FineWatchesBerlin

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ORACLE TIME - impuls buy

In a world of exclusive complications, highly prized and priced movements and watches that break records at auctions, it’s good to be able to give back

Valentina Blue

In a world of exclusive complications, highly prized and priced movements and watches that break records at auction, it’s good to be able to give back – and few causes are more worthy of that kind of help than Stiftung Valentina. The foundation aims to make children’s palliative care as comfortable as possible by allowing them to stay at
home with their families, rather than on a ward.

Needless to say the foundation has a good deal of support across Germany, including from the father-and- daughter partnership behind Fine Watches Berlin – Mia Phyllis and Wilfried Liefer – who have created a striking blue charity timepiece.

Fittingly dubbed the Valentina, it’s not, as you might assume from the name, a women’s timepiece. At 40.5mm, the round stainless steel case is just on the men’s side of unisex. Yet diminutive as it may be on the wrist, it’s not a watch you can easily miss.

 

 

 

That’s almost entirely due to the Valentina’s striking colour. Polished silver indexes and lume-filled hands stand out nicely against the medium blue, as does the bright red flashes around the small seconds and the contrast stitching of the dial-matching blue strap.

It’s a cool, colourful and intensely quirky watch, fun without being too out-there. It’s equipped with a modified Miyota automatic movement and also comes with a bright red strap if you want something even more unmistakable.

Coming in at Euro 698 – round about £650 – it’s not a bad price for a uniquely designed timepiece.

 

 

Valentina Blue
Limited to 100 pieces
SOLD OUT

ORACLE TIME, Issue 75, Page 58

WATCHPRO : FineWatchesBerlin encapsulates family and design with Bauhaus inspiration

FineWatchesBerlin encapsulates family and design with Bauhaus inspiration

By Alex Douglas,

In 1987, not only was Wilfied Liefer’s daughter, Mia-Phyllis, born, so was the idea for his own watch brand.

It wasn’t until 30 years later though that the idea became a reality when FineWatchesBerlin came to fruition.

“Sometimes things take time. After some self-chosen private and professional reorientations, the time had come in 2017. I found the time and leisure to realize this old dream together with my daughter.” Wilfried Liefers recalls.

“Of course, the quality of the materials used must be right and valuable. The feel is also important to me, to feel the harmony of weight and processing quality in the hand. A good watch should inspire me to take the time to look at it again and again,” explains Mia-Phyllis Liefer.

The duo want to address people with a strong sense of good design, while another aspect with regard to the brand image is the German capital.

Mr Liefer explains: “The connection to Berlin is important for us. My daughter and I feel very connected to the city. I have lived here for almost 35 years and Mia-Phyllis was born here. A completely new perspective in my life opened up for me in Berlin and we try to implement this “everything is possible” in our watches.

And one mustn’t forget that Berlin is one of the most popular and well-known cities in the world, so it’s not uninteresting in terms of marketing.”

Adding: “Our customer has a sense, a sense of value; a new iPhone can inspire him just as much as his 30-year-old SR 500 or his handmade shoes. He gives in to the impulse to simply step out of the daily hustle and bustle, to take a moment for himself, to treat himself to something. Someone who sits down with a good cup of coffee, takes his FineWatchesBerlin off his wrist and calmly devotes himself to the many small details of the watch and enjoys it.”

The inclined watch lover now has the choice between three product lines: “Teufelsberg”, “HansaViertel” and “Valentina”.

What they have in common is the inner workings of Miyota in the form of the modified automatic movement 8218 or 8315 in the screwed 40.5 millimeter stainless steel case with a 42-hour or 60-hour power reserve, which is visible through the glass bottom.

Other properties include sapphire glass, solid, applied numerals and index, hands and dots lined with luminous material, and handcrafted leather straps with a quick-change mechanism.

The timepieces have been able to adorn themselves with their German-Made origin since 2022, because they have been produced in Ruhla ever since

The watches retail between €698 and €749.

WATCHPRO UK

watchuseek: Mike Stuffler "Let me introduce you to FineWatchesBerlin"

FineWatchesBerlin
From Berlin with Love
A „new" microbrand from Berlin​
watchuseek, Feb.07.2020
Mike Stuffler
​

The Story

I have to admit that the title might be a bit misleading. FineWatchesBerlin is not really a „new" micro brand and it is already known to those watch aficionados who had the chance to visit FineWatchesBerlin at the Aurochronos Festival in Lodz or at the Watchtime Düsseldorf event in Autumn 2019. Nevertheless, it is a young brand.

