Tolv — Twelve watches a year, made in Minneapolis

IThe atelier

Tolv is Norwegian for twelve — the hours on a dial, and the number of watches that leave our bench each year. Four watchmakers in one room in Northeast Minneapolis, and a single calibre we draw, cut, finish and regulate ourselves.

Parts per watch: 212
Beats an hour: 28,800
Hours of power: 72
Days on the timing bench: 21

Nº 07 of 12 for 2026 is on the bench now — stage VIII, regulation.

A watchmaker's hands at a white bench, lifting a part from a movement with tweezers, loupe and tools laid out around it

IIInside

Take one apart.

BridgesGeneva stripes, hand-bevelled edges, 23 rubies in gold chatons.
BalanceFree-sprung, twelve gold timing screws, swinging 4 times a second.
EscapementA 15-tooth escape wheel and a lever with two ruby pallets.
Going trainCentre, third and fourth wheels: 1, 8 and 60 turns an hour.
BarrelThe mainspring. 72 hours of power; the barrel turns once every 7.
MainplateGerman silver, hand-grained with overlapping circles (perlage).

Calibre T-12. Hand-wound, 212 parts, every wheel turning at its true speed. Keep scrolling to lift it apart.

All of it serves one job: letting this wheel escape one tooth at a time.

Locked. A tooth rests on the entry pallet's ruby. The balance swings free — for about 97% of every beat, nothing touches it.

Unlocking. The impulse pin swings into the fork and nudges it off the banking. The wheel recoils a hair: that is the draw.

Impulse. The tooth slides across the ruby's sloped face and kicks the fork, which kicks the balance. This is where the energy goes in.

Drop. The tooth falls free and the wheel lurches forward until the next tooth lands on the exit pallet. That landing is the tick you hear.

Locked again. One eighth of a second. Now do it 691,200 times a day.

IIIHeartbeat

Eight beats a second. Listen.

The same escapement, running live. Slow it down until you can follow a single tooth, then turn the sound on — each tick is a tooth landing on a ruby.

Speed real time

Beats since you arrived: 0
Escape wheel: 16 turns a minute
Balance amplitude: 280°

How right is right?

Every Tolv spends 21 days on the timing bench in six positions and must stay within −4 / +6 seconds a day — the chronometer standard (ISO 3159).

Your device, measured just now: measuring…

Compared with an internet time server; half the round trip is the uncertainty.

IVThe watches

Three watches. One calibre.

Showing your time, to the eighth of a second.

Sekund

Time, and nothing else. A small seconds hand that steps eight times a second — watch it closely and you can count the beats.

Live —

Dial Salmon German silver Blued night Forest

Case Steel Rose gold

Case: 38.5 mm steel, 9.6 mm thick
Calibre: T-12, hand-wound, 23 jewels
Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz)
Power: 72 hours
Price: $14,800

Prices are demo figures — Tolv is fictional.

Commission this watch

VMåne · the moon

Set it once. Correct it in 2149.

Most moon-phase watches use a 59-tooth disc that steps once a day: a 29½-day month. The real one averages 29.530589 days, so they slip a full day in under three years. Måne's 135-tooth train counts a 29.53125-day month instead. Drag the slider and watch them drift apart.

59 teeth · one full day out by

May 2029

if you set it tonight

135 teeth · one full day out by

January 2149

if you set it tonight

The sky—

Måne · 135 teeth—

Ordinary · 59 teeth—

Set both tonight. Leave them running until… tonight

The sky disc is the true Moon, computed from Meeus's lunar theory and checked against all 2,474 NASA new moons from 1901 to 2100 (worst error 31 seconds). The real Moon also wanders up to 14 hours either side of its average month — no gear train can follow that, so drift is measured against the average.

VISol · the sun

Your clock is lying about noon.

Clock time is an agreement. Solar time is where the Sun actually is — and in Minneapolis the two disagree by more than an hour today. Sol wears both.

Your clock

—

The Sun

—

Why they differ, today

Showing our workshop in Minneapolis (44.98° N, 93.27° W). Your location stays in your browser.

The analemma: the Sun at 12:00 on the clock, every day of 2026. The dot is today.

The equation of time: how far the Sun runs ahead of, or behind, an even clock.

VIIThe bench

Twelve stages. Wind the crown.

Eleven weeks from a drawing to a watch. Turn the crown — drag it, scroll on it, or use the arrows — and the hour hand walks through the bench.

IWeek 1

Draw

1 / 12

VIIICommission

Twelve a year. One could be yours.

2026 is spoken for. Each commission reserves a bench slot in 2027; you'll get a letter at every one of the twelve stages, and the case-back is engraved to you.

Illustrative availability — nothing on this page is for sale.