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Calibre
VBA01 · 2.5 mm ultra-thin
Striking
Sonnerie au passage
World Record
Largest hammer in any wristwatch
Edition
289 numbered pieces
The Timepiece
The inaugural Van Bergen 1795 wristwatch is named in honour of Heero Andries van Bergen, born 1738, whose precision philosophy founded the dynasty. It was Heero Andries whose shipbuilding mastery established the mathematical rigour that would carry through six generations of bell founding, the same rigour that now governs every component of the Calibre VBA01. Named not for the last, but for the first.
Heero Inaugural
230 numbered pieces across five dial expressions, each individually numbered, each carrying the Calibre VBA01 and its world-record striking architecture.
| Case | 41 mmTitanium Grade-5 |
| Calibre | VBA012.5 mm · automatic micro-rotor · 5 Hz |
| Complication | Sonnerie au passageAutonomous half-hour strike |
| Edition | 230 piecesFive dial variants |
Inaugural Edition · From
€29,000
Final pricing confirmed at private appointment.
Monaco Special Edition
Created exclusively for the world première at Top Marques Monaco. A red dial reserved to this edition alone, never to be repeated.
Monaco Special Edition
50 Numbered Pieces
The same world-record sonnerie au passage in a titanium case carrying the spirit of the Principality. The red dial was created solely for the Monaco world première.
From
€32,500
Acquisition by appointment.
Monaco Special Edition
9 Numbered Pieces
The rarest expression of the maison. A white gold case, the red dial exclusive to this première, and the same sonnerie au passage that defines Van Bergen 1795.
From
€79,000
Acquisition by appointment.
The first Van Bergen ever to leave the atelier is a Pièce Unique presented to H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, its 18 carat white gold rotor bearing the Princely coat of arms hand‑painted by Swiss miniaturist André Martinez. A second Pièce Unique was offered at charity auction during the Monaco Grand Prix in support of the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation. Fifteen percent of all Monaco Special Edition net sales are donated to the Foundation.
CTO & Master Watchmaker
CTO & Master Watchmaker
Daniel van Ree is among the rarest of watchmakers, a master technician with both the classical training of the Vakschool voor Uurwerktechniek in Amsterdam and the creative vision to engineer the most striking complications in contemporary horology. As Chief Technology Officer of Van Bergen 1795, he is the architect of the world's first wristwatch to house a gong of this scale.
The challenge he faced was unlike anything in conventional watchmaking. In most striking watches, the movement is designed first and the acoustic mechanism fitted around it. Daniel inverted this entirely: the world-record gong came first, and the complete timekeeping calibre, the Calibre VBA01, was conceived, engineered and refined within the spatial constraints the gong imposed. The result is a 2.5 mm ultra-thin manufacture that is among the most technically demanding achievements in contemporary horology.
A larger gong sings longer, deeper, and truer: the difference between a chime that merely announces the hour and one that genuinely moves the wearer. The sonnerie au passage strikes the half-hour automatically, not on demand, but as a habit, as a ritual, as the Van Bergen bells once marked the hours across Dutch squares and American cathedrals. The case itself is engineered as an acoustic chamber, amplifying the strike. The gong is visible in full through the sapphire caseback: 230 years of bell-founding mastery, distilled into 2.5 millimetres.
The Founders →The Calibre VBA01
| Calibre | VBA01Van Bergen 1795 manufacture |
| Profile | 2.5 mmUltra-thin |
| Winding | AutomaticRecessed micro-rotor |
| Frequency | 5 Hz36,000 A/h |
| Complication | Sonnerie au passageHalf-hour, autonomous |
| Striking record | World recordLargest hammer in any wristwatch |
| Case | 41 mmTitanium Grade-5 / White Gold |
| Water resistance | 30 mAcoustic chamber preserved |
Acquisition
Each timepiece is entrusted through a private appointment, with our team or an authorised partner, where the watch, the movement and its numbering are presented in person.
