There is an interesting thing that happens when precious metal stops looking obviously precious. The visual cues disappear, the watch becomes quieter, and suddenly the craftsmanship has to do almost all the talking. That is exactly where the Moritz Grossmann TEFNUT Silver-Plated by Friction White Gold becomes so compelling.
Released as part of Moritz Grossmann’s celebrations marking 200 years since the birth of its founder on 27 March 1826, this is the cooler and considerably more understated counterpart to the new yellow gold TEFNUT. Both share the same extraordinary friction-silvered dial, green detailing and manufacture calibre 102.1, but the white gold version changes one particularly important ingredient: the hands.
Instead of polished gold, Moritz Grossmann uses manually crafted steel hands annealed to a brown-violet hue. Against the silvered dial and almost monochromatic white gold case, they become one of the defining details of the watch. It is a tiny change on a specification sheet, but visually it gives this TEFNUT an identity entirely its own.
The Dial Is Where the Story Really Begins
Calling this a silver dial is technically correct, but it misses most of what makes it special. The brass base is finished using silver-plating by friction, a traditional technique inherited from 19th-century watchmaking and still performed manually in the Moritz Grossmann ateliers.
The process involves a paste made from silver powder, salt, cream of tartar and water. Using a small brush, the mixture is carefully rubbed onto the dial and worked until the desired fine grain develops. A final polishing stage completes the surface, leaving behind the soft, velvety texture that gives the TEFNUT much of its character.
It is a wonderfully tactile way to create a dial in an age when manufacturers can produce almost flawless surfaces through increasingly sophisticated industrial processes. More importantly, friction silvering does not look mechanically perfect. The extremely fine grain interacts with light differently from conventional metallic brushing or sunburst finishing, moving between soft matt texture and a restrained silver lustre.
This matters on the TEFNUT because there is very little else competing for attention. There are no subdials, apertures or complications breaking up the surface. It is essentially a dial, two hands and typography. When a watch is reduced to those elements, the quality of each becomes much easier to appreciate.
White Gold Lets the Green Take Over
The green numerals and markings are perhaps even more effective on the white gold version than they are on its yellow gold sibling.
With no yellow case surrounding the dial, the colour palette becomes cleaner. The silvered surface flows naturally into the cool tone of the 750/000 white gold case, leaving the green Arabic numerals, minute track, lettering and historic “M. Grossmann” signature to provide the strongest colour.
It gives the watch a surprisingly contemporary character.
That is important because there is a great deal here that could otherwise feel very traditional: manual winding, a silvered dial, classical Arabic numerals, a leather strap and a case made from precious metal. Yet the green prevents the TEFNUT from becoming an exercise in historical recreation.
The logo adds another layer. Rather than using the modern branding, Moritz Grossmann has returned to the “M. Grossmann” signature as it appeared in 1875. It is exactly the sort of historical reference that works because it does not require an explanation every time the watch is seen.
Those Brown-Violet Hands Are Something Special
For a watch enthusiast, the hands may be the detail that really separates this version.
Moritz Grossmann is unusually serious about hand-making its hands, and here the manufacture uses manually crafted steel examples that are annealed until they develop a brown-violet colour.
Heat treatment of steel is one of those traditional watchmaking techniques that sounds straightforward until consistency becomes important. The colour develops as the steel reaches particular temperatures, and controlling that process across such delicate components requires considerable skill.
The resulting brown-violet tone is much more interesting than conventional polished steel. Depending on the light, the hands can appear deep brown, violet or somewhere between the two. Against the soft silver background and green printing, they introduce another subtle colour without making the dial busy.
Their form deserves equal attention. The hands are extremely slender and lance-shaped, with gently rounded lines tapering towards fine tips. They suit the TEFNUT because they do not dominate the dial. Instead, they seem almost suspended above it.
This is the sort of detail that photographs can struggle to communicate. On a specification list, “steel, annealed to a brown-violet hue” occupies a single line. On the watch, it can become one of the things you keep looking at.
White Gold Is Exactly Right for This Version
The three-part case measures 39 mm in diameter and just 8.5 mm high. Those dimensions are particularly well suited to the TEFNUT’s restrained design, giving it enough contemporary wrist presence without losing the elegance expected from a manually wound dress watch.
White gold makes those proportions feel even more discreet. Unlike yellow gold, there is no immediate visual announcement that the case is precious metal. To anyone unfamiliar with the watch, it could easily be mistaken for steel.
For some collectors, that is precisely the attraction.
There is something particularly appealing about a high-end watch that does not need to advertise what it costs or what it is made from. The weight on the wrist and the quality of the finishing provide clues, but the overall impression remains understated.
