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The Van Bergen Dynasty
Van Bergen 1795 is the only haute horlogerie maison in the world built upon a genuine, unbroken 230-year acoustic engineering heritage. Founded in 1795 by Andries Heeres I in Midwolda, Netherlands, the Van Bergen family became one of Europe's most celebrated bell-founding dynasties, crafting bronze voices that rang from cathedral towers across continents, earning international medals in Vienna, London, Philadelphia, Paris, Amsterdam, and Antwerp.
For six generations, Van Bergen craftsmen cast thousands of bells of exceptional tonal quality, including commissions from the Rockefeller family and the carillons of the world's most distinguished landmarks. Queen Juliana presented Van Bergen bells to President Truman in 1952. They ring today at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 2026, that same acoustic philosophy — refined across six generations and 230 years — finds its most intimate expression yet: on the wrist.
A Legacy Cast in Bronze
Andries Heero van Bergen III · Master Founder · 1835–1913
Carillon bells loaded for installation · Heiligerlee · 1933
H.M. Queen Juliana · Van Bergen Factory · Heiligerlee · 1950
The Full Timeline
The Van Bergen dynasty flourishes in Northern Germany's shipping industry. Heero Andries van Bergen establishes himself as a master craftsman in Norden, East Frisia. His son Andries, aged 16, crafts a miniature warship of such extraordinary detail that the King of Hanover personally presents him with a gift to encourage his talent — the first recognition of a precision that will define the dynasty for centuries.
Andries Heeres I establishes the family's first workshop in Midwolda, Netherlands. When the town's church bell cracks, he boldly offers to recast it, having studied the techniques of German masters Claude and Mammeus Fremy. His successful casting of both a 240 kg and a 2,000 kg bell immediately generates new orders from across the region. A dynasty is born from bronze and precision.
At the age of 78, Andries Heeres I achieves an extraordinary final act: casting 148 bells in his last year. The modest Midwolda workshop had by now produced hundreds of bells throughout Reformed churches across the Netherlands and Germany, making Van Bergen synonymous with Dutch bell founding. When Andries dies, the infrastructure and reputation he established carry the dynasty forward.
Andries Heero II establishes the Sint Paulinus foundry in Heiligerlee, a modern industrial operation with a large casting pit capable of producing multiple bells simultaneously. The foundry's reputation grows rapidly through World Fair exhibitions in Vienna, London, Philadelphia, Paris, Amsterdam, and Antwerp, where Van Bergen bells win gold and silver medals. Heiligerlee becomes a name synonymous with acoustic excellence.
Brothers Andries Heero III and Udo Jurrien van Bergen take over the company, expanding beyond bell founding into fire engine manufacturing and industrial operations. In 1904, the brothers separate their holdings — Andries Heero III continues the bell foundry, bringing a new era of technical sophistication that distinguishes Van Bergen from all competitors. His portrait endures as the face of the dynasty's golden age.
Under Andries Heero III, Van Bergen receives one of the Netherlands' most prestigious honours: casting two bass carillon bells for Utrecht's Dom Tower to complement the legendary 17th-century Hemony carillon. The commission becomes a catalyst. Van Bergen channels the experience into an ambitious research programme, investing years in perfecting carillon tuning methods — the foundation of their eventual international pre-eminence.
Van Bergen completes the first Dutch tuned carillon in 200 years. H.R.H. Princess Juliana attends the historic dedication ceremony at the Utrecht Fair — the beginning of a royal connection that would endure for decades. The achievement signals Van Bergen's ascendancy over English founders, who had dominated the carillon world for generations. By 1937, no English founder supplies carillons to the Netherlands.
The iconic carillon tower at the Heiligerlee foundry is completed, serving as a powerful demonstration of Van Bergen's capabilities and becoming a landmark of Dutch bell founding. A 38-bell demonstration carillon follows in 1946. The tower becomes an international destination — visiting carillonneurs and clients experience Van Bergen's craftsmanship through live performances, attracting delegations and orders from across the world.
H.M. Queen Juliana visits the Van Bergen factory in Heiligerlee — a mark of royal recognition that cements the dynasty's place at the heart of Dutch national identity. Two years later, Queen Juliana presents Van Bergen bells as a state gift to President Truman. They ring today at Arlington National Cemetery, a permanent acoustic testament to Dutch craftsmanship at the heart of American memory.
Van Bergen recasts 58 bells for Riverside Church in New York — at the time the world's largest carillon, a memorial to Laura Spelman Rockefeller commissioned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. What secured the commission was characteristic Van Bergen precision: Andries Heero IV had detected tonal imperfections in the existing bells and dared to say so. No other founder had been willing to name the flaw. The Rockefeller family's trust, earned by unflinching honesty, endures in the Van Bergen 1795 DNA to this day.
Van Bergen casts its last bell on 11 April, for Sleen's Reformed Church. Under Dipl. Ing. Andries Heero van Bergen V, Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau, the foundry closes after 185 years of uninterrupted production. This is not an ending. The accumulated knowledge of six generations — formulas, temperatures, tuning techniques, ratios — is preserved, waiting for the craft that would carry it forward.
Baron Juchter van Bergen Quast, grandson of the final bellfounder, and Erik Meijer begin exploring how over two centuries of acoustic engineering mastery could be translated into haute horlogerie. The transition is less a leap than it appears: both disciplines demand absolute mastery of metallurgy, precision measured in fractions of a millimetre, and objects whose purpose is to mark time — and both aspire to do so with a voice.
Master watchmaker Daniel van Ree joins as CTO. Together, the three founders begin development of what will become the world's largest gong ever fitted to a wristwatch. The entire timekeeping calibre is conceived within the spatial boundaries imposed by the gong — ultimately achieved at 2.5 mm. Every component is conceived, tested, and refined by hand.
A co-development agreement is signed with one of Switzerland's most distinguished independent movement ateliers. Prototype production begins. The world première at Top Marques Monaco is confirmed under the high patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco.
Van Bergen 1795 débuts at Top Marques Monaco, 6–10 May. The Heero Collection carries 230 years of acoustic legacy to the wrist. What began in the bell foundries of Midwolda in 1795 finds its most intimate expression yet: the world's largest gong ever fitted to a wristwatch, striking the half-hour in a voice worthy of the dynasty that cast it. The bells speak again.
From the bell foundries of Heiligerlee to the watch ateliers of the twenty-first century — 230 years of acoustic mastery, carried forward.
Van Bergen 1795
Continue the Journey