And there's another circumstance I should mention. They are from Berlin but „FineWatchesBerlin" are not made in Berlin. However the design comes from Berlin, any proud resident of Spandau would say, hey Spandau is not Berlin, but this is is local color and only those living in Berlin and/or Spandau know what this is about, I'll leave it at that.

Fine WatchesBerlin is a start-up as a family project. Watchmaker Wilfried Liefer and his lovely daughter Mia-Phyllis Liefer are running FineWatchesBerlin.

 

Wilfried is a „Spandauer" for over 40 years, only two years ago Wilfried and Mia made the leap into the start-up scene. The two founded the watch design company "FineWatchesBerlin" in Wilhelmstadt, a district of Spandau, whose name derived from Kaiser Wilhelm I. On the occasion of the emperor's 100th birthday the former Potsdam suburb received its current name in 1897.

As I already mentioned the watches are not manufactured in Berlin, but in the Far East, China. According to the founding duo, eight suppliers are working in accordance with the strict specifications from Spandau. The production is supervised and coordinated by an external specialist on site. "Cooperation between Spandau and China is running smoothly thanks to modern means of communication", explains Wilfried.

The Spandau-based company also wants to improve the world with its products - at least by a little. €50 for each watch they sell goes to the aid organization "Hands with Hands", which is committed to the construction of schools and orphanages in Nepal and grants microcredit to women.

 

FineWatches Berlin are little known to many, I hope this will change soon. The idea of „FineWatchesBerlin" has a long history until it became real. The idea to design watches lies somewhere in the past of Wilfried Liefer. He worked as a goldsmith for many years until 2002 and ran a long-established jewelry store in Spandau, one of my favorite shops.

When in charge he offered smaller watch brands that were not yet well known at that time, the opportunity to present themselves to a larger audience: Jörg Schauer, Alain Silberstein, Nomos, Chronoswiss and Jacques Etoile were among them in the 1990s.

Liefer has always had an eye for something special, something different. He let himself be infected by the passion, enthusiasm and courage of the young, aspiring watchmakers and was happy to support them. Now he has taken this step with his daughter himself.

"The response from consumers and experts is very encouraging," says the designer, looking confidently into the future.

Mia and Wilfried decided not to go the „most obvious" way via kickstarter or other externally financed projects, they were funding the project from private funds.

"We want to remain completely independent - in all areas. It is important to us to realize our dream one-to-one and not to be subject to the financial interests of others, "says the daughter, who brings in her expertise as a marketing professional. Such financing is quite unusual in the days of kickstarter, crowdfunding and Co. and testifies to the self-image of the two entrepreneurs.

One should also mention the successful packaging: handmade from rapidly growing bamboo wood, a reusable box with magnetic closure has been created. It reminds a little of Grandfather's cigar box, in which all kinds of treasures found their place in my childhood.

The watches
The first watch which was launched had a familiar sounding model name, all Berlin residents know very well, the „Teufelsberg Schwarz 1".

The name of the watch comes from a man-made hill in Berlin, Germany, in the Grunewald locality of former West Berlin. In times of the cold war, there were listening devices of the US installed on top of the Teufelsberg.

Other models with color nuances were added to the Teufelsberg 1 Black very quickly. Nowadays FineWatchesBerlin offers the following variants:
Teufelsberg Black #1
Teufelsberg White #2
Teufelsberg Silver #3
Teufelsberg Rosé #4
and
Valentina LE Red
Valentina LE Blue

Specifications:
Apart from the different color design of the dials, of course the key data of all Teufelsberg models are identical:

Case:
Stainless steel three piece case with a diameter of 40.5 mm, height 11 mm, L2L: 48,5mm, lug width 20mm, polished, water resistance 5atm (splash-proof), almost unnoticeable engraving „FineWatchesBerlin by W.Liefer" on the left side of the case.
The „Teufelsberg" weighs only 75 grams, so very comfortable to wear.
The design of the small seconds is mirrored on the head of the crown by a white circle on blue base.
The lugs are drilled and fitted with non functional blue crews. A nice design gimmick which is not needed at all since all watches are fitted with quick release straps. However, the blue of the screws matches the blue of the crown. Someone must have been thinking for some time on this play of colors.

Crystal:
Sapphire crystal (top)
Screwed display back with sapphire crystal

Dial:
Double-layer dial with embedded/recessed small seconds at 4/5 o'clock and applied indices.
The small seconds sub dial is fitted with a hand in red. Only the Valentina LE Red is fitted with a black seconds hand. Whatever dial color you chose, readability isn't an issue.
The Hands are filled with luminous compound, so are the dots above the indexes and numerals. That being said, the watch is not made for night owls if you know what I mean.

