← The Real Time Show
The Real Time Show
Christiaan Van Der Klaauw CEO Pim Koeslag Invites Us Into The Brand's Universe
01:00:03
Loading summary
Transcript69 lines
- [00:06]
Aloman Joseph
Hi and hello, watch fans and welcome to another edition of the Real Time show. With me, your friendly neighborhood jeweler. Aloman Joseph is the master watchmaker, a Dutch legend who lived a long time in Switzerland, but thankfully is back for an audical Dutch party. In your ears, Pim Guslach, owner and managing director of horological watch brand Christian van der Klau. Welcome Pim.
- [00:37]
Pim Guslach
Thank you. Very happy to be here.
- [00:39]
Aloman Joseph
Very happy to have you on the mic. It took some time. You're very busy man. Literally jetting all around the world, but always available for me whenever I need. A special request for Christian van der Klout watch for our collectors. I drove you crazy with our collab. We're driving you crazy to create an amazing astronomical TRTS collab. But I'm happy that I got you on the mic just before Geneva watch days. We're both going to travel there. This is going to air only after the 10th of October because there's a big announcement. But before we talk about that, Pim, please give an intro to our dear listeners. Who you are, where you from and the journey up to your position at Christian van der Klau, the brand with pleasure.
- [01:34]
Pim Guslach
Born in Holland and I did the watchmaking school, watchmaker school in Holland as well, in Amsterdam. And I think that was like 25 years ago, something like that. During the watchmaking school we did some internships. The first one I did was with the brothers Grunefeld in the eastern part of Holland where I was born as well. And I learned crazy a lot there from them. And then I got like a prize for best watchmaker at the watchmaking school. That was actually another internship at Patek Philippe in Geneva. And yeah, so that was another very, very important step and very important learnings there in Geneva at Patek Philippe. Then I met a guy, a Dutch owner of Frederic Constant, which at the time was a very, very small company. I met Peter Stas in, I think it was in 2002, 2 where we got a little discussion and he was like, wow, it's amazing that you're coming to Geneva, let's meet. And we talked a little bit and he was telling me about this vision that he had about making his own manufacturer in house movement. And at the time it was like a huge discussion in the, in the watch industry that a brand like Fred Constant and others, by the way, in a. Especially in. In the mid range price level, they were buying a lot of movements from ETA and other, yeah, companies, movement manufacturers. But ETA was the biggest one and they just announced that they will stop delivering movements to companies or brands like Freire Constant. So Peter thought, okay, I have to find another way, so let's make my own movement. And this was a discussion which I had with him and he said, okay, if you can. And of course it's a big decision. But he offered me a job. So did Patek after my internship. But I chose to go and work for Frequenst in Geneva instead of Patek Philippe. Yeah, and that decision, I get a lot of questions is that do you still, or do you regret that decision or are you still happy about that? And to be honest, it was probably the best decision of my life because I still find Patek one of the nicest brands in the watch industry. But yeah, this, I was like a small part of the big chain. Maybe at a time where 1000 or 1500 people working for Patek and then as a watchmaker you can probably touch a tourbillon or something interesting. Only after seven or 10 years, maybe even more. And at Fred Constant I had the possibility to create something, to be part of this research and development group and to create something that after years and years you can say, well look, I was part of that. And that's, that's what I liked about this, this challenge with, with Fred Constant. So I started there in, in 2002, late 2002, and I worked there until three years ago. So yeah, quite over 20 years I, I worked for Freire Constant. Of course the company changed a lot. We can go back to that a little bit later if you're interested. But yeah, after this, I mean, I was technical director and we started a company called Atelier de Monaco together with Peter Stasis and there was a CEO of that brand as well. And we had in the meantime acquired Alpina Watches, which is in a mid range price, but more like sporty kind of brand compared with Frederick, that was much more classic brand in the mid range. And Atelier de Monaco was really high end, really really high end. So after those 20 something years in Geneva, I decided with my family to go back to Holland. I have my wife, three kids and they were all born there in that region in Switzerland. But I was, or we were together as a family, thought, okay, let's go to the next step and let's go back to my roots and to my wife's roots and go live in Holland. And the first year that I lived there, year, I have to say, because I still live in Holland, was yeah, I, I still worked in Geneva and I went back and forth Monday morning I stepped on a plane to Geneva until Thursday evening. And then I flew back to be with my family for three days. So long weekend, which was very nice, but a little bit tiring. And in the middle of that year, I had a discussion with one of our retailers and I heard that the brand Christian Van de Claw or the owners of the brand Christian van der Claw at that time, Daniel Maria Ranches, they were looking for follow up for the next generations. For the next generation. And so I thought, okay, let's give that a try. So I called Daniel and we had a nice discussion. A couple days later we met each other. And I think to sum it up, three, four months later, I was, I became majority shareholder of the brand Christian Van de Claw, which I am still today. And lots of things change as well. But that's a little bit a short, quick sum up of my life in the watchmaking industry.
