While the industry resumes normal operations following Geneva Watch Days, we’re taking a quick detour to the Czech Republic to see what Ondřej Berkus has been up to. The Deadbeat Seconds 2.0 is the latest delivery from the self-taught watchmaker and is a good example of how far his watchmaking has come in recent years.

As the name suggests, the DS 2.0 is the second watch Mr Berkus has made in this style, but like all of his creations, the two are remarkably different in execution.

Initial thoughts

There’s a reassuring degree of predictability to the luxury watch industry. It’s a conservative industry built on tradition, which reinforces unspoken norms about what counts as a high end watch. The result is conformity; most watchmakers march to a similar beat and stick to their respective niches. This uniformity helps customers understand the products, but as a consequence many of the products can be criticised as homogenous and impersonal.

In contrast, the watchmaking of Ondřej Berkus is refreshingly human. He has no formal website, and conducts business via Instagram. He does not release collections, and no two pieces are entirely alike; each watch is created in dialogue with a collector. A self-taught watchmaker, Mr Berkus manages to pull this off thanks in part to his distinctive approach to finishing.

While most contemporary independent watchmakers focus on simple movements executed to a high level, Mr Berkus flips the script, and strives to deliver watches that are unique technically and finished selectively. His latest delivery, the DS 2.0, features a regulator-style display that reveals the movement beneath, namely the motion works and the mechanism for the deatbeat seconds. The hands, like most of the screws, are heat blued to a purple finish.

The case is unusually compact at just 36 mm, and is a reasonable 10 mm thick. Thanks to his background making knives, Mr Berkus has experience working with exotic materials like meteorite and mammoth ivory; his watchmaking makes full use of this skillset, and the DS 2.0 benefits from a case made from Damascus steel, which gives it a highly textural look.

It’s difficult to guess the price of a hodinky (Czech for “watch”) from Mr Berkus. One one hand, he builds bespoke watches with exotic features like differentials and tourbillons. On the other, the finishing is miles apart from what one would typically expect to find in a high end watch.

In the end, the price varies dramatically depending on the technical features specified by the buyer, from mid-to-high five figures for most watches to six figures for the most extravagant complications. His watches won’t appeal to everyone, but they’re not meant to. Mr Berkus’ singular aesthetic and down-to-earth approach to customisation has attracted a loyal following and by all accounts he has enough orders to keep him busy for a few years at least.

Rebellious watchmaking

Unsurprisingly, most independent watchmakers have some formal watchmaking training and many of the best spent years doing restoration work or working on complications for brands. It’s a pipeline that works, but it’s also predictable, which makes it difficult for individual watchmakers to stand out. But as a self-taught watchmaker who got his start making high-end knives, Mr Berkus has no difficulty standing out.

The craftsmanship required for watchmaking is not dissimilar from that required for making collector-grade knives and firearms, and there’s some precedent for this type of crossover. American gunsmith Dewey Vicknair has recently begun applying his skills to watchmaking, and Hungarian watchmaker Aaron Becsei collaborated with renowned American knife maker Todd Rexford to produce a watch with a hot-hammered zirconium dial and movement bridges.

The reuleaux triangle

Without question, the central focus of the DS 2.0 movement is the jumping seconds display at nine o’clock. The look is dynamic; the prominent jeweled lever unlocks once per second thanks to a triangular reuleaux cam attached to the escape wheel pinion. As the escape wheel rotates, this rounded triangle causes the lever to rock back and forth, allowing the seconds hand to jump forward under the power of its own coiled hairspring, which is under constant tension from an auxiliary gear train.

The reuleaux cam has been used to good effect in the past by firms like Ferdinand Berthoud and Urban Jürgensen, each inspired by the work of Derek Pratt. In these comparative examples the system is employed ‘upstream’ of the escapement, which offers the additional benefit of delivering a nearly constant amount of energy to the balance. In the case of the DS 2.0, the deadbeat seconds display is just that, and isn’t acting as a remontoir for the escapement. In this sense, the arrangement is similar to that of the Seconde Vive from Dann Phimphrachanh.

Not your average milk carton.

Mr Berkus makes most of these components himself to his own designs, but there are a few familiar tried-and-true ingredients he tends to use in his movements, and the DS 2.0 utilises a Unitas mainspring and a hand-setting train from an A. Schild cal. 1130. But Mr Berkus deviated slightly from his own norms by making the train wheels himself, and by using a wolf’s tooth profile.

Invented by Lepine in the eighteenth century, the wolf’s tooth profile gives the impression of smoother transmission of power, but was later discovered to confer no technical advantage compared to regular cycloidal tooth profiles. That’s largely beside the point, since their relevance today is derived from their look, which is genuinely striking.

As rare as wolf’s teeth are, it’s even more unusual to see them used in the gear train. The contemporary watchmakers who use wolf’s teeth, like Voutilainen and Parmigiani Fleurier, use them exclusively for winding wheels. This is another playful example of how Mr Berkus is willing to depart from accepted norms.

Of course, the wheels in the hand-setting train, which must be able to rotate in both directions, employ conventional (symmetrical) tooth profiles. The rest of the movement is fairly traditional in its design, ticking at 2.5 Hz for at least 48 hours.

Rustic finishing

The most shocking thing about the watchmaking of Mr Berkus is his unique approach to finishing, which defies convention. In this sense, he reminds me of Logan Kuan Rao, a Chinese independent watchmaker who believes that the mainstream obsession with finishing is misplaced. Like Mr Rao, Mr Berkus intentionally leaves many components in a visually rough state; it’s part of his aesthetic and helps define his work.

This approach results in an interesting tension between the observed and the expected. Take the grande sonnerie-style winding click, an elaborate feature that is typically used as a showcase for decorative finishing. In the DS 2.0, however, the non-functional surfaces of the winding click are left with visible tool marks. I’d usually consider this a major flaw, but Mr Berkus shows enough skill in other parts of the movement to indicate the lack of finishing is a clear stylistic choice.

The polished steel anchor bridge shows what Mr Berkus is capable of.

That said, Mr Berkus did recently spend some time learning traditional haute horlogerie finishing with decoration specialist Philippe Narbel, and it shows. Compared to his earlier work, the DS 2.0 benefits from polished steel caps for both the upper and lower escape wheel cocks, and at least a dozen neat inner angles on the movement bridges.

But instead of finishing the entire movement to a given standard, as is convention, Mr Berkus instead uses these flourishes selectively to drive home the point that his own rustic style is intentional.

This philosophy clearly resonates with collectors who are looking for something with a little more humanity and artistic flair than a typical luxury watch delivers. From concept to finishing, Mr Berkus’ willingness to ignore conventional rules sets him apart. In an industry that thrives on tradition, his rebelliousness is an artistic statement that arguably elevates his work.

Key facts and price

Ondřej Berkus Deadbeat Seconds 2.0

Diameter: 36 mm
Height: 10 mm
Material: Damascus steel
Crystal: Sapphire
Water resistance: Splash resistant

Movement:Deadbeat Seconds 2.0
Functions: Hours, minutes, and jumping seconds
Frequency:  18,000 beats per hour (2.5 Hz)
Winding: Hand wind
Power reserve: 48 hours

Strap: Leather strap with pin buckle

Limited edition: Yes; unique piece
Availability: Direct from Ondřej Berkus
Price: Varies depending on specification

For more, follow @hodinkyberkus on Instagram.