The Jaeger & Benzinger Edition 1 Manual Collection Men’s Luxury watch. Featuring a 42mm Stainless Steel case, impressive Silver dial, and outstanding precision, this timepiece showcases the premium design and quality that independent German watchmaker Jaeger & Benzinger is renowned for.
AU$7,995.00 (AU$7,268.18 ex GST for deliveries outside Australia)
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Jaeger & Benzinger Edition 1 Manual Collection
A captivating piece from the first glance, this simplicity and balanced design of this handmade timepiece is a joy to behold.
Using traditional watchmaking techniques such as hand-guilloching, hand-engraving and hand-skeletonising, each Jaeger & Benzinger timepiece is unique, thanks to the manual production process adopted to craft each watch individually. The Edition 1 is no exception with its striking, clean dial design and contrasting small second.
The Dial and Small Second Sub-Dial
The dial on the Edition 1 is made completely by hand, in the Baden-Baden workshops of Jaeger & Benzinger. Using unique processes such as Breguet frosting rhodium plating, an impeccable finish, comprising many steps, is achieved. The team first creates the sterling silver dial in-house and then applies the desired effect to create the base for the contrasting sub-dial.
Options for the main dial finish are: rhodium-plated, Breguet frosted, black rhodium (platinum) or black PVD with hands flame-blued, polished or white respectively to create optimal contrast and enhance legibility
The small second sub-dial is also handmade, created on a rose engine. The process of hand-guilloching can take hours, and each pattern is essentially unique because of the hand workmanship involved to create it. Once again, variations on the finish of the sub-dial are available to complement the main dial colour. Small second sub-dial designs and finishes are: rhodium-plated, Breguet frosted, black rhodium (platinum) or rose gold-plated and are matched to the most attractive base dial for optimal aesthetics.
Jaeger & Benzinger chose to feature Arabic italicized numerals on the dial to reflect the style of watch dials found in historical German watchmaking books – a small detail that adds character and individuality.
The Movement and Finishing
Jaeger & Benzinger have chosen to finish the movement using a three-quarter plate, which is traditional in East German watchmaking and can be found on most high-end watches from this region.
The plate is first hand guilloched using a traditional sunray pattern before being hand-engraved. Finally, the plate is finished in rose gold with blued screws and perlage on the base plate.
The balance cock is hand engraved and finished with rhodium, and the movement is protected by a sapphire crystal back.
The result is always stunning and vintage watches with this level of handwork and plate feature are coveted by collectors and enthusiasts for good reason, which is why they fetch record prices at auction.
The Case
The Edition 1 is fitted in a high-grade, polished stainless steel case made in Pforzheim, Germany and is fitted with an onion crown. Carrying on the classic look, the anti-reflective sapphire crystal is slightly domed in the style of older watches.
The Edition 1 is teamed with a hand-crafted leather band featuring a quick-change spring bar system and pin buckle. Please note: there are several band options available and your selection can be finalised at the time of placing your order, based on available stock.
An added touch
Even the packaging for Jaeger & Benzinger watches is hand-made in Germany, to the highest standards.
Kay Jaeger explains that the inner case, used to store the watch, can also be used as a travel case to protect your watch when you are on the move. It was designed exclusively for Jaeger & Benzinger by a small German specialty manufacturer of leather goods working to Kay’s specifications.
The outside material is made from sturdy, ox leather, while the inside is made from soft deer skin to provide optimal protection for its precious cargo. This case is entirely hand stitched and tanned, and is itself a small work of art.
The outer box, often a throw-away item, is also quite unique. It is made by a master, German book restorer who uses the same techniques to build Jaeger & Benzinger’s outer box that he uses to restore antique book covers. Another example of a fading art preserved by the boutique brand dedicated to bespoke, hand-made quality and design.
Technical specifications
• Movement: ETA 6498-2 calibre; diameter 36.6mm, height 4.5mm; 17 jewels; 18,000 A/h; three-quarter plate with sunray guilloché; hand-engraved and rose gold-plated balance cock, blued screws; base plate with perlage
• Functions: hour, minute, small second
• Case: polished/satinised stainless steel 42mm, height 11.5mm, sapphire crystal, sapphire crystal case back
• Watchstrap: hand-crafted leather with quick-change-system (variations occur depending on stock and model) Lug width: 22mm
• Dial: sterling silver manufactured in-house. Options:
• Main colour: rhodium-plated, Breguet frosted, black rhodium (platinum) or black PVD; hands blued, polished or white respectively
• Small second sub-dial: Small second sub-dial designs: rhodium-plated, Breguet frosted, black rhodium (platinum) or rose gold-plated
• Options: initials in movement available as upgrade, please contact us for details
• Warranty: 2 year international warranty
Kay Jaeger
For more than three decades, Kay Jaeger has devoted his time to watches, starting out as a collector and advisor for various watch labels. In 2009, he initiated the “Manufakturmesse” in Mannheim, which has been a popular alternative to larger trade fairs ever since. In 2012 he took the next logical step by planning and developing the first collection of mechanical wristwatches under the signet JAEGER & BENZINGER together with his friend Jochen Benzinger.
Jochen Benzinger
For many years, Jochen Benzinger has enjoyed an excellent reputation in the watch industry. His watches and watch movements are characterized by exceptional precision and exclusivity. Be it engraving, skeletonizing or guilloché, there is hardly another watchmaker as skilled at traditional finishing methods as the master from Pforzheim. Jochen Benzinger’s unique style is displayed in every single watch by JAEGER & BENZINGER, which makes his watches very special.
Hardly anyone today is aware of the fact that guilloché is the evolution of the “royal craft” known as ornamental turnery. Emperors, landgraves and nearly all the higher aristocracy of the 16th to 18th century were educated in this craft. Turnery epitomized more than any other craft the contemporary philosophy of everything revolving around a sovereign ruler. Using the royal lathes, watch artists developed beautiful guilloché machines in the 18th and 19th century, with which Breguet himself cut his unique, characteristic dials.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Tsar’s court jeweller Fabergé truly perfected the art of guilloché. He used guilloché as a background for his famous enamel works, among them the epitome of this work, his highly elaborate Fabergé eggs. Thanks to the renaissance of mechanical watches, some of today’s high-end watchmakers are once again adorning their products with hand-guilloché dials, unsurpassed in their elegant appearance.
The art of engraving is as old as mankind itself. Since ancient times, humans have been using cutting instruments to decorate jewellery and objects needed for everyday use.
In Europe, the art of engraving experienced a Golden Age in the 15th and 16th centuries, when armor and weapons were finely chiselled and engraved. In the 16th century, Albrecht Dürer helped the art form back to its glory days by using engraving tools for his copper printing plates and famous prints. Today, in the 21st century, Jaeger & Benzinger are using the very same tools as Dürer.
There are now only very few specialists skilled in these old finishing crafts. Our world is turning ever faster, globalization has made all people equal, computers determine our communication and people’s appetites are sated with fast food. Despite – or maybe due to – this, there are some able and willing to pay for the luxury of the truly exceptional.
Skeletonization is a method of decoration which gives closed watch movements a new and more individual character. Parts of the movement are removed using a goldsmith’s saw, allowing a direct view into and through the mechanical movement. A sapphire crystal case back makes it possible to see each of the movements.
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Availability note: Depending on availability, delivery times may vary on certain models.
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