- [10:13]
Aloman Joseph
You are such an amazing guest. Thank you for that. You have given me hardly any work on this episode. And I'm sitting back relaxed and I know the majority of these stories because I'm proud and honored to call you a friend. That we've been actually working quite some time both on the FC side of group of things and the Christian Maniklau things. While I was listening to you, I actually, I have a question for you. I've never asked you what makes you thick, what drives you? Because I know that you seem young, you are very young in your demeanor and way of behaving, but you are already a veteran in the industry. So where do you find the energy? Because you are always super high pace, although none of your calibers have a high frequency, let's say 36,000.
- [11:11]
Pim Guslach
Well, we did some 40 hertz.
- [11:14]
Aloman Joseph
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You, you actually, you actually had something to do with that. I'm right. But today. But, but where do you find the energy and what drives you to be so active and pushing the boundaries so far?
- [11:27]
Pim Guslach
That's a good question. I think the thing that drives me is making beautiful products. To sum it up, and that's really, for me, a beautiful product is two things. It is aesthetically, of course, that should give you a wow factor, but also technically. And that's the beauty of this product. And that's something that you can make another wow factor with the technique, with the technology, inside innovations. And that's probably why guys like also like watches, like cars. Cars is the same kind of thing. You know, it should look beautiful and that could be a reason to buy it. But the technique or the technical Innovations inside the car that could also be a reason to buy it. But at the end, you want a beautiful product and it's pure passion. So that's. That's what's driving me.
- [12:41]
Aloman Joseph
Why did you become a watchmaker initially?
- [12:44]
Pim Guslach
Well, it has a little bit to do with the thing that I just said because I was. I wanted to be a jewelry maker and none of my family members or. Well, that's also a funny story. I will. I'll tell that a little bit later. But none of my parents or does something in the creativity or technique. But I want to be a jewelry maker. And I went to the watchmaking school or which is actually a mix of jewelry making, hand engraving, silversmith, goldsmith, and also watchmaking. And in the first year, you get like a mixed year so you can taste a little bit of everything. And after two weeks, I was sure that I did not want to be a jewel maker, but a watchmaker because again, this mix between aesthetics and technical innovation is for me, like the perfect mix. This is really how I became a watchmaker. And now quickly back to that funny story that I was talking about. While I was studying at the watchmaking school, I was at the library. And while everybody is going out to have, you know, still Dutch, get a sandwich somewhere and then eat it quickly, I went to the library and ate there because I wanted to have, yeah. As much information about watchmaking as possible. And I was reading a book and I saw my own name, my family name in the book, in the history book. So I then discovered that my family, in 1600, something was a clockmaker. I didn't know. So it. At the end, it is in my family. It was in my family, but it was. Yeah. The fact that I discovered after making decision to be a watchmaker is kind of. Yeah. Kind of special, I guess.
