Ulysse Nardin: High Seas Meets High Horology

Marine Tourbillon Grand Deck

By Jason Heaton

A long history of nautical timekeeping inspires three new Ulysse Nardin watches.

Despite its land-locked headquarters in the Swiss Alps, Ulysse Nardin has always had a strong tie to the sea. In 1846, after finishing his apprenticeship, the company’s namesake founded his own manufacture in Le Locle, and concentrated his efforts on building marine chronometers.

Part of a limited edition of 18 pieces.

In those days, navigating a ship relied on a sextant, a clear view of the sky, and a chronometer — a precise timepiece that could keep time for weeks on end while being pitched to and fro by the unpredictable rolling of the waves. Ulysse Nardin earned a reputation for building chronometers suitable for seafaring that has carried to the present day. With the new Marine Tourbillon Grand Deck, Ulysse Nardin translates its nautical heritage into an extraordinary timepiece.

In a modern age of satellite navigating, this watch is still accurate enough for celestial wayfinding if you ever end up offshore with dead batteries in your GPS. Its vaunted accuracy can be attributed to a movement driven by two mainspring barrels, one dedicated to timekeeping and the other to the watch’s complications. A tourbillon rotates the escapement once every 60 seconds to balance out the deleterious effects of gravity on the watch’s rate.

Marine Chronograph Annual Calendar

Despite its timekeeping prowess, it’s not the movement that’s most impressive about the Marine Tourbillon Grand Deck. That distinction goes to the unique time display, which incorporates Dyneema, a polyethylene fiber that, when woven into a strand, is many times stronger than steel. The material is also much lighter and immune to corrosion, which is why it’s used for riggings on modern sailboats. Here, it’s used to pull the “boom” of the retrograde display across the dial. As time passes, the boom travels across the minute scale, snapping back at the passing of each hour, which is shown in an aperture at the top.

Continuing the nautical theme, the wood-marquetry dial is made to resemble the teak decking used on sailing yachts. The watch, which is limited to a mere 18 pieces, is a fitting continuation of Ulysse Nardin’s history of seafaring timekeeping.

Under Sail

Equally capable and outstanding in its own right is the Marine Chronograph Annual Calendar. As its name suggests, this is not only a 12-hour chronograph, but it also tracks the month and date for a full year, requiring correction only at the end of February. While this is an elegant watch, the Marine Chronograph Annual Calendar remains suitable for extended time at sea with a steel case that is water resistant to 100 meters.

Ulysse Anchor Tourbillon

Finally, hearkening back to its innovative roots, the Ulysse Anchor Tourbillon continues Ulysse Nardin’s tradition of precision timekeeping with a tourbillon and constant force escapement made from anti-magnetic silicium. All of this engineering is housed in a refined white or rose gold case that boasts a textured enamel dial in a color that is fittingly as deep blue as the sea.

For a company that got its start building marine chronometers, Ulysse Nardin has stayed true to its nautical legacy. These new timepieces advance the brand’s reputation for innovation and precise timekeeping while evoking a direct connection to the sea.

Parmigiani Fleurier: Haute Pursuit

The white gold Tonda Chronor Anniversaire

By Victoria Gomelsky

Tonda Chronor Anniversaire

As Parmigiani Fleurier celebrates 20 years, it continues to uphold the highest standards of Swiss craftsmanship.

Michel Parmigiani, a master watchmaker with a gift for restoring antique watches and clocks, founded his eponymous firm in the Swiss village of Fleurier in 1996. Over the past two decades, the brand has risen to become a respected player on the fine watchmaking landscape.

Golden Anniversary

To celebrate the occasion, Parmigiani Fleurier unveiled the Tonda Chronor Anniversaire, the watchmaker’s first integrated chronograph. This means the chronograph is built into the hand-wound movement, unlike most, which use a separate module to measure elapsed time.

The integrated construction isn’t the only thing that makes this particular chronograph so special. Parmigiani also endowed it with a split-second function that allows the wearer to time two events that begin simultaneously, but end at different times. In another flourish, the chronograph is structured around a column wheel instead of a simple cam, which is more difficult to construct but smoother to operate. And it employs a vertical clutch, which is more accurate than a horizontal clutch.

