World Records Authority is proud to present Centraal Beheer with a Certificate of Record for the world’s Largest Operational Telephone, built by employees in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, on 16 September 1988. This remarkable feat of engineering stands as a true testament to team spirit, innovation, and the creative ambition that defines a truly extraordinary workplace culture.

Centraal Beheer — one of the Netherlands’ most celebrated insurance companies, long famous for its inventive and humorous advertising campaigns — brought that same spirit of creativity to this extraordinary project. Teams of employees collaborated to design, engineer, and construct a fully operational telephone of record-breaking proportions, demonstrating that the spirit of innovation flourishes when an entire organisation commits to a shared vision.

What makes this record particularly remarkable is the word “operational” — this was no mere decorative prop, but a fully functioning telephone capable of making and receiving calls. The engineering precision required to scale up telecommunications hardware of this era to record-breaking dimensions while maintaining full functionality reflects exceptional skill and ingenuity.

World Records Authority celebrates Centraal Beheer and all the employees who made this achievement possible, recognising it as a landmark in the history of creative engineering and collective human endeavour.