- [15:14]
Aloman Joseph
Serendipity. It was meant to be. It runs through your veins and it's in your DNA. Please tell the story that as a student in the foxhole Amsterdam. So the watchmaker school in Amsterdam, you took a trip as a young boy to Jaure in Friesland, the original atelier.
- [15:33]
Pim Guslach
Of Christian von der Claw. Yeah, true. No, it. That. That's also like, it's. It feels all meant to be. I have to say. Christian did like. Yeah, he came to watchmaking school and he was teaching or explaining to the. To the classmates about his watches, about his clocks, about his astronomical masterpieces. And I was so flabbergasted, so impressed by his work that as soon as I could, I took the train to the Northern part of Holland to Yaw, which is still written on the dial Yahweh as birthplace of the company. And I was there in his garage. It was very nice. He painted a huge planetarium on the garage door to let everybody know that the factory was there in his garage. All the very old machines, the Swiss schubling machines where he turns the wheels was all there. And those old machines we still have and we still use here in our factory today. But anyway, I was visiting him and that was at the time that I just visited Geneva for a Patek and also met Peter Stoss. And so I explained him all that and I said, I have this opportunity to go to Switzerland, but I rather go and work with you. And at the time Christian was alone and he said, well, I appreciate it, but for your own career it's best if you just go to Geneva for a year or two and then come back. Then you gained a lot of experience and then you can also use that to work with me. And that helps everybody. So I said, okay, well, I do that. I went with my wife for my girlfriend at the time. We married in the garden of my parents and a month later we took off to live in Geneva. And so I stayed for 20 something years and after I came back now work with Christian a little bit. Of course he retired 15 years ago. He's 80 years old now. But we still have a good connection and well, work together. It's not really work anymore. It's both for him and for me. It's still passion, but we share ideas, technical ideas, and that's. Yeah. So it all landed on its feet.
- [19:11]
Aloman Joseph
Let's use this as a segue to talk about Mr. Christian van der Klau and the brand for our non Dutch speakers. How should you pronounce the brand?
- [19:24]
Pim Guslach
Claw. I pronounce it like claw, but in Dutch it really means clau, which is the Dutch pronunciation really means claw, like the claw of wolverine, if you know what I mean. So in Dutch you say Christian van der Klau. In English, Christian van der Klaar.
- [19:52]
Aloman Joseph
Do you, as a brand owner today, find it annoying if people refer to the brand as only Cloud? Like people say Patek instead of Patek Philippe. Or do you find it annoying that they abbreviate the brand name to the cvdk?
- [20:09]
Pim Guslach
No, I think it's good. I mean with all the brands Odmar. I mean, I call it now also Audar Audemars pk. Of course, everybody says AP or PP or VC Bachelor. It is easier. Sure. And of course No, I find that very useful.
- [20:33]
Aloman Joseph
So maybe let's coin the term on the real time show for the first time for all the English speakers will nickname the brand CVDK as the Claw. So hereby, Pim, you have an extra name. As of now, you're the owner of the Claw. In the watch industry. You'll hook everybody who encounters the watches. So let's talk about Mr. Christian van der Klau. Tell us a bit about him, who he is.
- [21:03]
Pim Guslach
Yeah.
- [21:04]
Aloman Joseph
What makes him so special and why he started a brand.
- [21:07]
Pim Guslach
He started the brand. Well, let's go a little bit more back then, then. That is, he was born in Leiden and. And Leiden is the city also where Christian Huygens, the inventor of the balance wheel and hairspring, he lived there as well. And Christian van der Klaer, he was very passionate about astronomy. And then he did not the watchmaker school, but the instrument marker school. That means that he was school to make instruments. So not music instruments, but everything you need to build something, he can build. So all toolings or things or, you know, everything you can see you can build by hand. And that's very, very interesting. If you combine that passion with astronomy, with the fact that you can build everything you want with some machines, mix that, it was perfectly for clock making. So he went and he moved to the northern part, which was the northern part of Holland, was a little bit like the little Switzerland of the clock making at the time there were all the clockmakers based. And he started his company in 1974, which is, by the way, exactly 50 years ago. So that's also why we have our 50 year anniversary this year. And he started to make clocks and always clocks with astronomical complications, which was already back then very, very special because we have some of his older clocks also here in our manufacturer, which is now based 20 minutes from the airport of Amsterdam in a little small town called Narden. And those clocks you have with planetarium, you have with the 3D moon phases, stuff like that, very, very ahead of its time. That's where he started with. And in 2000. No, sorry, in 1996 he started to make his first wristwatch.
