Van Bergen 1795
For over two centuries, Van Bergen cast time in bells, tower clocks and carillons across the world.
Now, that precision finds expression on the wrist.
Official Watch PartnerWorld Caviar Awards
1795. reimagined.
For 230 years, one family measured time with sound. The Heero Collection carries that on the wrist.
Six generations of one family kept time and gave it voice. The bells of Van Bergen marked the hours across cathedrals. The tower clocks measured them for cities. The carillons sang them. The Heero is the seventh generation, in the same hand, on a smaller scale.
The maison is seated in the 1862 foundry at Heiligerlee, now the Bell-Foundry Museum, and Monaco is where the Heero was first revealed. Two places, one family voice.
Meet the maison
The Heero.
A timepiece of consequence.
Named for Heero Andries van Bergen, born 1738, whose precision founded the dynasty.
Three editions: five dials for the Inaugural Edition of 230 numbered pieces, each named in the language of the foundry; the red of the Monaco Special Edition, 59 pieces; and the World Caviar Awards Edition, 10 pieces.
Viridian Green
The green that bronze takes on after long years in an open tower.
- Edition
- Heero Inaugural Edition, 230 numbered pieces
- Case
- 41 mm, grade 5 titanium
- Acquisition
- €29,000, excluding VAT
The largest hammer ever set in a wristwatch.
A bellfounder begins with the voice and shapes the bronze around it. Calibre VBA01 was drawn the same way. The striking architecture came first, and the whole timekeeping movement was then disciplined to live beside it, in two and a half millimetres.
Turn the watch over and the hammer and gong are there to be seen through the sapphire case back. At each half hour, without being asked, the hammer falls.
Inside Calibre VBA01- Movement height
- 2.5 mm
- Frequency
- 5 Hz, 36,000 A/h
- Winding
- Automatic, recessed micro rotor
- Complication
- Sonnerie au passage
Six generations kept the hour in bronze.
The full lineage-
1795
The first bell
A carpenter specialised in ship building and master of his own workshop before he was twenty two, Andries Heeres van Bergen declined to send for the established founders when the Midwolda bell cracked. He cast it himself.
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1862
Heiligerlee
The family builds Klokkengieterij Sint Paulinus, with a casting pit large enough for the bells that would win medals at the world fairs.
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1933
The tuned carillon
Van Bergen completes the first Dutch tuned carillon in two hundred years, dedicated in the presence of Princess Juliana.
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1952
Arlington
Queen Juliana presents Van Bergen bells to President Truman as a gift of state. They ring still at Arlington National Cemetery.
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1956
Riverside Church
Fifty eight bells recast for the Rockefeller carillon in New York, after Andries Heero IV named a tonal flaw no other founder would.
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2026
The wrist
The Heero Collection is revealed at Top Marques Monaco, and the bells speak again.
Monaco heard it first.
In May 2026 the Heero Collection made its world première at Top Marques Monaco in the Grimaldi Forum, held under the High Patronage of HSH Prince Albert II. The first piece ever to leave the atelier was a Pièce Unique presented to the Sovereign Prince, its 18K white gold micro rotor bearing the Princely arms, hand painted by the Swiss miniaturist André Martinez.
A second Pièce Unique was donated to the Foundation of HSH Princess Charlène, to be auctioned with its proceeds given in full, and 10% of the net sales of the Monaco Special Edition are donated to the Foundation.
Revisit the première
Official Watch Partner ofWorld Caviar AwardsParis, 12 November 2026
Ten pieces for the World Caviar Awards.
Since 2024 the World Caviar Awards have gathered the world’s finest caviar houses before a jury of great chefs, sensory experts and food journalists. Every caviar is tasted blind, in the presence of a bailiff, and judged on appearance, taste and texture. The third edition takes place in Paris on 12 November 2026, at the Alcazar.
Van Bergen 1795 is its Official Watch Partner, and marks the occasion with ten numbered pieces: a red sunburst dial bearing the crest of the Awards, a sturgeon in 18K gold on the case, and a bezel set with diamonds.
- Third edition
- Paris, 12 November 2026
- Every tasting
- Blind, under a bailiff
- Each edition
- Over 80 caviars judged
The World Caviar Awards Edition
One of 10 numbered pieces
A Van Bergen without sound would be a Van Bergen without soul. Our founders shaped bronze into music. We shape movements into melody.
Erik Meijer, Chief Executive Officer
A Van Bergen is received, not purchased.
Every piece is entrusted in person, at a private appointment with the maison or an authorised partner. It is presented in a Van Bergen bell, a bronze replica of a prize-winning bell the family cast in 1862, and first deliveries begin in the first quarter of 2027.
