Grönefeld Unleashes Their Unique Take On The Sports Watch With 1969 DeltaWorks

The Grönefeld brothers have taken the lid off of their anticipated take on a sports watch, and the resulting 1969 DeltaWorks is nothing if not unexpected. The watch is named for the Delta Works, which protect large areas of land in the southwest regions of the Netherlands, which Tim and Bart Grönefeld call home. The year 1969 is not only a nod to Bart’s birth year, but also the year the Volkerakdam section of the Delta Works was inaugurated between South Holland and Zeeland. The watch itself is dripping with personality thanks to the variety of available options, including KFM rubber clad inserts along the case walls. Oh, and being a Grönefeld watch, there’s plenty of drama on the movement side, as well. 

The 1969 DeltaWorks Is offered in 3 different dial colors (kahaki, black, and salmon), with 5 different rubber strap colors to choose from, and corresponding case inserts. Steel inserts are also offered if you don’t fancy rubber sections built into your case. In total this creates 30 different potential variations for buyers to spec themselves. The Khaki dial is somewhat reminiscent of their Only Watch offering back in 2019, and that’s a very good thing as that particular 1941 Remontoire was among their most distinctive watches.

With colorful options that range from orange and blue to white and olive, this ends up being a watch that can shift its personality rather dramatically. It’s worth noting that the inserts cannot be changed out by buyers after they’ve been built, which is a bit of a bummer, though perhaps they could be swapped during a service interval. The design itself is meant to “cope with the perils of water ingress and shocks” though it’s unclear if the rubber inserts provide any additional protection beyond the steel inserts. Whatever the case, they certainly bring a distinctive look to the design of the case. 

The steel case measures 44.5mm in diameter with the inserts, though that number is 43.3 at the bezel, so it likely wears a bit smaller than the numbers suggest. It is 12mm thick and offers 100m of depth resistance with triple gaskets inside the screw down crown. The application of lume within each of the hour markers, including a lone numeral 12 at the top of the dial makes for strong legibility, and the recessed sub dial for the running seconds adds a welcome design detail. 

As well and good as the watch is up to this point, the near $50,000 price tag comes into focus when you turn the watch over and get a glimpse of the beautiful G-06 caliber inside. The stainless steel bridges get hand polished bevels and a micro-blasted texture at their center in creating a look that’s become synonymous with the brothers. This is the same movement found within the Principia, though the rotor gets a new design that’s been decorated entirely by hand, and I’d call it a big step up visually as it offers a substantially better view of the movement underneath. 

The hand work that goes into the movement is largely responsible for the limited production of the watch, which will be capped at 20 pieces per year. With long lead times and few planned for production, you’d best get in the queue now if you’ve got 50 large burning a hole in your pocket. Grönefeld.