- [24:12]
Aloman Joseph
Tell us a bit also about Eisenhower and the planetarium. The Pinnacle watch. Yeah, within the Christian van der Klau brand.
- [24:23]
Pim Guslach
Yeah, the Ice Eisenhower special edition. We won the Grand Prix of the Horlogerie, the gphg, which is like the Oscars of the watchmaking industry in 2021. And it's a very, very nice story. Hey, by the way, this morning I heard that we are selected with five other watches for the Grand Prix again in 2024. So in October we will hear of our new Ariadne won the Grand Prix as well. So that's very. That was the good news of today.
- [25:10]
Aloman Joseph
Congratulations. I saw that. And the beauty of it is you're standing with your Ariadne next to your former friends at Fred Constance. So that's going to be an amazing battle. Rob and I annually always do a guessing game what watch we vote for. So we'll definitely describe your watches in the episodes of trts, but people will only hear this around the ceremony, which will be November 13, 2024. So very exciting. So please continue.
- [25:44]
Pim Guslach
Yes. So Eisenhower, which has a very beautiful hand painted dial on planetarium. This hand painted dial is not for nothing because Eisen Eisenhower, again, a very difficult to pronounce Dutch name, but it was a guy 300 years ago that created, which is still today, the oldest still running planetarium in the world, which is based also in the northern part of Holland. And this guy, his first name Eise and his last name Eisenhower. So not very creative of his parents. But yeah, it's a little bit too late to complain about that. But this guy was like a very, very Smart Kid. With 13 years old, he wrote his first math book, Mathematics. So you can imagine how smart and intelligent this guy was. But anyway, at the time the church and a couple of scientists, they said that the world will collapse because five planets were aligned in the sky and those five planets were way too close to each other. They thought, of course, now we know that they are all turning around and one is a little bit behind the other one. It doesn't mean that they will touch each other. Distance will always, always be the same in the, in the diameter. So in our solar system it will not be possible to have a collision. But Eisen knew that. But the others were really thinking that it was apocalypse very soon. So everybody was stressing and like everybody was afraid that the world was going to come to an end. And he said, no, it's not possible, I will show you. So Isa started to build his own planetarium in his living room. And while I was building that, he really built a moving planetarium in his living room. So on the ceiling he painted this, what we later painted also on the dial, those wooden planks of the ceiling he painted blue. And above that wooden ceiling he built all the wheels and the whole mechanism of that planetarium, which is still working today. And that's also why it became last year UNESCO World Heritage. And he built this Crazy planetarium with all kinds of functions. Also you can see the eclipses and everything. Sunset, sunrise. Very, very interesting planetarium. And that's what our planetarium, the Ice Eisenhower Planetarium of Christian van der Klau was based on, which won the GPHG the Oscars of the watchmaking industry in 2021.
- [29:36]
Aloman Joseph
Using the GPHG as a segue. That wasn't the only GPHG watch you guys have kind of won because you have supplied calibers to another epic brand that won a GPHG award. Tell us a bit about that and how that came to a partnership.
