Recently Buben & Zörweg presented the new high-end watchwinder Agartos. It took craft, design and technology experts two years to create the Agartos, which is a showcase and watchwinder, which holds five watches and is crowned with its own open-dial tourbillon clock.

It was a project that would involve 4000 hours of development. That’s the equivalent of one person working over 8 hours a day for an entire two years, five days a week, 52 weeks a year. Only the best brands do have the resources to accomplish such a project.

Nomination for a design award

Buben & Zörweg’s Agartos has now been nominated for the 2015 German Design Award, the German Design Council’s annual prize honouring unique design from round the globe, in the Excellent Product Design category. This is a great achievement after so many hours of work.

State of the art five axel CNC machines and 3D printing technology were used to create the fluid, masculine form and flawless finish of the Agartos. Its doors sweep open and closed in response to sensor technology, only when the person touching the Agartos knows where to slide their hands. A transponder can lock the Agartos securely.

The high gloss metallic piano lacquer on the aluminium chassis of the Agartos is a version of the lacquer found on supercars. It took six months to refine the composition of the lacquer Buben & Zörweg now calls ‘stardust’ and which has become the company’s signature lacquer. All sanding and polishing is conducted with meticulous precision and attention to detail, given that the Agartos is far smaller than a supercar.

Buben & Zörweg showing their passion for their clients

One Buben & Zörweg client in Singapore recently ordered a bespoke version of the Agartos asking for it to resemble the Iron Man cartoon character. Buben & Zörweg’s design team promptly rose to the challenge.

The result is fantastic. This special watchwinder was presented at Baselworld last march where we did get a full presentation how this watchwinder works. It proves the fine craftmanship Buben & Zörweg offers its clients.

In a car the motor is the heart which is the most important part of the car. In the world of watchwinders it's exactly the same. The motor, in combination with a gearbox, inside the watchwinder makes the watches turn around.

There are a lot of watchwinder brands using different technology and motors. Most brands are not really open about this topic, but for us consumers it's very important that we know which motor is inside a watchwinder. Because there are so many differences in quality, durability and sound level. 

Motors made in Asia

Most watchwinder brands in the lower price level do have a Chinese motor. In the beginning these motors do quite well, but on the long term the problems will be visible. Known defects are motors which completely stop, rotors which vibrate and increase of sound level. At the end a cheap watchwinder result in a loss of money. We certainly won't advise you to buy a watchwinder with a Chinese motor. 

Much better are the Mabuchi motors from Japan. Most reasonable priced watchwinders have one of those. The Mabuchi motors are known for their quality, durability and acceptable sound level. It's like Japanese cars, they do a very good job but are not the best. The Dutch watchwinder brand Benson and also Paul Design uses Mabuchi motors and both brands are popular brands on the watchwinder market.

For example Swiss Kubik uses Portescap which was a Swiss company but moved their production to India. The question is can they still obtain a high level of quality. The future will tell. At the moment the Swiss Kubik watchwinders are quite popular and our experiences with this brand are very good. 

Motors made in Switzerland and Germany

The best motors are coming from the EU. Especially Switzerland and Germany are famous and considered as the best. For example Buben & Zörweg uses Elma motors which are proven very reliable and are almost making no sound. Therefore these watchwinders are very good to use in a bedroom. 

There are a few watchwinder brands which use Faulhaber from Switzerland, but this brand is less known in the market. More known is Maxon which is one of the best producers of motors worldwide. Maxon is famous because they produce all kind of motors which are also used by NASA in their space projects. Maxon helped mankind to the moon. Maxon motors are used by Italian watchwinder brands as Underwood and Scatola del Tempo. 

It's not just the motor.....

Of course it's to simple to say the motor is the most important part of the watchwinder because there are more components which make or brake the watchwinder. Especially the gearbox is very important too. The level of sound of a watchwinder is mostly the result of the gearbox. Therefore there always must be a perfect combination of a reliable strong motor with a efficient and silent gearbox.

