Reduced to perfection – ATUM Pure M from Moritz Grossmann

Looking forward to this year’s Baselworld I remembered some of the last year’s releases. One of the watches unveiled at Baseworld 2016 (wow, another year has passed) comes from Glashütte – one of the most important horological regions in Germany – the ATUM Pure M from Moritz Grossmann.

Even if the Grossmann name is not on everybody’s lips, the brand has a respectable history and heritage started in 1854 in the city of Glashütte, shadowed by the quartz crisis but returned to its glory with new watch models in 2010.

The watch released last year by Moritz Grossmann that awoke my interest is the ATUM Pure M. There are two reasons why I consider this watch special: – the serious design with “semi-open” dial and the beautiful movement.

The case with a not too small, not too big but a perfect 41mm with a height of 11.35mm, has a three-part construction of stainless steel or stainless steel DLC dianoir with sapphire crystal with one-sided anti-reflective coating on top and see-through case-back.

The case is beautifully executed: a mat, satin finish with a polished slender bezel. The lugs match perfectly the case and I particularly like how the lugs’ bevelling is done: from the base of the lugs continuing the case “line” till they smoothly disappear at the lugs end – a nice touch.

The conical crown also is slender and somehow small, but not in the idea of too small but in the stylish and refined direction. The conical pusher follows the line of the crown and has a special function that intrigued me at first and I was curious to find its purpose. But about that later, in the movement description.

The “M” from the ATUM Pure M watch’s name comes from the steel mesh used to partially reveal the beautiful movement. In this way, the watch face is not really open and still offers a glimpse at the calibre 201.0. The light creates beautiful shadows and lights and makes you have fun playing with the watch in the light just to see how it looks.

The dial, composed of six parts crafted on site in the manufacture, has different depths that increase the readability and the beauty. The outer part of the dial has printed crisp minutes scale. Together with the seconds’ markers are a hallmark of the ATUM collection.

From the minute’s scale ring, eight sculptured hour markers are used for the 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10 and 11 o’clock, while the numerals 9, 12, and 3 are printed in a contemporary typography style.

The seconds subdial, with printed seconds scale, occupies the lowest part of the dial.

The lancet-shaped hands are manually crafted from stainless steel and have, together with the hour markers, a  white “Hy-Ceram” filling (for the Ref.MG-000703). Bellow some pictures with the tremendous work used for manufacturing the hands.

Under the dial stays the beautiful in-house movement 201.0: 36.4 mm diameter,  5.0 mm height and 187 constituent parts. The manually wound caliber 201.0 is adjusted in five positions, it has lever escapement, a shock-resistant 14.2 mm diameter Grossmann balance with 4 inertia and 2 poising screws and Nivarox balance spring that beats slow – 2.5Hz or 18000vph. The watch has a power reserve of 42 hours.

 Other features of this in-house movement are hand setting override and start of movement with lateral pusher; space-saving modified Glashütte stop work with backlash; adjustment with Grossmann micrometre screw on a cantilevered balance cock; pillar movement with 2/3 plate and frame pillars in untreated German silver; separately removable clutch winding mechanism; stop seconds for hand setting.
This very ingenious stop seconds can be used, with losing the time setting, as a timer/chronograph. It’s a nice feature to play with.

“The characteristic Grossmann balance is paired with a hand-shaped flat hairspring that has two bends. Because the curb pin remains free, the adjuster curve can be accurately centred. Design modifications make it possible to adjust beat and rate separately without removing the oscillator. For this purpose, Grossmann’s watchmakers positioned the rotatable stud holder in the balance cock such that it can be conveniently blocked. There is absolutely no play between the index adjuster, the stud holder, and the upper balance bearing. This allows the ATUM Pure M to be precisely adjusted at all times.” – Moritz Grossmann Website

The bridges, made from German silver, are shot-peened with glass beads to obtain this mat and grainy surface, making it highly sensitive. This beautiful finish is very sensitive making the assembly difficult. Another Grossmann hallmark is the 20 white sapphire jewels. The jewels used at the escapement are also white sapphire. A nice contrast is created between the bridges, balance wheel and the polished flat screws.

This ATUM Pure M collection has 8 variants: 4 steel cases with HyCeram insert in white, blue, orange, green and 4 black DLC cases with the same colours HyCeram filling.

The reference MG02.I-04-A000703 comes with a steel case, white HyCeram filling and a hand-stitched alligator strap with prong buckle in stainless steel.

The reference MG02.I-06-A000587 comes with a black DLC steel case, white HyCeram filling and a white stitched alligator strap.

The reference MG02.I-06-A000688 comes with a steel case, blue HyCeram filling and a blue stitched alligator strap.

The reference MG02.I-06-A000712 comes with a black DLC steel case, blue HyCeram filling and a blue stitched alligator strap.

The reference MG02.I-06-A000709 comes with a steel case, orange HyCeram filling and an orange stitched alligator strap.

The reference MG02.I-06-A00685 comes with a black DLC steel case, orange HyCeram filling and an orange stitched alligator strap.

The reference MG02.I-06-A000646 comes with a steel case, green HyCeram filling and a green stitched alligator strap.

The reference MG02.I-06-A000706 comes with a black DLC steel case, green HyCeram filling and a green stitched alligator strap.

There also is a version in black DLC with black HyCeram filling and a black stitching strap.

The ATUM Pure M from Moritz Grossmann is a beautiful watch, aesthetically speaking but also technically speaking, with a lot of nice details and interesting technical findings (like the adjustment with Grossmann micrometer screw on a cantilevered balance cock, sapphire jewels). For this finishes and this appearance, I consider the price of 12900 Euro for the steel version and 13500 Euro for the black DLC coated steel version justified. I am curious to see what Moritz Grossmann will bring this year at Basel.

Please visit the Moritz Grossmann Website and their Retailers for more information and to see their wonderful pieces. I would like to thank the Moritz Grossmann team for the information and images.

Below is a short film that shows the Moritz Grossmann’s team at work.