- [29:58]
Pim Guslach
That was of course in the time of Daniel Maria, when they were asked of a huge brand, a jewelry brand, I have to say, Van Cleef and Arpels, they asked Christian van der Klaer to make an astronomical complication for them. And that was of course very special because they're a big brand in Switzerland. And we are, we were. We are still building to get bigger, but were certainly at that time a very small, but very specifically focused on astronomy. So they asked Christian van der Klaar to make a movement for them to create. Of course they built the components in Switzerland, but we made the design and the technical. Yeah, the technical parts of the movement for the Midnight Planetarium and later for the Lady Arpels. And that one won the Grand Prix in 2018. So we have indeed quite a history.
- [31:18]
Aloman Joseph
Already with the GPHT ASAP partnership still ongoing.
- [31:24]
Pim Guslach
I think they still produce it, but of course we did development which was a two time thing in 2014 for the Midnight Planetarium and in 2018 for the Daily Arpels.
- [31:41]
Aloman Joseph
Talking of GPHG partnerships, my idea runs to the only Watch entry. You guys have created an amazing piece together with your old friends at Freddy Coolstar. Tell us a bit about how that came to fruition. Yeah, how it did on the auction. And are there plans to produce this watch into a serial produced regular model?
- [32:10]
Pim Guslach
Yeah, that's a good question. Because the idea came to create a watch for only Watch. Only watch the auction which exists I think since 2005 if I'm correct. And every two years there's an auction for a good cause. And personally or not personally, but I mean, with Fred Constant I participated since 2007 and always it was like Peter Stoss and Aletta, the owners at the time of Frequenst, they were like, okay, we want to participate, so please go crazy with technical stuff. So I created every two years something special. Balance wheels in another kind of material or meteorite dials or something special. And of Course they want to do that again with Fred Constant, and I wanted to do that with Christian van der Klaal. So I thought, well, we, we're still like. Of course I, I did not work there anymore, but we're still like friends. So I thought, okay, let's, let's create something crazy together. So we did. We created a tourbillon planetarium. So a tourbillon mechanism. So of course I was also in charge of that project of the Tourbillon, which we introduced in 2008 with Frederick. So basically we took the tourbillon, we transformed it in a tourbillon planetarium, which of course never done before. And we created one piece which was auctioned this year. And we probably will make a very small series of watches, of course different, but with that particular movement. Now, of course, I'm talking before I'm allowed to talk, but there you go.
- [34:48]
Aloman Joseph
So here is another scoop at the Real Time show. You heard it first on the show. Thank you, Pim. And we're not cutting this out.
- [34:55]
Pim Guslach
So.
- [34:58]
Aloman Joseph
Talking of pushing the boundaries, thinking out of the books, coming up with crazy stuff. 50th anniversary, the Claw. Christian van der Klau, you worked with him on an amazing, amazing innovation. A new page in the history books of watchmaking. What did you launch on October 10th to celebrate the 50th anniversary?
- [35:27]
Pim Guslach
When I first really gave the green light that okay, that's what we will make, I did not expect that it turned out this complicated because the watch we introduced is the Grand Planetarium Eccentric, which is, as the three words of the name explain, a grand planetarium, which is a full dial planetarium and also incorporates the eight planets of our solar system. So the whole solar system. And on top of that, it is not a centrical planetarium as the one we introduced. I think the movement, the first version of the planetary movement of Christian van der Klau was introduced in the year 2000. But this one is eccentrical. So like our real universe, the sun is in the center and around the sun there are eight planets. And those eight planets are not turning in a perfect circle, but they're turning eccentrically. And this is very complicated to make because you cannot just make a couple disk turn around the sun and then put the planets on that. But you have to make. What we now did to make it eccentrical is that you have one dial and there you cut small rings out of the dial, which creates the fact that you have no longer one dial, but you have 10 different dials or 10. Yeah, kind of disc. And in between those discs the planets will hover around, around the dialogue. So above the dial, very complex. Just to give you an idea how complex it is for our planetarium, for the smallest planetarium in the world that we have introduced in 2000, we need a gear train with around 700 teeth to make this mechanism work. And now in this Mechanism we need 3,338 teeth to make it work. You can imagine it's mind boggling complicated. So.
