The End of a Decade: CHRONEXT Highlights

The story begins in February 2013: Whilst sitting in their small shared kitchen in West London, Philipp Man and Ludwig Wurlitzer conducted their first business plans. Shortly after, the then 22- and 23-year old students founded CHRONEXT AG. 

CHRONEXT was launched in 2013 with two people in a small student apartment and grew so fast that extra manpower was needed. In 2014, Philipp Man and Ludwig Wurlitzer opened the first German office in Cologne's bustling Mülheim district, right in the middle of Schanzenstraße.That’s when almost 20 employees were onboarded to work together on their mission: To be the largest and most reliable supplier when it comes to buying and selling luxury watches. Today, six years later, more than 180 employees at 16 locations worldwide are part of CHRONEXT and work daily to guarantee our customers the best possible shopping experience.

CHRONEXT established itself on the market and space in the Mülheim office became increasingly scarce. Towards the end, the growing departments tried to make the best possible use of the available space in the small office. New year, new office: Plans began for the new office and finally in July 2016, the long-awaited move was imminent and all employees moved to a shiny new space in the vibrant area of Ehrenfeld. The modern industrial style branch has considerably more square metres and is located in the middle of one of Cologne's hippest quarters. We love it here! 

Since the move three years ago, we have grown substantially with watch lovers from all around the world. With our employees from almost 30 different nations, the company is not only internationally positioned internally, but also externally - together with our long-standing shipping partners, we deliver to a total of 130 different countries.

A lot has happened at CHRONEXT since it was founded in 2013, but one thing has probably never changed: Philipp Man's all-time favourite watch is still the Lange 1 from A. Lange & Söhne. And Ludwig Wurlitzer still prefers to wear the Rolex Milgauss on his wrist. 

Every watch is in a class of its own. That is why it is almost impossible to say which models make it into our best-of review. Some timepieces, however, have left a special mark in our hearts: 

One of the most exciting watches that has ever left the CHRONEXT office is the Ulysse Nardin Grand Deck Marine Tourbillon. The watch, with its nautically inspired design, is a successful homage to the depths of the sea and a true innovation in terms of representing time: the minute hand is held by ropes like the mast of a sailboat and moves across a scale. After 60 minutes, the mast slides back to the beginning of the scale within three to four seconds. This fascinating spectacle can be watched through the sapphire crystal case back and gives watch lovers a great view every time.

The H. Moser Endeavour Concept Tourbillon Minute Repeater captivates with its high-contrast and purist design and puts the passion of Haute Horlogerie in the foreground. In collaboration with MHC Manufactures Hautes Complications SA, the Schaffhausen-based manufacturer has created a very special kind of minute repeater: The play of the hammers and striking mechanisms can be impressively traced and does not have a logo or indices. The horological masterpiece has its price and, at 275,000 Euros (list price 305,000 EUR), is one of the most expensive watches sold at CHRONEXT and one of the best and fairest watch deals. 

On the occasion of the 5th anniversary of CHRONEXT in 2018, we developed the unique CHRONEXT limited Edition watch in cooperation with Linde Werdelin. The watch with the black carbon case and glass back is a skeleton watch at the highest level. What makes it unique? The watch is strictly limited to 23 individually numbered copies worldwide and is finely crafted by hand.  

Our in-house master workshop is the heart of CHRONEXT. On 350 square metres, our experienced specialists authenticate, revise and recondition watches there. Our watchmakers inspect around 30 watches on a daily basis. Making that around 720 watches per month and 8,640 watches per year.

In 2019 alone, over 17,000 orders were received within Germany. In addition, we were able to give watch lovers a very special treat in 2018 by raffling two watches: The lucky winners received a new Rolex Explorer I and Rolex Submariner No Date Ref. 114060.

The watch cosmos has numerous creations to offer. However, some models are particularly popular with our customers and make it onto our top seller list every year. Rolex is one of these brands. Watches such as the Rolex Submariner are particularly in demand at CHRONEXT. The 2019 statistics below illustrate which brands are loved the most within Germany: