DISCOVERY
Bernhard Zwinz
AMONG SOME OF THE GREATEST
ACHIEVEMENTS MUST BE HIS
INVENTION IN 1831 OF THE
FIRST POCKET WATCH WITH AN
INDEPENDENTLY STOPPABLE
SECONDS HAND.
Winnerl split
seconds
mechanism
THE INVENTOR
In terms of pure horological exploits, he was a prolific
inventor. If you have a chronograph on your wrist today, it is
Winnerl who was responsible for one of the most essential
mechanical developments found at the heart of every
mechanical chronograph - the return-to-zero mechanism.
Among some of the greatest achievements must be his
invention in 1831 of the first pocket watch with an
independent, stoppable seconds hand. At the time this was a
novel idea, and many people did not realize the importance of
a seconds hand that could be stopped and restarted at will,
which is something we take for granted today. Later, in 1838,
he presented a pointer mechanism with two superimposed
seconds hands, the direct precursor of the split-seconds
mechanism for timing two events simultaneously during a
single event. Around 1840 he presented a triple split-seconds
chronograph pocketwatch, the first of its kind ever created.
Can you tell us more about how your interest in this 19th
century Austrian watchmaker?
You might say the interest arose naturally after I had one of
his ship’s chronometers in my hands, and learned that
Winnerl originally also came from a farming family as I did. It
surprised me because there are so many parallels with my
own personal story. The short version is that, like Winnerl, I
am also Austrian and also left my homeland to further and
deepen my watchmaking experience ‘where the action was,’
which in my case is Germany and Switzerland.
After graduating cum laude from the watchmaking section
of the Technical School in Karlstein, Austria, I was really
hungry to learn as much as I could about haute horology and
complications. These are the kinds of things you have to learn
from others and there were no sources for this in Austria at
that time.
So, after school I worked with several companies: Roger
Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin in Geneva and later
Chronoswiss in Munich. The year 2001 was important
because that is when I started to work in the Vallée du Joux at
Philippe Dufour’s atelier. At the time his wristwatch was really
taking off, and I had responsibility for the assembly and
finishing of the Simplicity series for a period of three and a
half years.
SPRING 2019 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | 119