Tonda Métrographe Abyss

What’s more, the movement of the Tonda Chronor Anniversaire is crafted in rose gold, marking a significant technical achievement, in light of the metal’s malleability and the demanding standards it must meet to keep time accurately.

Available in two handsome 42mm versions — white gold with a white grand feu enamel dial, or rose gold with a blue grand feu dial — the technically impressive model is a fitting tribute to Parmigiani’s milestone.

Metrospective

The Tonda Métrographe Abyss, another in-house chronograph from the Parmigiani manufacture, speaks to the brand’s expertise in the decorative and design arts.

Tonda Métropolitaine Selene

The most obvious example is the dial’s eye-catching shade of abyss blue. Parmigiani artisans use a complex process of electrolysis to achieve this signature color. The brand’s design skill can be found in the case’s slightly asymmetrical silhouette. The left side is conventional while the right side features elongated lugs that extend to the crown and surround the push buttons to reflect a fresh, urban sensibility.

The ladies’ counterpart to the masculine Métrographe range is found in a line of feminine watches called Tonda Métropolitaine. This year, Parmigiani unveiled the Tonda Métropolitaine Selene, a bewitching moon phase model in a 33mm steel case — with or without a diamond-set bezel — that features an in-house movement.

But this isn’t just any moon phase model. The russet-colored moon depicted on the dial is studded with craters that mimic the lunar seas and are made through a complex process of layering. Elsewhere on the dial, the silhouette of a lotus flower — beloved by cultures around the world for its nighttime bloom — is reproduced using mother-of-pearl lace designs.

Tonda 1950 Qualité Fleurier

Quality Time

The Tonda 1950 Qualité Fleurier is a classic rose-gold timepiece that adheres to a high set of performances standards. 

Since 2004, Parmigiani has been involved with a third-party certification organization known as the Fleurier Quality Foundation, which certifies timepieces — like this Tonda 1950 — that pass its rigorous testing. In doing so, this gorgeous timepiece affirms Parmigiani’s considerable contribution to the world of fine watchmaking.

H. Moser & Cie: Subversively Subtle

Pioneer Perpetual Calendar 

By Stephen Pulvirent

H. Moser & Cie. pushes the boundaries of traditional watchmaking with throughly modern timepieces.

The world of Swiss watchmaking can sometimes obsess a little too much over the past at the expense of the future. The same can’t be said of H. Moser, which breaks the mold by making watches that are rooted in the fundamentals of fine horology — which have remained unchanged for centuries — while also exploring new territory in wrist-worn mechanics. Moser makes serious watches that don’t take themselves too seriously and feel very much of our current era.

Venturer Big Date

The Pioneer Perpetual Calendar exemplifies this approach. The red gold case is a robust 42.8mm and has black DLC-finished accents around the lugs and on the crown to add some visual definition and protection. The ardoise fumé dial is bold and graphic, with applied red gold markers, luminous dots and hands, an easy-to-read power reserve indicator and a date wheel (color-matched to the dial, of course).

The brand’s signature perpetual calendar complication is deliberately restrained with a month indicator arrow at the center and a date wheel that changes instantaneously. As a result, it avoids a common design pitfall by not screaming out: “Look at me, I’m wearing a highly complicated machine on my wrist.” The multi-part case is also water-resistant to 120 meters, so you never have to baby it or take if off at the pool. When you’ve got a watch this cool, leaving it behind is the last thing you want to do.

Endeavour Centre Seconds Concept 

Iconoclassics

On the more traditional side, Moser offers the Venturer Big Date. Slightly smaller with a 41.5mm white gold case, its white lacquered dial, Roman numerals and blued-steel hands all take their cues from the classics. The instantaneous date remains, again with big numerals, and the hand-wound movement packs a 10-day power reserve into a slim, wearable package.

Moser’s Concept series is one of the most iconoclastic in all of modern watchmaking. The signature fumé dials are stripped of all markers and text — even the brand’s name — for a clean-as-can-be look. It’s something no other brand amongst the modern Pantheon has dared to do. 