Movement:
Nicely decorated Miyota 8218 automatic movement with engraved rotor („From Berlin with love") Blued screws, (machined) stripes on rotor bridge and balance cock. The 8218 is a 21 jewels movement, beating at 21,600 and provides a power reserve of approximately 42 hours.

My impressions
„Bauhaus" has been on everyone's lips in the watch sector for a long time now. And so it is not surprising that Fine Watches Berlin has been guided by the Bauhaus design when designing their first watch „Teufelsberg". A selection of details emphasizes its simplicity and formal appearance.

The „Teufelsberg" is a versatile watch, offering a classic and all at once sophisticated design.

Bit again, the Teufelsberg is not satisfying the purist (traditional) Bauhaus requirements but it is a nice Bauhaus inspired watch for sure. As a plus, the „Teufelsberg" is playing with Bauhaus colors, sometimes more sometimes less.

Johannes Itten, who gave lectures at the Bauhaus from 1919 to 1922, gave us a color sphere comprised of twelve colors (three primary, three secondary, and six tertiary) that shows the relationship among colors, as well as gradations of saturation. This is especially aimed at the Valentina LE Red and Valentina LE Blue.

The „Teufelsberg" models set a new standard to what we thinks and understand Bauhaus is about. A „Teufelsberg" does not follow the pattern of traditional Bauhaus watches but offers eye candy details for the beholder.

It has large Arabic numeral hour markers only on the 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock positions added by 8 markers. Both, markers and numerals are applied, not printed.

Wilfried and Mia once have been asked to describe FWB in only 4 words and here are their answers.

Wilfried: FRESH - STRIKING - BAUHAUS - TIMELESS - PURE - MECHANICAL (designer language ?)

Mia : FROM - BERLIN - WITH - LOVE (female logic ?)

To sum it up, the „Teufelsberg" by FineWatchesBerlin is a very nice watch with some proper details. It is elegant and sophisticated at the same time and you feel the love to details it is made with. If you are looking for a perfect everyday watch which can be worn „casual" as well as „formal" you might have found it.
Do I recommend it?
….Yes!

Mike Stuffler at watchuseek

WATCHPRO Market

FineWatchesBerlin brings riot of colour to WATCHPRO Market

FineWatchesBerlin is a labour of love for father and daughter co-founders Wilfried and Mia-Phyllyis Liefer, who launched the business back in 2017 and now sells direct to consumers online and through six retail partners in its native Germany.

The company is looking to impress British watch lovers with an appearance at next week’s WATCHPRO Market, which runs from Friday, December 2 to Sunday, December 4, at a converted retail space under the lights of Piccadilly Circus on London’s Regent’s Street.

FineWatchesBerlin will present two collections: HansaViertel and Tuefelsbert, which share a pared back Bauhaus aesthetic but are differentiated by details such as roman numerals and a small seconds sub dial for the Teufelsbergs and a date at 6 o’clock on the more colourful HansaViertel range.

WATCHPRO UK

 

Beans & Bezels, WATCH REVIEWS by Shreyas Skandan

Contemparary - Quirky - Bauhaus

FineWatchesBerlin is a relatively new German micro-brand started by father-daughter duo Mia Phyllis Liefer and Wilfried Liefer. This is going to be a longer-than-usual review, so I don’t want to spend too much time introducing the brand. Instead, I’ll leave these two links to Mike Stuffler’s interview with this dynamic duo, as well as his own opinions of the brand and watch:

A few things I’d like to note are – that FWB are transparent regarding their manufacturing location, and indicate that this watch is manufactured and assembled in China. The ‘Made in Germany‘ tag is a very loosely defined label anyway, and many of these watches are manufactured in China but assembled in Germany, so I respect their decision to print ‘Designed in Germany‘ instead. And as you will see, they have very strict quality control standards, and the finishing is excellent. Roughly $60 from every sale is donated to Hands with Hands, to help developing communities in Nepal.

Case

The case measures 39.75mm in diameter, 49mm from lug-to-lug and 11.25mm tall. The dimensions on their website differ by a few mm, but this is what I measured with my calipers. The case is entirely polished, and has a simple circular design, similar to Bauhaus style watches from Stowa and Nomos. A narrow polished bezel houses the flat sapphire crystal that appears to have AR coating on the inner surface.

