Text and all Photos by Thomas, watchesandwords (Instagram), September 2025

 

First encounter in Geneva 2025

The Black Tulip wristwatch by the Dutch watchmaker Annelinde Dunselman is a very special watch for me. Annelinde has introduced her timepiece at the Watches and Wonders 2025 in Geneva and it was one of my personal highlights from all watches shown this year. She also participates in the GPHG 2025 category TIME ONLY. As i once wrote for Quill and Pad „In a world full of many new watch releases – and i’m sorry to say, too also many insignificant new pieces – the exceptional Black Tulip got my attention“.

i first had the pleasure to meet Annelinde together with her watch at her booth section in the Hotel Angleterre down by the Lake in Geneva during Watches and Wonders. Meeting her meant, and i knew this right from the start, that i would see a completely new debut watch i knew little about. Annelinde Dunselman watches are new to me, although she had years of work experience and jobs in the watchmaking world (Grönefeld, Jaeger LeCoultre), i hadn’t heard from the Black Tulip watch before, and the watch comes from a country that is not home to many manufacturers and brands.

A Black Tulip is not easy to find

Imagine you are searching for a watch that fulfils the following filter citeria set to obtain a result. You are searching for a watch that is:

– a robust steel watch,

– mid-sized (38 mm or smaller),

– on a leather strap,

– made for daily wear,

– constructed and build from a small brand, maker, or manufacturer,

– originated in the Netherlands,

– executed with a superb niche and fine mechanism (such as a zero-reset),

– made by a female watchmaker,

– only available in low numbers,

– named with a well sounding lyrical metaphor.

What do you think you will receive as your search retrieval? Yes, an empty set. Impossible! Such a watch does not exist. „It WAS fascination, I know“. So, it seems, we are back to Nat King Cole and the line: „And it might have ended right then, at the start“.

Impossible. Really. No. i do not accept the „no“ for an answer. The watch that meets my criteria is the Black Tulip made in the Kindom Of The Netherlands, and Annelinde makes her watches in the city of Zwolle in her own workshop. Zwolle is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands and it is the capital of the province of Overijssel (with a population of about 130.000, so, rather small and really lovely).

Visiting Annelinde Dunselman

Annelinde Dunselman lives and works in a lovely place that feels more like a farm with a small and well equipped watchmaking workshop inside. Or just the other way round: she works on a workbench for mechanical timepieces accompanied by a dog, a cat, two chicken, two horses, and dozens of old bicycles. Have i expected this? „Noooooo! Never ever. Absolutely not“. So i simply ignored all the watchmaking stuff (i originally came to see) and i immersed myself in the wonderland of Annelinde.

„Make your own watch, simply do it – do it.“ – the Annelinde Dunselman approach

i know many collectors, and in my experience, some enthusiasts dream of establishing their own brand and manufacturing watches themselves sooner or later. In my opinion, this reveals many false expectations and overly romantic notions about how long, hard and demanding this path really is. From Annelinde, i have learned in many conversations that you definitely need to be prepared for an adventure. It takes enormous self-confidence and great courage. And certainly also good skills in dealing with partners and, without a doubt, real financial independence.

Annelinde is precise and well organised: „I just want to have a say, make decisions, I want to make it easy from a certain point onwards, and I am the one who wants to have the final yes or no“. That would definitely not be for me. i quickly learned that lesson from Annelinde. She herself sees things completely differently, which is no surprise. She is proud of what she has achieved. And „now I know a lot of things and yes, I would do this ever and always again. I just jumped into it, and now, as I see the result, the Black Tulip, I am absolutely sure – I would do this again if I had to decide this question again. It was far too much fun“.

Asking Annelinde about future plans and „what comes next?“ you feel her enormous energy for creating new timepieces. As far as i have felt it, we can expect so many spectacular watch movements – but for the present moment, her focus goes to the production of the 10 pieces for the Black Tulip collection (to fulfil the orders of her customers). For me, it was funny to hear, that Annelinde is convinced that she is not a good salesperson. But in the situation, where orders and customers just come in – this actually seems to be not a big issue for her or something to worry about.

What else characterises Annelinde Dunselman, apart from the fact that she has lived and worked in Zwolle, the Netherlands, for many years? She likes J. S. Bach, the cello and ballet. She sees her work as a watchmaker as more than just dealing with beauty, art or craftsmanship. She emphasises that her work is comparable to the demands of top-level sport. In both cases, it is about discipline, precision and perfection – always at the highest level. Every reader is welcome to ask themselves whether they have built up their own watch collection in the same way, i.e. always with discipline and perfection (and without weak, average or even irrelevant pieces). i know fewer than a handful of people to whom this applies. And my encounters with Annelinde have made me personally more modest and humble.

The historical perspective – the watch and the novel

For all readers who like to read some historical background and quotations from a famous writer of the past, please take notice, that there is a novel called The Black Tulip:

„Well, Rosa, I loved flowers dearly, and I have found, or at least I believe so, the secret of the great black tulip, which has been considered impossible to grow and for which, as you know or may not know, a price of a 100.000 guilders has been offered by the horticultural society of Harlem, these 100.000 guilders and heaven knows, we do not regret them, these 100.000 guilders I have here in this paper“
(Alexandre Dumas, The Black Tulip).