Swiss Alp Watch

The Endeavour Centre Seconds Concept pairs a solid rose gold case and three simple rose gold hands with the vivid “funky blue” fumé dial. Here it’s allowed to shine in all its glory, without any distractions on top. Lurking beneath the dial is a hand-wound movement that includes an indicator for its seven-day power reserve.

In response to the folks making a much-talked-about digital watch in Cupertino, California, Moser counter punches with the Swiss Alp Watch. The curved rectangular case, arched wire lugs, and curved crystal might feel familiar, but the fumé dial and expertly finished mechanical movement are nothing like what you’ll find in a so-called smart watch. The Swiss Alp Watch is at once a tip of the hat, a wink of the eye, and a confident assertion that fine watchmaking is here to stay, circuit boards be damned.

As some brands race to please the mass market, it’s refreshing when a watchmaker heads in its own direction. H. Moser’s watches challenge preconceptions and teach collectors along the way.

Piaget: Modern Classic

A few of the new Piaget Polo S models.

By Stephen Pulvirent

The Piaget Polo S breaks with tradition, but maintains the bold style that makes Piaget watches so iconic.

Close-up on the Polo S chronograph.

Some watch brands try to do a little bit of everything. One year it’s all about dive watches, the next it’s nothing but chronographs. The year after that, it’s tuxedo-level dress watches or bust. It might sound obvious, but this is not a great strategy. It produces neither the most interesting watches, nor the most dedicated collectors. A little focus goes a long way.

Piaget has, for the better part of a century, been extremely focused. Split between bustling Geneva and the quiet mountain village of La Côte-aux-Fées, Piaget’s manufactures have been turning out incredible ultra-thin watches of the very highest quality, and making them in precious metals with classic styling. These watches feature hand-worked, in-house movements (of which the brand currently makes 37 that qualify as ultra-thin) and carry the DNA articulated by Gérald and Valentin Piaget in 1957, when they declared that all Piaget watches must be precious inside and out.

The date window is nestled at 6 o'clock.

But, importantly, focus doesn’t mean stasis. Piaget pushed boundaries in 2014 with the 900P, the world’s thinnest mechanical watch, and even was a major player back in the 1970s in developing the famous Beta 21, the first luxury Swiss quartz movement. With the values of the past firmly cemented and a unique perspective in mind, Piaget is free to experiment while staying true to what makes it special.

Something Different

The new Piaget Polo S is the result of such an experiment. While those standards set by the Piaget brothers in the 1950s declared that Piaget would only make watches in precious metals, the Piaget Polo S is the quintessential steel sport watch. It’s something to be worn everyday by a new generation of watch collectors and something with a hint of nostalgia for those already-established connoisseurs.

If the name Piaget Polo sounds familiar, it’s with good reason. In 1979, Piaget created a gold watch with a fully integrated case and bracelet with that name. It quickly became an early-Eighties icon, with its geometric design, pared-back dial, and slightly rakish character. It was such a hit that in 1985, the Piaget polo team paraded down New York City’s Fifth Avenue in a show of celebration. This was far from just a sleeper hit known only to the watch–obsessed.

Made in-house, the 1110P movement.

The Piaget Polo S starts with a round 42mm stainless steel case and a cushion-shaped steel bezel. The bezel is polished around the outer edge, which slopes up to a brushed finish across the top, better setting off the cushion-shaped dial inside. That dial comes in three colors — blue, slate gray, and silvered — and features horizontal ridges that run from edge to edge, allowing the light to play off the colors differently at different angles.

As a sporty, easy-to-wear watch, the Piaget Polo S needed to be simple-to-read at a glance. The three-hand configuration is as basic as things get, with long sword-shaped hands, filled with bright Super-LumiNova, and a slim central seconds hand. Applied indexes, also filled with Super-LumiNova, match the hands, and a discrete date window is tucked down at 6 o’clock so as not to disrupt the balance of the dial.

The steel case is 42mm.

The bracelet feels fully integrated into the case, and the broad central links are brushed, while the slimmer H-shaped outer links are polished. The contrast is reminiscent of the bezel and furthers the all-in-one effect. As you’d expect from Piaget, the Piaget Polo S is slim at just 9.4mm top to bottom.