- [38:18]
Aloman Joseph
To.
- [38:22]
Pim Guslach
To explain a little bit more, the first planet, the closest to the sun is the planet Mercury, which is turning the fastest. The closer the planet is to the sun, the faster it turns. And so one cycle or one orbit of planet Mercury has a duration of 88 days. Then we have Venus with 224 days and then we have Earth. Of course the Earth is turning once in a year, which is 365 days. And it is determining our calendar. Our calendar is based on that. It's one year, you have the seasons and of course divided by the months, etc. And then we have Mars. Until now we had six planets until Jupiter. And Jupiter was turning only once in 29 and a half years. And that was already quite slow, of course. But now we add another with the, with the ground planet eccentric, we add another two planets. So we have Uranus and Neptune added. And Neptune is the outside planet of our solar system which is turning once in 164 years. So it's the slowest wheel and the biggest wheel ever made in a watch. I hope you can visualize a little bit how complex and how special this piece is.
- [40:23]
Aloman Joseph
My recommendation to our dear listeners is while this airs it will be up on the website. If you are into astronomy, check and Google EIS Eisenhower, check the in brackets regular Planetarium and then look at the Grand Planetarium. And while you're at it, Google the Van Cleef and Alpel's one as well. It's amazing. How many patents have you registered for this?
- [40:50]
Pim Guslach
It is very complicated to have a patent on a planetarium because the planetarium itself exists. But of course we register the design features of this watch. But the mechanism you cannot.
- [41:09]
Aloman Joseph
I'm privileged to have known about this project over a year ago. Already you've shown me hand drawn sketches by Mr. Van der Klau. Can you elaborate a bit about that?
- [41:22]
Pim Guslach
Sure, sure. That's how this project became a project, I would say, because in 1982 Christian made a clock which was called the Kepler. And the Kepler clock was a table clock which had six planets, but also Eccentrical. And his wish was always to make a watch out of that, to make the whole system smaller and put it in a wristwatch. So I think it was just about the time that I became major shareholder of this company. I was talking with Christiane, who had a small workshop next to our workshop in the northern part of Holland. And he was showing me very proudly this Kepler clock. But then in a wristwatch. So he created a full dial planetarium with six planets. But eccentrical. And that of course I was very impressed because he was making everything by hand. The drawings which I showed you by passer, by a compass and pencil, everything by hand, calculations, everything he did in his brain. And sometimes the calculation about the wheels and the turning of the of the planets goes to 9 to 10 digit numbers after the dot that precise. He calculated everything. And so he showed it to me and I said, wow, that's amazing. You know, let's create a production watch out of it. Because at the time I was building like crazy our distribution network. And so we grew from maybe when I took over, we had like maybe 10 retail outlets, retail stores that were selling Christian van der Klau in the world. And at the moment we are about to touch 40 point of sale. So I was thinking, if we can make it like Christian, then we can make probably two watches a year, which will create a huge fight because everybody wants it and I cannot deliver more than two, so it doesn't make any sense. So if I want to make this watch, then we have to do it differently and we have to industrialize a little bit. Of course we want to create or make it by hand, but we have to organize it differently and we have to create this three dimensional drawings. So we don't have to cut still by hand to make it work. But if the components are ready, it should work directly and it should work forever. And that was our strategy. We took the beautiful drawings of Christiane and we added the two more. Well, it sounds very easy, but added the two more planets. Christian added two more planets, also made the drawings by hand. And then those hand drawings I converted to state of the art drawing in the computer 3D animations. And that was the first step to make the movement and the prototypes of this then the generation after Christian. So Daniel Maria Ranges were owner for of der Klau for 15 years. And they were really specialized in design and marketing part. And they made a beautiful design of the case and dial, which I yeah, kind of mixed the whole thing of the three generations and shook it a little bit. Easy talk, but after two and a half years, we finally showed it to the world in the 10th of October, which was of course a huge introduction of this beautiful, most complicated Christian van der Klau ever made. And also directly the most complicated planetarium watch ever made. Boom.
