Grönefeld 1941 Principia Salmon

I’ve often said here that I tend to gravitate toward a given brand’s more minimal offerings. Pairing back the flying tourbillons, flyback chronographs, and deadbeat-seconds leaves room for a watchmaker’s design and finishing efforts to shine through. Leave it to the slightly unhinged Dutch brothers to design a time-only watch that has been more carefully thought-through than most volume manufacture’s complications.

This incredible Principia is the brothers’ most approachable yet. The Principia is everything you love in a Grönefeld, with no excess. The paired back, time-only model uses none of the remontoire tech the pair have become renown for. The watch is simple, refined, and damn gorgeous. Its metallic salmon dial is not the only good side, attractive as it is with those hands and indices. Flip it over to observe a very unique bridge design, meant to resemble the facades of Dutch street fronts, or ‘bell gables.’ Everything is hand-beveled, micro-blasted, then engraved. Screws are all polished to a mirror. All jewels are sat in golden chains to provide visual contrast. The finishing quality is staggering. Particularly in this lovely salmon & steel aesthetic, the whole package is bewitching. No wonder GHPG loves the brothers, I do too. 

This example sports almost no wear. The strap looks to have hardly been buckled across a wrist. Its polished steel case doesn’t even have surface wear from what I can tell. The watch comes with a full set.

Find this 1941 Principia here on Chrono24 for 54895 USD.