Inside ticks the 1110P, a new self-winding mechanical movement designed and manufactured in-house by Piaget. Would you have expected anything else? The movement is visible through the watch’s sapphire caseback, letting you admire the finishing and the slate gray oscillating weight that keeps it powered as you go about your day.

Additionally, the brand is offering a two-register chronograph version of the Piaget Polo S. It uses the same 42mm case size (though is a little thicker at 11.2mm) and retains most of the time-only version’s styling. The dial features the same ridges, in either blue or silvered colors, and the harmony between the hands and markers is exactly the same. There are just two oversized registers at 3 and 9 o’clock to measure elapsed minutes and hours, respectively, and the central seconds hand is for the chronograph (instead of the active timekeeping). All of this is powered by the 1160P, another in-house movement and visible through the watch’s sapphire caseback.

Limelight Gala Milanese

The Piaget Polo S is a study in how Piaget can leverage its focus and strengths to create something new. It looks like we might have another classic on our hands already.

Center of Attention

Piaget might be shaking things up, but it certainly hasn’t forgotten how to make a superlative jewelry watch. The Limelight Gala Milanese is a reminder of how Piaget became the king of the Mid-Century jewelry watch to begin with, and how many creative ideas remain unexplored in the category.

At first glance, the Limelight Gala Milanese is a relatively straightforward 32mm round-dialed watch. Look closer. The opaline dial is structured around the slim silver-toned or rose gold-colored Roman numerals and needle-thin hands that match the bracelet and cases, which are made in either rose gold or white gold. 

A white-gold version is also available. 

Around that dial are two rows of diamonds, each curved with one of the swirling asymmetrical lugs that seem to twirl right out of the dial. It’s all very reminiscent of our own Milky Way galaxy, adding a bit of cosmic poetry to the mix. The 62 brilliant-cut diamonds (totaling about 1.75 carats) are graded perfectly, so they seamlessly blend with the lugs’ undulating curves. Finishing things off is an integrated, gold-mesh bracelet with a signature sliding “P” clasp.

Seeing the Piaget Polo S and Limelight Gala Milanese side-by-side, it’s easy to get a sense of what makes Piaget a special manufacture. Whether working in precious rose gold or robust stainless steel, the watches’ cases are shaped to evoke timelessness and everything from gem-setting to movement construction is considered with the same attention and precision. When choosing what to focus on, incredible thoughtfulness is never a bad choice.

Jaeger-LeCoultre: Watching History Unfold

Reverso Tribute Calendar

By Michael Thompson

Get ready to flip for the Reverso once again as Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrates 85 years of its legendary creation.

A view of the back of the Reverso Tribute Calendar.

This year, Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrates the 85th anniversary of the Reverso — the rectangular, dual-sided collection identified most with this famed Le Sentier-based watchmaker. One of the very few watch designs worthy of the overused term “iconic,” the Reverso was the result of a challenge polo players made to the brand’s distributor in India. They wanted a timepiece that could withstand the rigors of their favorite sport — which occasionally includes the whack of a wooden mallet. 

Their pleas were answered in 1931 when designer René-Alfred Chauvot and company chief Jacques-David LeCoultre introduced a watch that allowed the wearer to swivel the case so the solid caseback was on top and the watch’s crystal was tucked safely underneath.

This dual-sided Art Deco design — whose name was inspired by the Latin phrase meaning “I turn around” — did more than simply protect the watch from shock. Soon, Reverso owners began to personalize their timepiece’s caseback, utilizing the unadorned flipside as a palette for self-expression and adornment. Over the years, Jaeger-LeCoultre has emblazoned Reversos with everything from family crests and lacquered paintings to gilded engravings.

The large Reverso Classic

Fitting Tribute

For the anniversary, the brand revisits earlier styles with the Reverso Tribute collection. While it doesn’t mirror every characteristic of the original, it does fully embody its spirit by holding dear the Reverso’s sleek Art Deco case, elongated applied markers (no numerals) and dauphine hands. A clear standout from the collection is the Reverso Tribute Calendar, which is based on the brand’s “duo concept” — a single manual-wind movement driving two independent dials and a day/night indicator.

