Grone

GRØNE Oldenzaal is a new, more accessible line of fine mechanical wristwatches created by Bart and Tim Grönefeld — the award-winning independent watchmakers behind their eponymous atelier brand Grönefeld, already established as one of the most respected names in Dutch haute horlogerie. GRØNE is distinct and separate from that atelier brand, led and overseen by the same two brothers but built around a different mission entirely: connecting a younger generation of collectors to mechanical watchmaking, at a price and spirit more accessible than the Grönefeld name typically commands. The name itself began as an affectionate nickname: 'in the early days, our friends always called us GRØNE Boys or GRØNE Brothers,' the brothers have explained. 'The name GRØNE is a nickname for Grönefeld... it was also printed on Bart's windsurf harness.' Written with a slash through the O — pronounced more like the Norwegian or Scandinavian ø than a Dutch O, closer to the 'eu' sound in the French word bleu — the name carries the brothers' own history into a brand built specifically to invite a new audience in. 'When we first thought of creating GRØNE, we wanted to get the younger generation into mechanical watches,' they've said. 'We feel that mechanical watches — especially manual winding ones — really have a heart and a soul, and we want to share that with the next generation. For us, this is like creating a baby.'

Every GRØNE watch carries the brothers' family history directly onto the wrist. Their grandfather Johan Grönefeld established the family workshop and boutique on Steenstraat in Oldenzaal, and it was in that same workshop — to the metronomic sound of ticking clocks and watches — that Bart and Tim played as children, falling for the sound of pallet levers at work and vowing to continue their forebears' craft; the brothers now represent the third generation of the family in watchmaking, spanning over a century. The debut GRØNE Manueel One, nicknamed 'Sjef's One,' was launched on 5 November 2024 — the birthday of the brothers' father, Johannes 'Sjef' Grönefeld, born in Oldenzaal in 1941 — and dedicated to him directly. Limited to 388 pieces at €2,150 (excluding VAT, duties, and shipping), it sold out. The solid engraved caseback carries a miniaturised, hand-redrawn reproduction of an antique 1626 map of Oldenzaal, with the GRØNE logo marking the brothers' present-day atelier location — a design choice rooted, in their words, in honouring their hometown and 'allowing collectors to carry a piece of Oldenzaal with them.' Around the periphery of the caseback runs the engraved Dutch saying 'ZOALS HET KLOKJE THUIS TIKT – TIKT HET NERGENS' ('as the clock ticks at home, it ticks at its best') — a reminder, the brothers say, of the warmth and familiarity of home, both the Grönefelds' and the wearer's own.

The Manueel One's dial is built around a tremblage salmon centre surrounded by a two-step brushed rhodium-plated ring diamond-cut at every edge, with highly polished diamond-cut baton hour markers individually hand-applied so their tips optically float above the tremblage surface, creating genuine depth. The applied metallic GRØNE logo carries its own three-dimensional effect, and the words 'Oldenzaal,' 'Manueel,' and 'Netherlands' are printed in the same vibrant blue as the hands. The 38.5mm × 9mm stainless steel case draws directly from the Grönefeld 1941 case first introduced on the award-winning Remontoire and Principia — here evolved with domed surfaces between the lugs, a concave case profile, and the brothers' distinctive conical crown for comfortable winding. Inside is a modified Swiss-made Sellita SW210 manual-wind calibre, torque-adjusted to the exact winding feel the brothers prefer, 19 jewels, 28,800 vibrations per hour, 42-hour power reserve, hacking seconds, and 5 ATM water resistance.

The GRØNE Moment Meter, launched for order on 3 December 2025, marked the brand's move into an entirely new design direction: a boldly expressive manual-winding chronograph, undeniably Grönefeld in DNA but pursued as a study in dial construction and movement aesthetics. 'The watch is called the Moment Meter,' the brothers explain. 'It is to measure a moment in time, so it is, in fact, a chronograph that you can measure part of your life' — dedicated to capturing spur-of-the-moment significance, whether a first kiss or a decisive penalty kick. The salmon sunburst main dial, finished with light circular graining, is joined by twin subdials mounted on raised concave and convex plateaus for dimensional depth, diamond-cut and polished at their edges, finished in radial graining on rhodium; blued hands mark regular time, bright orange hands mark the chronograph functions, and a baby-blue pulsometer scale at the periphery is calibrated to 15 heartbeats, letting the wearer record their pulse directly from the wrist alongside a conventional 1/5th-second chronograph scale. The manual-winding column-wheel chronograph movement was developed in partnership with Manufacture La Joux-Perret, finished in ruthenium with contrasting gold engravings and revealed through a sapphire caseback framed by a specially made orange gasket — what the brothers call an aura of 'Dutch-ness.' The 39mm case is an evolution of the 1941 architecture built specifically thinner for a chronograph movement, in high-polish steel with brushed sides, delivered on a blue nylon sailcloth strap chosen over leather for its lighter, more dynamic, sportier character. Limited to 300 pieces at €3,490 excluding VAT, duties, and shipping, the Moment Meter sold out as well.