SimplyAbuDhabi IX

“Indeed,” he continues, “the name Sabudha is, like the watch, derived from ‘Simply Abu Dhabi’ but phonetically has a ‘Middle East meets Middle West’ imperial essence.” “We both loved the royal link,” agrees Bartkowiak, “with its sense of history and myth – it seemed perfect for such a special watch. The fact we chose the black variety of spinel simply adds to its allure.” It seems perfect for Grieb & Benzinger too – a brand defined by a deep respect for the past and the traditions that go with it. Situated deep in the heart of Germany’s Baden Württemberg, things aren’t very different from Switzerland and its idyllic ‘chocolate box’ watch industry: lush, green countryside and sleepy rural villages filled with pretty chateaux, some housing hushed ateliers and their hunched watchmakers. Even the movements ticking away inside Grieb & Benzinger’s watches are Swiss. However, it’s what they do to these movements that sets them apart. For in Germany’s ‘Gold Town’ of Pforzheim, Jochen Benzinger is custodian of possibly the world’s most valuable collection of 19th-century engine-turning machines. It is with these and countless other handheld tools that, as with the Black Tulip Sabudha Imperial, Benzinger transforms every watch movement into a work of art: guilloché patterns and ornate engraving on all visible surfaces, followed by skeletonisation of all the bridges and plates that hold together the gearing. The work involved is painstaking, but the result – once Hermann Grieb has reassembled the parts in his watchmaking workshop – is dazzling; a delicate, luminescent spider’s web of whirring clockwork. “As recent years have shown,” says Bartkowiak, “historic crafts are becoming sought-after again; our oldmachines – not least Jochen’s skills – represent priceless treasure for Grieb & Benzinger. You’ll struggle to find a similar selection of functional guilloché machines even in Switzerland and their watchmaking museums.” Benzinger is turning back time by literally carving history and long-forgotten traditions into brand-new Swiss movements. What’s more, every one of their ‘Boutique’ watches, starting at around € 35,000, are made to order with plenty of opportunity for personalisation. Take the recent example of a watch collector and horse enthusiast from the UAE. Thanks to a fervent passion for his stable of Arabian stallions, the watch needed to have an unostentatious colour scheme to harmonise with his new, totally bespoke set of saddle, riding boots and harness. The result, called ‘Polaris Stallion’, was a near-iridescent honey dial of wavy guilloché with a restrained glimpse of the movement through two windows, and a chestnut leather strap. “Years ago we thought we had an idea about the ‘typical’ Grieb & Benzinger customer,” admits Bartkowiak, “but years of experience have shown us that all of our customers are as unique as our watches.” But while Jochen Benzinger is imbuing soul and something of the past into the brand-new Boutique watch movements, the watch movements destined for the top-end ‘Platinum’ collection first land on Hermann Grieb’s workbench with as many as 140 years of history and regal provenance. Via closely guarded industry sources, Grieb has accumulated a select stock of highly technical and beautifully crafted vintage ‘complications’ made by grande maisons such as Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin, all dating between 1880 and 1930. They are decaying watches that have 2 3 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I Hermann Grieb, Georg Bartkowiak and Jochen Benzinger