Grieb & Benzinger themselves personally shared with me that they never thought they would make a watch quite like this. Called the Area 51, this absolute unique timepiece borne of hand-decoration and fantastic German artistic skills is about space aliens. Oh, and we’d like to have a little “caption contest” with readers, just read more below… Don’t forget that the client personally needed to OK the brand sharing details about the watch. Any brand that produces custom watches for special customers don’t share the designs by default. In fact some of biggest Swiss watchmakers have impressive bespoke services producing amazing watches that you will never see. We’ve seen some… and I have to say some of the world’s most high-end unique timepieces are either awe-inspiring, or just plain hilarious.
The people who brought you marvels such as the Black Tulip (our webmaster’s favorite watch of all time) and Blue Danube also bring you shocked-looking metallic 1950’s era movie space aliens with precious stone ruby eyeballs. This either shows a huge degree of design flexibility on behalf of Grieb & Benzinger or a project best left “top secret.” Recently leaked CIA files finally ended all inquiry as to where the real Area 51 is. Rather than being anywhere near Roswell, New Mexico, Area 51 is in fact in Nevada, and a place where the US Government tested experimental planes. At least everyone got the desert part right. Why the declassification? Probably because it wasn’t at all a secret anymore given that most all major countries have full planetary eyes thanks to surveillance satellites. Anyhow, back to the watch.
The Area 51 and Blue Danube watches. Made by the same people but very different.
The luxury nature of the Area 51 makes it a high-end watch all around being offered an 18k palladium white gold case with a vintage-style guilloche engraved bezel. The movement is probably the most impressive element. Grieb & Benzinger like to restore and thoroughly decorate and skeletonize vintage manually wound mechanical movements. The spacey theme of the Area 51 has the aliens set against a cratered planet-like surface on the dial, with planets from the solar system on the rear of the movement including Earth, Jupiter, Mars and more. All produced in 18k gold, the decorative skills are thanks to Grieb & Benzinger’s master goldsmith Albrecht Bolz.
Who ordered this watch you may ask? Well pretty much all Grieb & Benzinger clients are individual customers who work with the brand directly. One existing customer is said to have wanted to make a watch for his son. A kid that is really into space aliens. We still don’t get why the aliens look so surprised. Perhaps the idea is that they are stuck in the watch and are just as surprised to see you as you are to see them as you check the time.