Latest Christiaan van der Klaauw timepiece, the CVDK Ariadne.

Christiaan van der Klaauw Astronomical Watches is proud to announce the first watches to leave the atelier under the leadership of Master Watchmaker, Technical Director and co-owner Pim Koeslag.

Celebrating this special occasion are three new steel versions of the Christiaan van der Klaauw Ariadne. ‘Steel combines a sporty look with our classic designs, it’s robust and timeless.’ Koeslag invited Jochen Benzinger to beautifully engrave the rotor in each of the new watches.

The new steel versions of the Ariadne feature the well-known full calendar chrono with 24-hour indication, and the accomplished, visually enchanting moon phase indication. The new steel models boast a frosted silver-coloured, navy-blue or anthracite dial, and circular brushed rings around the sub dials. They are topped off with a high-quality alligator leather strap, with a luxurious signature folding clasp with an engraved Christiaan van der Klaauw ‘Sun with 12 Claws’ logo.

But what makes these models especially unique is the hand-engraving of the ‘claw’ of the rose gold-plated rotor, which was done by famous engraver Jochen Benzinger. This sublime rotor, with its outer guilloche décor on rhodium plated steel can be admired through the sapphire case back.

Rotor engraving by Benzinger

German engraver Jochen Benzinger is a world-wide authority, and his hand-guilloche, engraved and skeletonized watches and movements are the hallmarks of his craftsmanship. Using historical, over 100-years-old machines and tools to create true works of art, he spends hours and hours to perfect his watches and individual parts with the typical character that only a unique piece created by hand can have. Christiaan van der Klaauw is proud to offer you this master’s work in our new Ariadne series.

The CVDK7758 caliber Ariadne
The chronograph movement contained in this beautiful watch is the CVDK7758 caliber with Ariadne complication. The chronograph indicates the elapsed seconds, minutes and hours. In addition, the watch has a full date indication (day, date, month), a moon phase indication at 6 hours and the indication of time on a 24-hour scale.

The position of the Moon can be read at the 6 o’clock position. When the Moon is left of centre, it is in its first quarter. When the Moon is in the centre, it is full Moon and right of centre, it is in its last quarter. If the Moon is not visible, you see a beautiful dark blue sky in the window, it is New Moon.

Christiaan van der Klaauw History
Christiaan van der Klaauw Astronomical Watches is the only atelier in the world that is completely devoted to the design and the production of exclusive, hand-made astronomical watches. Astronomy – time in its purest form – is the most important source of inspiration for our atelier.

Christiaan van der Klaauw (1944) was born, raised and trained in Leiden, the city where the Netherlands’ greatest scientist of all times Christiaan Huygens started his studies in 1645.
Here, Van der Klaauw’s love of astronomy burgeoned and he wanted to combine the mathematically predictable movements of celestial bodies with a clock mechanism, just like Friesian Eise Eisinga (1744-1828) had done earlier by building a highly accurate Planetarium in a house in Franeker on his ceiling. After Christiaan van der Klaauw had completed his training at the School for Instrument Makers (LiS) and a clock maker’s course he moved from Leiden to Joure in 1967, where he started working for a producer of Friesian grandfather clocks.

In 1974 Van der Klaauw started his own business and presented his first clock with astronomical complications. It was the start of an exceptional story. He received an honourable membership of the Swiss Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI) in 1989, and in 1992, he won the award for the most innovative movement design for his Pendule Variable in Basel, Switzerland. Two years later he started on his first wrist watch, the CVDK Satellite du Monde. In 1999 he presented the masterpiece CVDK Planetarium, equipped with the smallest mechanical planetarium in the world.

Daniël & Maria Reintjes
In 2009, a new era began. Christiaan van der Klaauw had reached his retirement age and sold the company to the designer couple Daniël and Maria Reintjes with whom he had established a business relationship for ten years. Daniël and Maria immediately started repositioning the brand. The new directors decided to focus exclusively on astronomical watches, and ‘Astronomical Watches’ was added to the name. A new collection and beautiful astronomical complications ensued – including the Real Moon Joure with the most accurate 3D moon phase in the world. In addition, two special Planetarium masterpieces were developed exclusively for the high jewelry Maison Van Cleef & Arpels, the Midnight Planétarium and the Lady Arpels Planétarium.

In 13 years, Daniël and Maria transformed their CVDK company into a niche atelier, becoming the only watch atelier in the world that is wholly devoted to the design and the production of exclusive, hand-made astronomical watches. In 2016, CVDK was recognized as an Haute Horlogerie atelier by the Fondation Haute Horlogerie (FHH). And in 2021 Daniël and Maria received the ultimate acknowledgement in watchmaking being awarded the prestigious Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève – Calendar and Astronomy Watch Award for the ‘CVDK Planetarium Eise Eisinga’ at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG).

Pim Koeslag
Master watchmaker Pim Koeslag acquired a majority stake in CVDK on the 1st of June 2022 and became co-owner. He joined the existing managing board as Technical Director, along with Daniël Reintjes (CEO/Creative Director) and Maria Reintjes (Marketing Director) who retained a share in the company.

Master watchmaker Pim Koeslag was the driving force behind the Swiss-Dutch brand Frederique Constant and sister brand Alpina Watches from 2003 until 2022, and co-founded Ateliers deMonaco in 2008. His predilection for everything that has to do with the universe and timekeeping brought him back to the Netherlands, in 2022. In that year he made the switch to his great love Christiaan van der Klaauw.

Technical details:

CVDK Ariadne CKAR3335 | Silver

CVDK Ariadne CKAR3366 | Navy Blue

CVDK Ariadne CKAR3344 | Anthracite

Source: CVDK Press