The cool case tone also creates a strong visual relationship with the friction-silvered dial. Rather than framing the dial in a contrasting colour, the white gold effectively extends the silver palette outwards, making the green printing and brown-violet hands more prominent.
Calibre 102.1 Changes the Conversation
Turn the watch over and the restrained front gives way to a very different kind of watchmaking.
The manually wound manufacture calibre 102.1 measures only 26 mm across and 3.5 mm high, yet contains 188 components and 22 jewels, including three mounted in screwed gold chatons. It runs at 21,600 semi-oscillations per hour and provides approximately 48 hours of power reserve.
Those numbers are respectable, but they are not really why calibre 102.1 is interesting.
Its appeal lies in its construction.
Moritz Grossmann uses a classic pillar movement architecture with a main plate and 3/5 plate, immediately establishing the Glashütte character of the calibre. Raised gold chatons secured with pan-head screws provide some of the most recognisable traditional details, while the stepped balance cock carries the manufacture’s distinctive micrometer adjustment system.
The balance itself is a proprietary Grossmann design with four inertia screws and two poising screws. The impulse pin is integrated into its rim, while the balance staff incorporates a safety roller. A flat Nivarox 1 balance spring completes the oscillator.
Even the escapement is Grossmann’s own, incorporating an 18-tooth escape wheel.
For a watch displaying nothing more than hours and minutes, there is an almost disproportionate amount of mechanical thought hidden behind the dial. That is exactly what makes it interesting.
The Details Keep Going
Look further into the movement and there is more to find. ARCAP is used for the train wheels, while the mainspring barrel runs with bilateral jewel bearings designed to optimise power management as available torque decreases. The calibre also incorporates Grossmann’s remodified Glashütte stopwork with backlash and a separately removable clutch winding mechanism.
These are not features created to generate an impressive headline. Most will never be noticed by anyone casually handling the watch.
But watches at this level are not really about casual inspection.
The attraction lies in knowing that the engineering continues long after the obvious requirements have been satisfied. The TEFNUT needs two hands to indicate the time, yet behind those two hands sits a manufacture movement developed and constructed with an almost obsessive attention to mechanical detail.
That contrast between visual simplicity and mechanical depth is one of the strongest aspects of the watch.
The Anniversary Reference Is Almost Hidden
There is no oversized bicentenary message on the dial. Instead, Moritz Grossmann has engraved “1826” onto the movement’s balance cock, referencing the birth year of its founder.
Combined with the historic 1875 dial signature, it gives the TEFNUT two connections to Moritz Grossmann himself, but neither interferes with the overall design.
That restraint is refreshing. Anniversary watches often become so tied to the event they commemorate that the design can feel dated once the occasion has passed. Here, the opposite is true.
Take away the anniversary story and the watch still works.
The friction-silvered dial remains beautiful. The green remains unusual. The brown-violet hands remain fascinating. The white gold case remains elegantly proportioned. Calibre 102.1 remains a movement worth turning the watch over to admire.
The anniversary provides context rather than justification.
The Understated Choice of the Two
Placed alongside the yellow gold edition, the white gold TEFNUT is likely to be the less immediately noticeable watch. That does not necessarily make it the less interesting one.
In fact, the opposite argument is easy to make.
White gold allows the dial to become the focus. The green markings appear stronger, the friction-silvered texture flows naturally into the case, and those brown-violet annealed hands introduce a wonderfully subtle point of difference.
It is also the version that most completely embodies the idea of quiet high-end watchmaking. There is a significant amount of precious material, hand craftsmanship and manufacture movement engineering here, but very little of it is obvious from across the room.
You have to get closer.
Final Thoughts
The Moritz Grossmann TEFNUT Silver-Plated by Friction White Gold is not trying to win attention through spectacle. Its appeal lies in an accumulation of small details, many of which require some understanding of watchmaking before they become genuinely exciting.
The dial is not merely silver-coloured, it is manually silver-plated by friction using a technique inherited from the 19th century. The hands are not simply coloured steel, they are individually crafted and heat-treated to achieve their distinctive brown-violet tone. The white gold case is not designed to announce itself as precious metal, while the movement underneath is far more sophisticated than the simplicity of the two-hand display suggests.
Then there are the details that exist largely for the pleasure of people who care enough to look: the raised gold chatons, Grossmann micrometer screw, proprietary escapement, ARCAP train wheels, unusual barrel construction and tiny “1826” engraving on the balance cock.
This is where the white gold TEFNUT makes its case.
It does not need to look complicated to be interesting. It does not need to look expensive to be beautifully made. And it certainly does not need a large anniversary inscription to remind you why it exists.
For the enthusiast who enjoys finding the interesting parts of a watch rather than having them immediately presented, this may well be the more compelling of the two anniversary TEFNUT models.