- [46:50]
Aloman Joseph
And that's.
- [46:51]
Pim Guslach
That's how it's done.
- [46:53]
Aloman Joseph
And that's a new chapter in watchmaking.
- [46:56]
Pim Guslach
Exactly.
- [46:57]
Aloman Joseph
Our listeners are now totally intrigued and they want to obtain one. What is the procedure? Is the limited edition. What versions are you making? How can they obtain a. A personal piece?
- [47:12]
Pim Guslach
Yes, of course, they have to call ace jewelers in Amsterdam.
- [47:19]
Aloman Joseph
Well, this is not an ace show and today I have a journalist hat on. So you guys, you guys have. You have authorized dealers in the world.
- [47:28]
Pim Guslach
Yes.
- [47:29]
Aloman Joseph
The watch is not limited per se, per model, but per annum. So you can only make an X amount of calibers a year, right?
- [47:39]
Pim Guslach
Exactly, exactly. I did not want to make a special or a limited piece out of it because just frankly speaking, this investment in this movement is so big that I will shoot myself in the foot if I would do that. It just cannot be done. So we will of course building a very limited number of pieces ideas to make between 10 and 20 pieces a year of this beautiful watch. And the first model that we going to introduce is the rose gold version with the aventurine dial and a platinum version with an aventurine dial. That's the first. Yeah. Beautiful watch that we're going to introduce with this particular movement.
- [48:39]
Aloman Joseph
How much of it is made in house? Because I did not touch upon the fact that Also in the 50th anniversary year you actually launched your own manufacture caliber. Tell us a bit about that, please.
- [48:56]
Pim Guslach
Exactly, exactly. Yeah. We honestly do so many things that I sometimes forget the very essential things. Yes, our manufacturer movements was introduced in January and is also featuring in this new ground planetarium. But it is the main movement for our masterpieces or masterpiece collection. And this beautiful decorated movement built in house which has a 60 hour power reserve. And yeah, it's a huge addition to an upgrade from what we had in the past. That was a Swiss technotime movement, which is a very, very good movement. But now it's really going to the next level. If we talk about autologue. Very beautiful, hand decorated and laser decorated. So we have a very beautiful combination of decoration on the star shaped bridges which is all in the theme of astronomy.
- [50:29]
Aloman Joseph
How much is actually done in house in the Netherlands?
- [50:34]
Pim Guslach
That's a good question. I did not really calculate. And of course we have also Swiss suppliers. But the cool thing Is you've been in our workshop as well, is that we have all those machines, these machines that are cutting the wheels like Christian did for his clocks 50 years ago. And this is really one of the, Yeah, I think special features of our brand because this you never see anywhere else that the wheels and opinions are still cut by hand.
- [51:20]
Aloman Joseph
I can vouch for that because I am blessed and fortunate to actually live nearby and visit the ateliers rather often alone or with collectors. So if you are interested to visit the ateliers, please contact me. The first actual physical TRTS community meetup was in Amsterdam and some of them were welcomed by the second PIM at the atelier. So they're very hospitable, very warm and very eager to share the passion. And it's what you see is what you get. And my favorite part is in the total back room of your ateliers where you guys literally cut the teeth for the planetarium. So you guys do stuff in house.
- [52:17]
Pim Guslach
Yeah.
- [52:18]
Aloman Joseph
Besides your amazing growing team of watchmakers, they're not only very friendly and very eager to show and explain what they're doing. They all come from the top notch auto luxury watchmakers in Switzerland.
- [52:31]
Pim Guslach
Yeah, we're very lucky.
- [52:33]
Aloman Joseph
Well, I always say your vibe attracts your tribe and it's because a, you're very knowledgeable, you're very friendly and you're very approachable because you sit in the front of that today. But whenever they have a question I see you always run to them and you're always there to brainstorm and help them out. So it's very organic and very fun. And I've seen quite some ateliers in my life. Not as many as you, but also quite a few. I would have loved to work in your atelier, but I have two left hand, so definitely don't have me as an editor.
