The Chronodeco Story
I am a retired metallurgical engineer and
a full time watchmaker now. 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 their 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 Contrail was latter added to this series with
a black and white deco dial.
The limited series described above were followed
buy the Positano and "1968" Series I which are now
all sold out. In March of 2009, I retired from engineering
and have become a full time watchmaker concentrating on restoration
of vintage chronographs. As for future limited series I hope
to continue if the opportunity arises. I would sincerely like
to thanks all of you with whom I have done business in the
past. This has been a great adventure so far and to think
it all started with the purchase of a few broken wrist watches!
chronodeco@embarqmail.com
Thanks for your interest. S. Craig Bergsma
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