unitas hand-winding movement
  • Two-part dial: the upper part, with the hour and minute indication, in hand-guilloché rose gold; the lower part in fine black lizard leather
  • Swan-neck fine regulation
  • Hand-sewn alligator strap with hand-made 750/000 rose gold buckle