The flower from the novel (1850) and the watch have certain similarities: both are rare, precious, cost some money, they are beautiful and a lot of passion, love, dedication and perseverance is needed to create them. And the Black Tulip also means for Annelinde and her debut wristwatch absolute perfection. Parallel to the novel, fame and honour shall be the reward.

The movement of the Black Tulip watch

For sure, one of my favorite features of the Black Tulip watch is the zero-reset mechanism. Whenever a watch movement has a zero-reset mechanism, it makes my happy. When you pull out the crown to set the time, the small seconds hand jumps to 12 o’clock and stops there – like a chronograph reset – until the crown is pushed in. Annelinde uses the Calibre D202.5 for her Black Tulip. It is a manual winding movement beating at 21.600 A/h. The movement comes with an enormous power reserve of 100 hours. The dial indicates the hours, minutes, and the small seconds. From the dialside of the Black Tulip one can see a laser-engraved pattern made of rhodium-plated brass full of small tulips with fine steel hands for the hours and minutes (by the way, the hands look like elegant tulips). The hand for the small seconds carries the small Black Tulip logo of Annelinde Dunselman.

My personal path „You come for the watch but you stay for the people.“

In springtime i travelled to Geneva to have the chance to see and touch the watch from Annelinde. And this impressed me a lot and in many ways. Back in April 2025 i decided to immediately write a first article for Quill and Pad about the Black Tulip. And this was only the beginning. The timepiece impressed me even much more that i expected, and a famous quote from my collector and writer pal Gary Getz immediately comes to my mind: „Meet the maker, buy the watch“. Will this be my next decision to take? So far i have not done this, but you never know. What can i say, am i that kind of person in the lucky position to immediately buy every amazing watch that crosses my path? Sadly not. But there is also a second proverb that says „You come for the watch but you stay for the people“. In the meantime, Annelinde and i have spoken and seen each other many times, we have talked, exchanged ideas, and i am closely following how Annelinde is developing the Black Tulip. Since the first Geneva meeting, we met in The Netherlands on watch events and we had a great time in Zwolle – a meeting not only about the Black Tulip, but about travelling, food, music, art, cake, cheese, cycling, and crafts like Guilloché. i see this as a big luck. It is not the watch, it is the person that matters.

Final thoughts and the moral of the story so far

The answer to one of my final questions, however, took me completely by surprise. i asked Annelinde about her own watch, „What is your favourite?“. Her answer: „I don’t actually need a watch. When I think about it, I really don’t. Yet, watches have fascinated me since I was young. I collected them as a child and was always drawn to the mechanics. I love creating them now“. As far as i see it, this is a great objective for finding a profession in life. And Annelinde adds what does matter to her „if I wear a watch, it should be one with a story, something truly special, a piece I can wear every day and would love to pass on“. For Annelinde, such a watch is her father’s pocket watch (although she doesn´t wear it). The person who, in my opinion, builds one of the most beautiful and technically fascinating watches in her own wonderland workshop says about herself: „I don’t actually need a watch“.

Not to forget, and as my final reminder to Annelinde and our talk, i asked her: „Are you at least happy with the result? What is your opinion about the Black Tulip?“ Considering this question, i have expected an answer similar to one of the key sentences of the historical Black Tulip novel – an answer like „sometimes one has suffered so much that he (or she) has the right never to be able to say – I AM TOO HAPPY“ But it was just the opposite and the answer immediately burst out of Annelinde: „I would do this again if you ask me. The answer is YES. It was far too much fun and it still is“.

Two significant surprises in just one long conversation are basically enough and also a good ending for my text. „C’est tout pour aujourd’hui“.

 

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Dunselmann The Black Tulip

Caliber D202.5, power reserve: 100 hours, frequency: 3 Hz (21.600 A/h), 19 jewels, zero-reset mechanism

main plate and bridges: rhodium-plated with hand-polished bevels

free-sprung balance spring, variable inertia balance wheel

total parts: 125

diameter of platine: 31,80 mm

thickness of platine: 5,85 mm (7,80 mm including components)

limited edition of 10 watches

38.000 Euro excl. VAT

 

References

Presenting the Black Tulip by Annelinde Dunselman: new independent watchmaker, new watch,
by Thomas Brechtel, Quill & Pad (2025)

A new independent watchmaker in town: in conversation with Annelinde Dunselman of Dunselman watchmaking. Independent in the truest sense of the word,
by Thomas van Straaten, Fratello (2025)

First look. Annelinde Dunselman makes her debut with the Dunselman Black Tulip. A new indie watchmaker on the block, schooled by JLC, the Horological Brothers and Philippe Narbel,
by Robin Nooy, Monochrome (2025)

The Black Tulip,
by Alexande Dumas

Dunselmann watchmaking