The Chronodeco Story
I am a metallurgical engineer by profession
but a watchmaker as a passion. I have always been interested
in mechanical wristwatches and chronographs and had used them
frequently in some of my past pursuits of racing motorcycles,
R.C. sailplanes and racing sailboats back in the 60s and 70s.
Several years ago I started collecting older mechanical watches
and chronographs and decided to learn more about how they
work and how to repair them.
Early on, I bought a book on watch repair as a hobby to get
started. This was later followed by some 20 + different and
much more complex watch and chronograph repair books plus
a lot of advice from experienced watchmakers. Now, after over
1000 restorations of vintage watches and chronographs, I feel
quite competent working on mechanical watches. I was also
able to use my metallurgical background to develop a way to
refinish and replate worn or corroded watch cases. I now have
numerous collectors that send there prized vintage watches
for repair from all over the world.
Chronodeco - my own brand name dream come true:
In 2001 I started to concentrate on chronograph repair and
by chance found 35 NOS cases for the Landeron movement and
around 50 NOS dials in 3 different colors. Without knowing
where the rest of the parts would come from, I purchased the
entire lot. This seemed a little crazy at the time because
it was a lot of money and I had no idea if they would sell.
It was at this time that I decided to come up with my own
signature for the dials and the name Chronodeco came to me
one day when I was looking at some old deco style watches.
The logo was next and I settled on a modified deco style
Mercury man profile that seemed to fit in perfectly with the
Chronodeco name. I then set about finding the movements and
the rest of the parts needed to build my 1st limited edition
of 30 chronographs called Metropolis. All of the movements
for this series ended up being used ones that had to be completely
rebuilt with a new main spring installed. Needless to say,
this was a lot of work as each watch took around 10 to 15
hours to construct.
In early 2002, International Wrist Watch did a story on Chronodeco
and the remaining 20 or so Metropolis sold in less than 30
days. In the Summer of 2002 I decided to build another series
of Landeron based chronographs from NOS parts called the Phaeton.
This series was very limited as I was only able to obtain
enough parts to build 12. They also sold very quickly. The
last of this series was a Landeron based chronograph made
from NOS parts that included a white enamel dial which had
a red 12. I only made 6 of these and there were all sold in
2003.
I now had no more sources for used and/or NOS parts to build
anymore chronographs so I set about trying to find a source
for a new design that would look like a watch from the deco
period and be powered by the Valjoux 7750 automatic movement.
I sent letters to companies in Switzerland and did not receive
a single reply. A fellow watch collector suggested I contact
RGM in Lancaster, Pa. to see if they could help me with my
new project. I talked to Roland Murphy shortly after that
and he said "no problem, we can do that." So in
late Summer 2002, I flew to Lancaster and discussed my design
ideas with RGM. They were very helpful in assisting me with
ideas and the various parts that would ultimately become my
next watch. I still didn't have a name for this watch but
while thinking about it a month later, the name Era suddenly
came to me and seemed perfect for the latest edition.
The Era took over a year to bring all of the
pieces together but it is everything I hoped it would be and
more. It has just the "look" I wanted for the Era.
The dial design is a compilation of my favorite pocket watch,
chronograph and clock designs from the first half of the last
century. It was also influenced by my experience of what other
watch collectors like in a vintage watch or chronograph dial.
There will only be 250 of these. Happily, I know where all
of the parts are coming from this time. I have some more designs
in the works for Chronodeco that I hope to get started on
next year (see the 2007 Positano on page 1 for the latest
from Chronodeco). The best part of all of this is that I really
like doing this kind of work.
chronodeco@embarqmail.com
Thanks for your interest. S. Craig Bergsma
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