If you’ve been following my Historical Horology articles, you’re well aware that wrist watches have clocks in their family tree. Up until recently, the firm Buben & Zorweg has been known as a creator of some rather high-end clocks. Following in the path of tradition, they’ve now decided to create their own watch.
The ONE Perpetual Calendar is a quite impressive piece for their first time out of the gate with a watch. As befitting a luxury watch, they’ve created their own in-house movement, the BZ01-MHO, which is a hand-wound movement. The movement features a 156 hour(!) power reserve (indicated on the back with a large hand), and is adjusted to five positions (accuracy, here we come). They’ve also incorporated silicium in their escapement components (more on why that’s important here).
You’ll be able to see this movement through the large display window in the caseback, as well as the cutout running at the centerline (from 9 to 3) of the watch. B&Z has incorporated a few different elements for the perpetual calendar that the movement offers. Up top, you have the day and month displays (and that dot near 12 indicates the year). Down below, you have two large wheels enabling the date display. While I’m a fan of large, two-digit date displays, I’m not sure how I feel about the oversized cutouts.
For the ONE, Buben & Zorweg has created three different limited edition models, in which the material of the 46mm case is changed. For the gold models (rose or white), 99 pieces will be made; there will only be 49 examples of the titanium version made. Pricing, as you might expect, is well within the luxury realm. The rose gold model comes in just under $63,000; white gold goes for $66,700, and platinum soars to $89,500.
It is worth mentioning that, should you buy one of these watches, you will get their similarly luxurious Time Mover winder (yup, it’s a winder for a manual-wind watch). It doesn’t make the watch any more affordable, but I suppose it is giving a greater value proposition for the potential customer. buben-zorweg.com