From above, the lugs have a narrow and straight design common to watches in this design genre, but the sides angle down towards the wrist. The lug holes are capped with blue screws, and the lug width is 20mm.

You have the brand’s name engraved on the left side of the watch. I don’t always like engraved cases, but this doesn’t look obnoxious at all, and I think it works.

There is a 5.75mm diameter crown at the 3 o’clock position that is plated with the same rose gold color as the indices and hands.

The top of the crown has the brand’s concentric circle insignia in blue and white. The crown is very well designed, and I didn’t notice any crown or stem wobble.

Flipping it over, you have an exhibition style case back that is attached to the case by means of 6 screws. The exhibition window is also made of sapphire crystal, and the watch is rated for up-to 50m of water resistance.

The Teufelsberg is offered in four different dial configurations, and the special edition Valentina is offered in two. They sent me the Teufelsberg Rosé #4, which has rose gold indices, hands and branding. This watch does bear resemblance to Bauhaus style watches from Stowa and Nomos, but does not follow the serious, symmetrical and rigid design language of the above watches. Instead, the Teufelsberg feels like a joyful, quirky and positively eccentric improvisation of the Bahaus rule book. The design feels like a constant contradiction to the fundamental design principles, but also just seems to work.

The base of the dial has a metallic satin finish, and the color comes across as a silvery off-white.

There is a thin blue border that encloses the minute track. The minute markers are small rose gold colored ticks. You then have circular red markers for every increment of five, that is filled with lume. You don’t expect to see a bold color like red on a watch that is already taking risks with so many rose gold elements, but they did it anyway and I think it looks pretty cool.

You then have a combination of applied stick indices and Arabic numerals for the hour markers. The finishing on these is excellent, and the indices play with light beautifully.

The brand’s initials/logo is applied in a similar manner under the 12 o’clock index. For strict minimal design, even this is too much, but FWB takes it one step further and has it’s brand name next to the 9 o’clock as well. Again, this design appears to be their way of rebelling against the invisible design authority.

And to be completely honest, when Mike Stuffler shared images of this watch on Watchuseek a year ago, I was shocked by the design too. But since that first reaction, I’ve come to actually appreciate it for what it is – a design that just refuses to conform.

And the last act of defiance is the small seconds sub-dial. To balance out the already asymmetric dial layout, I would’ve expected them to place the sub-dial either at the 3 o’clock or the 6 o’clock position. But nope, the recessed sub-dial is located at 4:30, and makes bold use of blue, red and rose gold.

Again, these bold colors might throw you off if you’re used to watches like Nomos, Junghans and Stowa, but the vivid colors strongly resemble those that are found at the Bauhaus school. I have no education in design, neither do I have artistic insight, but this doesn’t seem like a co-incidence to me.
The hour and minute hands are fairly simple, rose gold in color and filled with lume. The finishing on the hands is great and I have no complaints here.

The hour and minute hands are fairly simple, rose gold in color and filled with lume. The finishing on the hands is great and I have no complaints here.

This watch has strong dress watch DNA, so I wouldn’t have been disappointed if it lacked lume entirely. But that isn’t the case here, and the circular dot hour markers and the two primary hands are lumed. The lume design is great, and it is a pleasure to look at.

The hands are very generously lumed. The website doesn’t state what lume material is being used, but I suspect this is C3 Super LumiNova. The circular dot markers are less bright because of the limited surface area, but it is sufficient for about an hour in the dark. Since this isn’t a sports watch or tool watch, I think this is more than acceptable!

Movement

This watch uses a Miyota 8218 movement. This is my first experience with this particular movement, and you don’t see them too often.

This movement has a small seconds hand at the 4:30 position and has a date mechanism at the 3 o’clock position. The result is a ghost date position, which to be fair is not uncommon to watches under $1000.
This movement has been heavily modified to include blue screws and a branded rotor, which is done in rose gold to match the dial. I don’t suspect this was cheap or easy to achieve.
I think this is one of the best decorated Miyota 8XXX series movements I’ve seen to date, so I’ll definitely give them credit here. The movement is very clean and indicates good quality control.

But we need to talk about the movement. At roughly $600 ($586, after 16% VAT deduction), the movement falls a bit short in the overall package. If you ignore the value being delivered in terms of the good finishing, very interesting design, and wonderful story and connection to Berlin, and look at it as a $600 watch with a Miyota 8XXX series movement, it becomes difficult to digest. A Miyota 9XXX series movement would have been more appropriate here, or a standard ETA or Sellita, to move the movement origin closer to home in Berlin.
I logged the accuracy of this watch over a 2 day period, and observed roughly -23 spd.
Since this watch had a very unpleasant journey reaching me from Berlin, I won’t entirely blame the movement for this performance, and will have to hold the courier service responsible for the massive dents on the box. But even by Miyota’s very flexible standards for this watch (-20 to +40 spd), it is just out of spec and I will look at having it regulated soon once the watch recovers from the trauma of it’s journey.

