News · Moritz Grossmann
Moritz Grossmann revives nineteenth-century dial silvering on the Tefnut 36, twelve pieces
Grossmann's latest anniversary edition puts a hand-silvered nineteenth-century dial and turquoise-filled Roman numerals into a 36mm steel case, twelve pieces only.
Hen & Mills Editorial · 3 min read · 12 August 2026
Two hundred years have passed since the birth of the watchmaker who founded the German watchmaking school in Glashütte, and Grossmann has been marking it with a run of special editions. This is the newest of them, the TEFNUT 36 Anreibeversilbert Türkisblau, reference MG-004153, in an edition of twelve.
The dial begins as silver powder, salt, cream of tartar and water. That mixture gets brushed onto the blank by hand, over and over, until the surface settles into an even grain and the right shade of silver. Too much and it is ruined. Too little and it comes out patchy. Hardly anybody can do it well, and that is essentially the point of the exercise.
Anreibeversilberung, and the order it has to happen in
The German word is Anreibeversilberung, sometimes Kornversilberung, and English has no tidy equivalent. Friction silvering is about as close as it gets. The method is nineteenth century and Grossmann brought it back in its own workshops. Because the silver settles as a fine grain instead of a smooth film, the dial reads velvety and matte, with a depth a plated dial does not get near.
Sequence decides whether it works. The lacquers go down first and are fired in a kiln, then a protective coat goes over them so the silvering does not wreck what is underneath, and only then does the brushwork start, finished with a gentle polish. Do it out of order and the numerals smear.
Blue with a breath of green in it
The ground reads as pale grained silver, almost warm. The colour lives in the engraved Roman numerals and the outer minute track, filled with a lacquer Grossmann describes as blue with a breath of green through it. The historic M. Grossmann logo, the seconds division and the Made in Germany line are all black, so nothing pulls attention off the turquoise.
The hands are shaped by hand and blued by tempering rather than coating. Grossmann makes its own hands, which almost nobody at this scale bothers with, and it shows in how far the taper runs before the tip.
36mm across, 8.5mm tall, 188 parts inside
The case is stainless steel in three pieces, 36.0mm across and 8.5mm tall, with slim lugs and a crown cut with a transverse groove. On a 36mm dress watch the height is the number that counts, and 8.5mm is properly slim. The strap is hand-stitched grey kudu on a steel pin buckle.
Behind the sapphire display back sits the hand-wound calibre 102.1, adjusted in five positions, 188 parts, 22 jewels of which three are held in screwed gold chatons. The balance is Grossmann's own, 10.0mm across, running at 21,600 vibrations an hour with four mass screws, two regulating screws and a Nivarox 1 hairspring. Power reserve is 48 hours from full wind, and the movement measures 26.0mm by 3.5mm.
That 21,600 is a slow beat by current standards and the right call on a watch like this. The seconds hand steps six times a second, and the movement has an easier time of itself.
Twelve watches, and the price arrives later
Grossmann has not published a figure, in Australia or anywhere else. With a run of twelve, the number is going to come through a retailer rather than a web page.
