The way of an exclusive and unique handmade Benzinger timepiece: from the design to the watch

Jochen Benzinger is the master of hand-guilloché, hand-engraved and hand-skeletonized watches. All of his watches are unique timepieces and the customer does have the opportunity to personalize his own watch with his initials, coat of arms or whatever the customer can imagine [there are always limits ;)]. The production of Jochen Benzinger is at a maximum of 50 watches per year! With the following report, I will show you the process of a personalized watch made by Jochen Benzinger by reference to the watch we made for the "Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner" (Foundation to help children with cancer) here in Luxembourg.

For the project "Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner" we decided us for the 3/4 Skelett model. The dial-side (1) we left "standard" 3/4 Skelett and for the movement side (2) Jochen Benzinger firstly made a design (3) with the coat of arms of the Foundation and the complete skelet as a mane of a lion.

 The artisanal work of hand-guilloché on detailed photos:

1- hand-guilloché plate
2- fixation of the dial on the support
3- hand-guilloché dial

The artisanal work of hand-engraving and hand-skeletonization on detailed photos:

1- hand-engraving of the coq
2- hand-skeletonization of the plate
3- hand-engraving of the plate

The different pieces after the hand-guilloché, hand-engraving and hand skeletonization:

1- The plate, left "standard" 3/4 Skelett design. Hand-engraved and hand-skeletonized
2- The pont de barillet, hand-engraved, hand-skeletonized and hand-guilloché. Personalized skeletonization with the lion's mane
3- The pont de rouage with the coat of arms of the "Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner", hand-engraved and hand-skeletonized
4- The roue de minuterie, hand guilloché
5- The roue des heures, hand-guilloché
6- The coq, hand-engraved and hand-skeletonized
7- The pont d'ancre, hand-engraved and hand-skeletonized
8- The barillet, hand-guilloché, hand-skeletonized and hand-engraved

1st preview!

And finally the finished watch!

I hope you enjoyed this little report of how a personalized watch by Benzinger is made. Maybe with this report you can better imagine how much work it is to make a watch as exclusive and unique as a Benzinger timepiece is.

Looking forward for your comments ;)

best Regards
Christian