On The Wrist

The 39.75mm diameter case and 49mm lug-to-lug width are quite comfortable on my 6.25″ wrists. Don’t let the 49mm lug width scare you, the slender and long lugs are barely noticeable on the wrist, and this watch does not feel like a typical 49mm lug-to-lug width diver. The lugs also bend towards the wrist, to further reduce the perceived length.

The case is 11.25mm tall, and the case-back protrudes out of the case by about 1.5mm. But the entire weight of x g is very well balanced, and the watch sits low on the wrist.
I’ve enjoyed wearing this watch, and I will continue to wear this one as it sits very nicely on my wrist.
Each watch is shipped with two leather straps, and I received a dark brown and a black one with the Teufelsberg #4. I have had the privilege of presenting some amazing straps on my website so far, and on many occasions these have been straps that cost nearly $100 each. That said, the black strap (with blue stitching) that was included with this watch is one the most comfortable and well made leather straps I have come across.
If it didn’t have the FWB name and logo near the ends, I would definitely use this on my other watches too.

Concluding Thoughts

Putting aside the slightly underwhelming movement, I wouldn’t be surprised if people had very polarizing opinions regarding the design. I don’t think this watch was made for everybody. I don’t think the average watch enthusiast was even kept in mind while designing this watch, the same way an artist doesn’t create based on need. And for that fact, FWB have definitely earned my respect.

Now let’s talk about the price… At $600, this watch feels a bit too expensive in a general sense, primarily because of the choice of movement. But I don’t want to discount the fact that their finishing is excellent, their straps are extremely well made and that their hearts are in the right place. They donate roughly $60 from each purchase to Hands with Hands, an organization that helps communities in need in Nepal. And those that know me personally will know why I can appreciate this. But for the average watch enthusiast who is chasing his/her next micro-brand watch, I think this price will be a difficult one to come to terms with.

But I also believe that there will be a minority of watch and design enthusiasts that will look at this watch and fall in love with it, and to someone who can appreciate the design, this watch will be an easy one to justify purchasing. Similar to the way Unimatic sells their Seiko NH35 equipped watches for over $600, or William Wood with their $900 Seiko NH35 equipped watch.

 

BEANS & BEZELS

A CHICKENWRISTS DELIGHT : One week with the Teufelsberg by FineWatchesBerlin.

From Berlin With Love: One week with the Teufelsberg by FineWatchesBerlin.

in watchblog

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of German watch manufacturers, all the way from Glashütte to Pforzheim, Schramberg, Gütenbach, Frankfurt and Berlin, the city and home of FineWatchesBerlin. Founded in 2017, the company is run by father and daughter, Wilfried and Mia-Phyllis Liefer, producing watches that are an homage to Berlin, it’s diversity and rich history, both bright and troubled. FWB has named their first watch “Teufelsberg”, which is the name of a 120 meters high, manmade hill in the Grunewald area. The hill was built upon what were to become a university for military technology, one of many visions Hitler had for the renewed Berlin and Germania. The construction was never completed and during the war the facility was destroyed. When the war ended, rubble from the devastated city was brought to the site and dumped, making it the highest point in West Berlin. In 1972, the dumping stopped and to make the hill more attractive, trees were planted, and, in the winter, the population of West-Berlin could enjoy a new ski jump and slopes.

From the 50’s until the end of the cold war in ’89, America took advantage of Teufelsberg position, building antennas used for espionage and intercepting communications from the Eastern Bloc. Today, the remains of the complex, with its is a popular site for tourists, giving them a glimpse of a dramatic history and the best view of Berlin. To end the history part of this review, I’m going to add a little fun fact, the strange happenings from 2007, when my hero, David Lynch, wanted to turn Teufelsberg into a university for the Maharishi World Peace Foundation, where 1000 students were to study transcendental meditation. It didn’t go as planned and even if I deeply respect Mr. Lynch, I’m glad he wasn’t to fulfill his plans.

