These pieces offer fresh interpretations of
watchmaking, from the simple display of time to
entirely new complications
One reason why mechanical watchmaking continues to excite and inspire today —
long after timekeeping has been relegated to smartphones — is because creativity
still drives the development of new timepieces. To take a reductionist approach to things,
watchmaking is simply the study of how a system of gears and levers can measure and
display the time. There is no limit to how this can be done, and the following watches
prove just how the right ideas — when combined with expertise in engineering and
micromechanics — can still create magic.
IN
BLOOM
The number of flowers
that have blossomed on
the dial correspond to the
current hour. It is now
seven o’clock, with the
exact minutes to be read
on the case flank.
Poetry and timekeeping often go hand-in-hand at Van Cleef & Arpels; the maison’s
creations frequently present the time in atypical ways to either tell a story or present a
scene. The Lady Arpels Heures Florales depicts a garden on its dial, where flowers
blossom and close every 60 minutes to indicate the hours, with the number of open
flowers corresponding to the current hour. What’s perhaps even more astounding is how
the movement’s module has three separate sequences for each hour. The set of flowers
that bloom at two o’clock, for instance, will cycle through three different combinations
sequentially, thus ensuring that the eye is always entertained by new surprises. The minutes,
on the other hand, are read via the aperture on the left flank of the case.
KEEPING
SCORE
First introduced in 2017, Hublot’s Big Bang Unico Golf was developed with golfing in mind.
The watch tracks three vital pieces of information: the hole its wearer is on, their stroke
count for the current hole, and their cumulative score for the current round. Three separate
apertures display these details on the dial, and keeping score is simply a matter of using the
pushers located at two, four, and eight o’clock. The latest version of this timepiece, the
Big Bang Unico Golf Orange Carbon, has been rendered in orange carbon fibre, which
promises striking contrast when its wearer is out on the greens.
THE WATCH TRACKS THREE PIECES OF
INFORMATION IN A GOLF GAME: THE HOLE ITS
WEARER IS ON, THEIR STROKE COUNT FOR THE
CURRENT HOLE, AND THEIR CUMULATIVE SCORE
FOR THE CURRENT ROUND.
A METHOD
TO THE
MADNESS
Franck Muller’s signature Crazy Hours complication marked its 30th anniversary recently
with a line of commemorative models, including this Cintrée Curvex Crazy Hours 30th
Anniversary watch. The complication itself isn’t difficult to accomplish, but it puts a spin
on the display of time — and challenges the watch’s relationship with its wearer. Here, the
minute hand makes a complete revolution around the dial once every hour as per normal.
The hour hand, however, jumps about the dial at the start of every hour, and one must
spend an extra few seconds to read it mindfully, since its position isn’t where it’s supposed
to be. The mishmash of hour markers around the dial certainly doesn’t help with legibility,
but that’s hardly the point. Rather, the scattered indices further enhance the timepiece’s
psychedelic vibes.
UNDERSTATED
BEAUTY
The simplicity of Chanel’s timepieces belies the brand’s expertise in watchmaking,
specifically movement design and construction. This is perhaps best seen in the Monsieur de
Chanel watch. Despite being a “simple” time-only watch, the Monsieur is anything but. Note
the outsized jumping hour at six o’clock, which has been paired with a retrograde minute
display at 12 o’clock — neither is difficult to create, but both are especially challenging to
execute well, given the issues associated with backlash and robustness. What’s more, the
movement (visible through the case back) has been beautifully designed and assembled,
with the same eye for harmony that the dial displays. As part of the permanent collection,
the model has been offered since its introduction in 2016. New variants are periodically
introduced, such as this Monsieur de Chanel Superleggera Edition.
NEITHER THE JUMPING HOUR NOR RETROGRADE
MINUTE DISPLAY IS DIFFICULT TO CREATE,
BUT BOTH ARE ESPECIALLY CHALLENGING TO
EXECUTE WELL, GIVEN ISSUES WITH BACKLASH
AND ROBUSTNESS.
TRAVELLING
WITHOUT
MOVING
Hermès has put many a playful twist on familiar watchmaking complications. The Arceau
Le Temps Voyageur takes the same approach by presenting a starkly different vision of
the familiar worldtimer complication. Here, the various cities around the world are printed
on the flange. A single “satellite” sub-dial orbits the middle portion of the dial, with the time
being displayed corresponding to the city its red arrow is pointed at. By actuating the pusher
at nine o’clock, the satellite jumps to the next city, and the time display changes accordingly.
Home Time, meanwhile, remains a glance away via the indicator at 12 o’clock. This is
wanderlust embodied, indeed.
NEED FOR
SPEED
Zenith’s focus on its chronographs in recent years has resulted in many exciting products
and, notably, made high-frequency chronographs a mainstay in the brand’s line-up. In the
typical chronograph with a movement beating at 4Hz, the smallest resolution that can be
measured is usually a quarter of a second — both because of the balance’s frequency, as
well as constraints in how elapsed time is displayed. The Defy Extreme E “Energy X
Prix” here, however, is capable of measuring and displaying elapsed time down to 1/100ths
of a second, which is no mean feat for a mechanical watch. Zenith made this possible by
using an independent balance that oscillates at 50Hz for the chronograph. Doing so also
maintains the accuracy of regular timekeeping, since the chronograph draws its energy from
a separate mainspring as well.
