To celebrate its 15th birthday, Mortiz Grossman has release three new timepieces. While the brand’s roots go back to 1854, it’s rightly celebrating the anniversary of its revival by Christine Hutter, not some dubious gapped timeline as other brands are wont to do. To mark the occasion, the brand introduced two new editions of its open-worked Backpage and a very special one-off Tremblage.
The Moritz Grossman Backpage Green watches are made in your choice of rose gold or platinum, with a fully polished case that measures 41mm across and 11.35mm thick, which should make it quite wearable. The hand-stitched alligator strap features a matching pin buckle closure. The case appears to feature rather long lugs, which may affect its wear on smaller wrists. This may be mitigated by the curvature of the lugs, though. You’ll notice a pusher just below the crown. Developed by Moritz Grossmann, this pusher solves an issue we’ve all experienced at some point. After pulling the crown and setting the time, engaging the pusher reactivates the movement rather than the crown being pushed back in. This prevents any movement from the hands that often happens when the crown is pushed back in. When the pusher is engaged, the crown reverts to winding rather than setting time.
The dial of the Backpage Green is partially skeletonized, exposing much of the inner workings of the hand-wound movement. The balance staff is hand-engraved and the components feature a variety of finishing, from snailing to polishing. The purple handset is made by hand and heated to achieve its deep color. The green dial arcs from 11 o’clock to 7, with a subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock. The simple baton hour markers are applied and made of the same metal as the case, with an Arabic 12 in its appropriate place. While some skeletonized dials seem to suffer for their busyness, the Backpage seems to provide sufficient contrast thanks to the hands, so legibility shouldn’t be as much of an issue.
The watches are powered by the hand-wound manufactory caliber 107.0, which is based on the 100.1 on the Tremblage but required significant reworking for the dial display. It features a nearly fully German silver plate with gold chatons, an exposed winding mechanism, and hand engraving. The movement operates at 18,000 vph with a power reserve of 42 hours.
In addition to the two green Backpage models, the brand has revisited perhaps its most celebrated recent release, the Tremblage. With its handmade textured dial, this watch features beautifully annealed purple hands and raised, polished Breguet numerals. The entire dial — tremblage and numerals — is made from a single piece of German silver. The new Tremblage XV Birthday Edition takes that spectacular craftwork and puts “2008 – 2023” just above the center of the dial and “15” in the subdial. It’s presented in a rose gold case with the same form factor as the Backpage, with the hand-wound manufactory caliber 100.1 featuring a 42-hour power reserve at 18,800 vph. The watch is limited to a single example.
The two new Backpage models fill a glaring green gap in the brand’s catalog: While the brand isn’t really one to follow trends, it’s still surprising it doesn’t have another green watch on offer. The Tremblage, on the other hand, may be a bit much for all but the most fanatical Mortiz Grossman collectors, with the years on the dial disrupting the wonder of the dial’s texture, however subtly. That said, this may well be for Ms. Hutter herself, rather than an actual sellable piece. The Moritz Grossman Backpage Green is priced at €45,600 in red gold and €52,000 in platinum, limited to 25 pieces each. The one-off Mortiz Grossman Tremblage XV Birthday Edition is priced at €52,000. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.