I don’t think the Lynch part was in Wilfried and Mia-Phyllis’ mind when they came up with the design for the Teufelsberg. When I look at the watch, I can sense that it must have been a fun project, creating a Bauhaus inspired watch with a partly asymmetrical layout, sweet blue details and a somehow funky, italic logo and signature placed at twelve and nine. The version I chose to write about is the Teufelsberg White #2, in my opinion the finest of the three models available. In a little while, two new models will be launched, adding bright colors to the series.

Every time I do a review of a watch I’ve never seen, I try to stay away from other reviews and opinions as I want to know as little as possible about it, keeping my mind clear and open to raw impressions. When I first saw the Teufelsberg, I had to use some time to digest the design and feel of the watch. After spending a day together, things started to fall into place and suddenly I knew where I’d seen some of the details before. The dotted lume reminds me a lot of the type found on Junghans Max Bill and the crown is quite like the one found on the NOMOS Metro date power reserve. Due to the colors and the mark on the crown, I can’t stop thinking this is how a watch would look if the guys from The Who were watchmakers and wanted to produce something Bauhaus’ish.

Taking closer look at the watch, it measures 40,5mm across, 49mm from lug to lug, about 11,5mm from top to bottom and the lug width is set to 20mm, making this very comfortable on the wrist. The dial, with its asymmetry, italic logo and signature, forced me to take a stand if I liked it or not. Being overly addicted to symmetry and balance, it took a little while to accept the layout, but the crisp, enamel-like, sandwich dial, red second hand, polished blue hands and indexes bring it all together. Even if the small seconds are placed 4:36 and the italic letters in the logo aren’t at the same angle, I do find it all very pleasant on the eyes.

Inside the watch FWB has chosen to go for a modified Miyota 8218 with blued screws and an engraved rotor. This is a 21-jewel movement, beating 21600 timer per hour and with a power reserve of approximately 42 hours. Originally, it keeps accuracy within -20 to +40 seconds per day, which is on the lower parts of the scale, but while adding the cosmetic upgrades, the movement has been adjusted to keep time within a five second deviation per day. The watch can be hand wound but lacks a hacking seconds feature.

The case is a fully polished, 316L stainless steel with slim lugs and both crystals, the large in front and the smaller one at the exhibition caseback are made of sapphire. On the case, at nine o’clock, you’ll find a quite large, external engraving, showing the company name. Since the name also is presented on the dial and the fact that I’m not a big fan of such details, I think a clean case would suit the watch better. The crown, with its blue and white target mark, is placed at three o’clock and is thinner than your average crown, but just as with the NOMOS Metro’s, the grip is superb, letting you wind and set time with ease. The Teufelsberg comes with two, very nice leather straps, a brown and a black, both with blue stitches, matching the blue details on the watch perfectly. Fitted with quick release spring bars, changing straps can be done in a blink of an eye.

Each watch comes in a very nice, handcrafted bamboo box with magnetic closure. Apart from the watch, the box contains the extra leather strap and a warranty card. I like the presentation very much, but I’d appreciate a microfiber cloth to wipe down the fully polished case occasionally. The Teufelsberg’s lume shines bright from the dots and hands, more than enough to be able to read the time in the dark without lighten up the whole room.

So, to wrap this review up, there’s a lot to like about the Teufelsberg, from the playful, Bauhaus inspired looks, the lovely blue details used on the dial, case and movement, the soft leather straps, the fact that the watch highlights an important place in Germany, holding a part of history that never must be forgotten. Another nice aspect of FineWatchesBerlin is that for every watch sold, they donate €50 directly to Hands With Hands, helping them build orphanages and schools in Nepal.

But, in my humble opinion, behind all the parts I like, there are a couple of things that concern me a bit. Being a watch that celebrates Berlin, inspired by brands like NOMOS and Junghans, I would love to see this “patriotism” all the way throughout the watch, not going for a Miyota movement and Chinese production. I’m not questioning the quality of the production or that the movement is a proven workhorse, it’s just that when you celebrate your hometown and make watches that are an homage to it, I would love to see “local” parts and producers. The other thing is the inevitable topic about value, the bang for the bucks. By asking €698, I fear that a chunk of the audience will be excluded. Those who don’t have a connection to Berlin or Germany might end looking at this watch as a Miyota-watch costing almost €700, which also is in a landscape where you’ll begin to find some serious competition.

All in all, the Teufelsberg is a very nice watch with some proper looks. Naming their watches after important locations, people and events is a nice way to honoring your hometown, bringing important historical events back into the light. I’m looking forward seeing what the duo behind FineWatchesBerlin will come up with next and I would love to see a “local” stunner.

Ciao!

Read more from Anders Tömä