The Reverso Tribute Calendar adheres to this outline and adds a richly decorated set of calendar functions. The grained dial on the front includes a triple calendar with windows for the day and month and a hand for the date, plus a moon phase indicator. The back shows the time in a second time zone along with a spectacular day-night indication topped with a tiny triangle to enable easy reading. The anthracite-colored guilloché dial is embellished with a clous de Paris hobnail finish.

Reverso Classic Duetto, front and back. 

The final touch here is a technical one that helps retain the watch’s seamless Reverso case design. To adjust the watch’s second time zone, Jaeger-LeCoultre has developed a wholly new method that avoids placing a pusher or small indented button onto the side of the case. Instead, flipping the case reveals a discreet second time zone trigger that’s integrated into the case at 6 o’clock, well out of sight until needed.

Timeless Style

The Reverso Classic — now available in small, medium and large sizes — retains the Art Deco demeanor and Golden Ratio case dimensions of the traditional Reverso, but introduces slightly thinner lugs designed to hug the wrist more comfortably. 

Reverso One Duetto Moon

What’s really exciting is what’s inside. Typically, the Reverso is powered by one of the maison’s stalwart hand-wound movements. Not so for the large-sized Reverso Classic (45.6 x 27.4mm). It has a self-winding movement (Caliber 965), a feature that is particularly enticing for collectors who have been craving an automatically wound edition to this time-only line.

Watches sized for feminine wrists were among the very first wave of Reversos in 1931. With this in mind, Jaeger-LeCoultre offers two marvelous creations destined to beguile modern women. First is the small-sized Reverso Classic Duetto, which comes in either rose gold or steel and can be worn on either a strap or bracelet. Interestingly, these offer a diamond-set bezel on their secondary dial for added flexibility as both a daytime and evening watch.

The second watch for women is the Reverso One Duetto Moon, a model with an elongated case that is the first Reverso ever to break the rule of the Golden Ratio. On the front, it features a distinctively retro silver-toned, sunburst guilloché dial with seemingly hand-written Arabic numerals and dauphine hands. Flipping to the second dial reveals a dreamy, blue paillonné enamel dial composed of overlapping circles and radiant beams. The star-spangled look includes a romantic moon phase with a mother-of-pearl lunar disc.

Master Ultra Thin Perpetual

Making the Rounds

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s recent debuts, however, were not all Reversos. One that garnered a great deal of attention is the black-dialed version of the Master Ultra Thin Perpetual. Not only is it the first steel version of this popular model available through the brand’s authorized dealers, the watch also has an interesting backstory.

Cellini President Leon Adams and Jaeger-LeCoultre U.S. President Philippe Bonay collaborated on the design for a special edition meant to celebrate Cellini’s 40th anniversary in 2017. The creation was so good, however, that it became part of the brand’s collection. 

“A number of us, Leon Adams and I in particular, were very fond of the original Master Perpetual Calendar black dial from the late Nineties,” Bonay recalls. “It is a watch that perfectly synthesized the blend of innovation, complication and value Jaeger-LeCoultre can offer. The idea to create a contemporary version of this model came out of one of the passionate discussions we often have.”

Geophysic Universal Time

The Geophysic Universal Time, which debuted to great acclaim last year, is also a contemporary version of a classic design. The watch is one of two new Geophysic models to feature True Second, a sophisticated mechanism that releases the seconds hand once per second, echoing the precision of historic regulator clocks. As its name suggests, the Geophysic Universal Time enables simultaneous reading of the time in all 24 major time zones via a moving disc that displays all the corresponding cities. A traveler needs only to adjust the local time by moving the hour hand forward or backward, independently of the minutes and seconds.

The dial of this 41.6mm rose gold version depicts all of the Earth’s continents with a sunburst finish. The seas are formed by lacquered shades of blue. From the watch’s clear sapphire caseback, the wearer sees that the movement’s solid gold oscillating weight echoes the Jaeger-LeCoultre logo.

Both of these new round-cased models perfectly complement the Reverso’s flexible, rectangular profile. And in 2016, this storied brand once again offers a range of new designs other brands can only dream about.

Laurent Ferrier: A Force of Nature

Galet Classic Square

By Jonathan Bues

Inspired by vintage automobiles and the relentless power of nature, Laurent Ferrier watches are some of Geneva’s best designed, inside and out.