- [53:05]
Pim Guslach
Don't stick what you.
- [53:08]
Aloman Joseph
So you know I always love talking to you and I'm looking at the clock and I'm seeing we're slowly running out of time. And I know you need to go to another meeting because you have a very, very important delegation from a very esteemed state coming to visit you. What's in the planning for the next 50 years? Where are you going to take the brand? Share a bit of the vision and strategy with us and our listeners.
- [53:33]
Pim Guslach
So from the beginning I knew that this brand, Christian van der Klau, is like a raw diamond. And slowly we are polishing every facet of it. And I say slowly because you cannot rush it and we will not rush it. But every time we have one facet polished and shining, it is another step. And so we have all those facets, which is of course commercial marketing. We have the technical part, innovation part. Everywhere we are building and we are polishing and we will take it to the next step and the next step and the next step. For example, commercially, which what I said we had official retailers, we had about 10 when I came two and a half years ago. Now we are around 40 and only the best. So we have like Sincere in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, but we work also with Siddiqui in the Middle east, we working with ETOs in India, which is of course a huge player. And so I choose only the best if it's commercially, but also watchmakers. We have now already eight watchmakers and they're only the best in the world. And so step by step we create like a very good base, a very good foundation of only the best of the world in the auto lingerie. And that's where I want to go because the main goal for me always is to make beautiful watches. But without sales, it's not going to happen because then you don't have the spending power to make beautiful watches. So to pursue this main goal, beautiful watches and very wow effect innovations, that's what we want to do. That costs money. That's why we have to sell our beautiful product. And by selling our beautiful product, people get very happy and very passionate about watchmaking, about the brands. And that's exactly what we want to do. So I hope that answers your question.
- [56:44]
Aloman Joseph
It definitely does. I wanted to pry a bit more, but we're running out of time. I hope that you have enjoyed it and you'll accept my invitation to come back on the show again. I know that Rob and David really wanted to be as well, but we're recording this during the summer holidays so they couldn't have joined. So I hope to welcome you again on the show.
- [57:10]
Pim Guslach
Yeah, cool. Was a pleasure. I love it talking to you. It goes very smooth always. And it's like a usual discussion. If the mic is there or not doesn't change anything. So that's cool.
- [57:23]
Aloman Joseph
Thank you so much for our dear listeners. If you want to discover the Claw a bit more, check their website, which is Dutch clau.com k l a u w.com I want to thank you so, so, so much.
- [57:41]
Pim Guslach
You're welcome, Pim.
- [57:43]
Aloman Joseph
I wish all of you at the Claw and you and your family the best. I can't wait to see where you take the brand for the next 50 years. One question I do need to ask. I'm breaking my own outro. Is the next generation Khuslach willing to come join you at the company?
- [58:05]
Pim Guslach
Well, willing, I'm not sure yet. At least. My son Jonathan is now 19 years old and without pushing him, he asked if he could do the watchmaker school. But the commercial side of it, which I think could be perfect for him. But let's see, I don't know, maybe somewhere in the middle he finds out that it's not his thing. That's also fine. But well, I Three kits, so three.
- [58:40]
Aloman Joseph
Possibilities and the seed is planted, so that's good. Thank you for listening to this episode. You can find all the previous episodes on our official website www.therealtime.show and you can find us on Instagram herealtime Show. If you want to support the show, please subscribe, like rate it and do share it with your friends that like watches. If you have any questions, feedback and or criticism, please do send us a message. You can also Send us a DM if you want to join the TRTS community on WhatsApp. You can reach David on his Instagram handle @dava rob o b N u D d s and me at L o n B E N J O S e P h and if you prefer to send us an email, you can just add our first name Toucho like our Instagram handle Stay sane and keep on ticking. Sa.