Cornelius & Cie - merging of talent

The foundation of Cornelius & Cie is based on a long term friendship between the Dutchmen Kees Engelbarts and Paul Pertijs, which started more than 20 years at the Dutch Academy of Gold and Silversmithing. Today they form the artistic heart of Cornelius & Cie.

Kees Engelbarts (1967)
Kees was educated at the Dutch Gold- and Silversmith Academy in Schoonhoven and the German vocational school for jewellery design at Idar-Oberstein. He started working as a professional watch engraver in 1990, setting up his own workshop in Geneva in 1996. Kees swiftly was recognised as one of the best craftsman the watch world had ever seen. He created intricately engraved and skeletonised watches for several watch companies, including Jaeger-LeCoultre, Hublot and Harry Winston. He became one of the very few engravers familiar with the Japanese 'Mokumé Gane' technique producing his own base material of 19 ultra thin layers of alternating two non-ferrous metals. In 1997 he produced his first own watch. The founding of Cornelius & Cie - where Kees will act as creative director - is the next step in his astonishing career.
Website: www.kees.ch

Paul Pertijs (1968)
Paul was educated at the Dutch Gold- and Silversmith Academy where he met Kees Engelbarts. After his studies he took over his fathers jewellers shop in the Netherlands. Over the years Paul has expanded this single high-end shop into the Pertijs Jewellers group with boutiques in Breda, Vught, Roosendaal and Laren. Paul took the initiative to found Cornelius & Cie after seeing a one-off watch Kees had made using the 1935 A. Schild movement. He will act as commercial director of the company.