The tourbillon features a double-hairspring design.

If you ask the tastemakers who select, critique and sell the best new timepieces about what’s new and exciting in the world of watches, you can count on one name coming up over and over again. Laurent Ferrier, a genial Swiss gentleman with a resume that reads like the blueprint for being a renaissance man, has mastered the art of conservative refinement that marks the best timepieces made in the Geneva tradition.

By now, Ferrier’s story is legendary among the watch-collecting cognoscenti: His long and distinguished career was spent rising through the ranks to become the head of creation development at Patek Philippe. In between developing the most collectible and complicated models for that august marque, Ferrier found thrills and success behind the wheel of a racecar. The pinnacle of this automotive avocation came when he and his team placed near the top of the field at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. To this day, the lush contours of mid-twentieth-century Porsches inform Ferrier’s watch-design aesthetic.

Squaring the Circle

Finally, wanting to start his own family business and create watches bearing the Ferrier name, he launched an eponymous company. 

Galet Square

For the first watches, Ferrier found inspiration in nature. The Galet name, so often associated with Laurent Ferrier, means “pebble” in French. He chose pebble because, in designing the case, he hoped to mimic the smooth, natural, and rounded sides of a stone eroded by water and time. Inside his first watch was a tourbillon with two inversed balance springs as refined as any crafted in all of Switzerland.

In the years since that first Galet premiered, Laurent Ferrier has remained busy developing new models based on the pebble concept, most recently a cushion shaped interpretation called the Galet Square. The most complicated of these is the new Galet Classic Square. Ferrier’s choice of a white gold case and white enamel dial typify the discretion and conservatism espoused by the master watchmaker. Ferrier even hides the fact that this masterpiece is a tourbillon from all but the wearer, who must flip the watch over and view it through its sapphire caseback in order to see the escapement. The only dial-side hint that this watch is a tourbillon comes from a faint, transfer-printed line of gray text — so faint, in fact, that it almost blends into the enamel.

Galet Traveller

The cushion-shaped Galet Square also comes in a somewhat less complicated, time-only version, though even this timepiece comes equipped with an escapement worthy of mention. Not only is this in-house automatic caliber outfitted with a pawl-fitted micro-rotor, its silicon escapement — dubbed the Laurent Ferrier Natural Escapement — features a double direct impulse on the balance, following a design first outlined by A.L. Breguet. The effect of the double direct impulse is not just accuracy, but also efficiency. On a single wind, this watch runs for more than 70 hours.

Make Your Move

One of the most compelling complications for modern watch collectors is the dual-time zone. Ferrier expresses this category in the Galet Traveller series, seen here with a three-dimensional “globe” dial in deep-night blue. 

Traveller Boréal

The watch functions via pushers on the case side that advance the travel time (indicated via the hour and minute hands emanating from the central axis). The top pusher advances the hour hand in one-hour increments and the bottom pusher moves it backward. The home time of the wearer displays in a 24-hour format at the 9 o’clock position, thereby ensuring the wearer can read whether it’s day or night at home. When advancing the local time past midnight, the date window naturally reacts appropriately. But what’s most impressive about this watch may just be its three-dimensional enamel dial, the depth of which captivates the wearer while effortlessly communicating the utility of its functions.

Another recent version of the Traveller presented in Geneva earlier this year is the Traveller Boréal, a timepiece that introduces a sporty and useful application of Super-LumiNova for the first time in the company’s history. The Traveller Boréal is careful to conceal its potential for greenish glow behind a tan sector ring matching its vintage-inspired tan strap. If there was ever a Laurent Ferrier weekend watch, this is probably the one.

Galet Secret

Little Secrets

Laurent Ferrier also has a playful side well known to collectors. The watchmaker may produce some of the most classically designed wristwatches available today, but within one model, there is a trick beneath the dial. With the Galet Secret, Laurent Ferrier has created a multi-part dial that reveals a beautiful, handmade piece of art with the push of a button integrated into the crown. Additionally, the watchmaker can also set the watch so the artwork is revealed at a pre-determined time chosen by the owner. This beautiful rendering of a night sky, its clouds illuminated by a full moon, is indeed a secret revealed at the watch owner’s discretion. Only then could anyone guess what lies beneath the beautiful sunray dial.