Passionate watch collectors have a lot to choose when they decide to buy a high end watchwinder with a storage compartment for their other watches. There are several brands which produce the most beautiful watchwinders, made of the finest materials. In general Germany has a reputation of being a country with great craftsmen. One of these brands is made by high skilled craftsmen is Stockinger.

Stockinger safes; made to measure watch solutions

One of the big advantages Stockinger safes has to offer is that they produce exactly according your needs, so that you can place the watchwinder safe in your bedroom, living room, cloakroom, office of study room. The combination of the interior, exterior and technique is what a Stockinger watchwinder safe makes it so special. You can select the exact exteriour and interior according your wishes. For example you can let the watchwinder safe exterior be made of the finest wood in combination with sublime leather or silk interior. It's up to you...

Regarding technique Stockinger offers the latest technology to keep your automatic watches safe. The patented Stocktronic system guarantees secure yet extraordinary ease of use. The system works separately from your building electricity and is programmed via a concealed keypad. It can be programmed to trigger a “silent alarm”, so that in risky situations you are able to set off an emergency signal simply by opening your safe in the normal way. This sounds like a James Bond movie, and it's technique that makes Stockinger an attractive brand. 

Another strong point is that Stockinger safes have a multi-wall safe construction, which is especially safe because the plating is made of an ultra-hard special high-tech blend of polymers and is up to six-times harder than standard platings. As a result, a Stockinger safe weighs up to one-third less than conventionally constructed safes, but boast a comparable or even higher security level.

3D design to make the watchwinder safe exactly according your wishes

The design specialists of Stockinger create beautiful 3D designs to meet the demands of the customers. The customer can select the exact materials, details and finishing. 

The highly specialised paint and finish experts will not only produce the watchwinder safe in any colour you choose, they are also masters at creating the most realistic nature surfaces. Stcokinger is just as good at creating marble and natural stone finishes, or recreating the appearance of various types of wood grains, such as macassar ebony or mahogany. This makes Stockinger quite unique because the customer can let Stockinger produce an unique watchwinder safe. 

When we had enough money to spend, we certainly purchased a Stockinger watchwinder:) 

During Baselworld we met ms. La Ferla and mr. Lintrup from Underwood London in a hotel nearby the exhibition square. La Ferla is general manager from Underwood at the head office in Italy and Lintrup is the distributor for the UK and Scandanavian countries.

After a passionate introduction about the Underwood London watchwinders by La Ferla we had the chance to check out the newest watchwinders from this promising Italian brand. Since the 90's Underwood did specialize in producing watchwinders with a modular winding system. The main charasteristics of the brand can be described as traditional, Italian and quality.

When we take a look at the Underwood London watchwinders we see similarities with some other brands. Many watchwinder brands do have a modular system, suitable for those consumers who want to wind just one automatic watch and maybe expand their collection in the future. Underwood London does not only offer the single modular watchwinder systems, but also the storage compartments to store the systems all together. Therefore you can build up your collection of watchwinders very easy. An advantage is that in case one modular watchwinder system is defective it can be replaced or repaired quite quick.

The Underwood London watchwinders do look quite similar to the Orbita and Scatola del Tempo watchwinder models. In our opinion the brand should do more to offer a more unique style and design to distinguish itself from other watchwinder brands. The quality is solid with Maxon motors but we expect more from Italians, with beautiful brands as Ferrari, Versace, Ducati, Armani etc etc.

Do we like the Underwood London watchwinders? Yes, we love the passion from this Italian brand, and the watchwinders really do look good.  But in this price class the consumer may expect a little more than just a modular winding system, with basic features that are very common. Thereby, when Underwood London is able to produce high-end watchwinders with an own style and modern functionalities they can compete more easy with other famous brands.

Benson Watchwinders is a relatively young brand from the Netherlands. They expanded really quick and their watchwinders are getting popular more and more. The main reason is that this brand produces very good quality watchwinders for interesting prices.

One of the most popular series of Benson Watchwinders is the Smart-Tech series. The flagship model from this series is the Benson Smart-Tech 6.12.B watchwinder, and we are happy to share a video of this watchwinder with you.