And yet, an even bigger secret is revealed when the wearer turns the Galet Secret over. Inside is an in-house tourbillon movement. In fact, it is the first of its kind, outfitted with double balance springs, which further enhance and refine the very raison d’etre of the tourbillon, to compensate for the effects of gravity on the watch’s rate.

Galet Micro-Rotor

And finally, there is the Galet Micro Rotor, the flagship within Ferrier’s range. This time-only wristwatch, presented here in rich rose gold, is a kind of platonic ideal — or at least Laurent Ferrier’s ideal — of the wristwatch. Everything from its hour markers and hands to its rounded crown and 39mm case has been designed and executed with a rare degree of care. Upon first wearing this timepiece, one senses an immediate timeless quality, a modern classic with the enduring longevity of excellent design.

With design inspiration coming from enduring places like nature and classic cars, and movements produced to a level unsurpassed by any brand, Laurent Ferrier watches have a lasting quality that remains uncommon even among high-end timepiece designs. It’s clear that these are the kind of rare wristwatches that, once acquired, collectors will never consider selling.

Clerc: Aquatic Treasure

Hydroscaph Central Chronograph Small Second

By James Lamdin

Clerc watches are steeped in family tradition, but not anchored to convention.

The thin central hands count the minutes and seconds.

These days, it seems like every brand worth its salt (water) is offering a dive watch. Even so, none are anything like Clerc.

To say that the Geneva-based company manufactures tool watches is only partly correct. The association is certainly a positive one, and brands that focus exclusively on creating no-frills tools solely designed for technical applications are generally lauded for their quality precision instruments. And yet, Clerc rises above the fray with purpose-built wrist machines for real-life adventurers. But to its credit, the brand shuns traditional design to create watches that are truly unlike anything else.

It can freely be said that Clerc walks its own path. And without fail, that path leads straight to water.

On the Edge

For divers, nothing is more important than knowing their limits. Depth, temperature, visibility and navigation are all of paramount importance, not to mention time. For the modern diver, an array of digital dive computers are available to take the guesswork out of monitoring dive time, but as any seasoned diver will tell you, a mechanical backup is more than just a nostalgic trinket.

Hydroscaph H1 Chronometer Carbon Edition

Clerc knows this lesson well as demonstrated by the Hydroscaph Central Chronograph Small Second, a watch for those who demand a serious mechanical tool for a 

serious sport.

Unlike most diver’s chronographs, however, it features a central chronograph function, in which the sweeping seconds is moved to a smaller, subsidiary register. The two chronograph hands in the center count seconds and totalize the minutes up to a full hour. In short, Clerc makes the diver’s chronograph much easier to read and use underwater in real-life applications.

Fortunately, all of this functionality doesn’t come at the expense of great design. The watch comes in an array of handsome colors and casing materials, including steel with a blue dial or black ADLC with a matching black dial, perfect for unleashing your inner SEAL!

Hydroscaph H1 Vancouver Bay Edition

Both feature Clerc’s signature case design, which is both futuristic and technical while avoiding anything superfluous. Chronograph operation is managed from beautifully sculpted hinged pushers on the right side of the case while a distinctive locking mechanism at 10 o’clock rotates the bezel.

Comfort and Style

Clerc’s commitment to cutting-edge technology has led it to embrace carbon fiber in a special version of its time-only diver, the Hydroscaph H1 Chronometer Carbon Edition. The use of this ultra-light material, in tandem with scratch-resistant DLC-coated steel and blue accents, forms a dashing alliance that is irresistibly handsome.

For the watch enthusiast who has everything, you’d do well to consider the Hydroscaph H1 Vancouver Bay Edition. The particular color combination celebrates Clerc’s partnership with Sub Aviator Systems. Manufacturers of some of the most technologically advanced private submersibles in the world, Sub Aviator Systems products are as cutting edge as Clerc’s, and the partnership is all about pushing towards a future in which mankind can explore deeper and longer, enjoying all that the oceans have to offer.