A Jules Verne-style setting for a transatlantic traveler’s watch (Laventure)…
LAVENTURE: Pre-iconic inspiration…
Pre-orders for this Transatlantique II GMT from the independent house Laventure (“Made in Switzerland”, which is preferable to the overused Swiss Made) started yesterday. Fans were not mistaken: one of the models is already sold out, the others should soon be sold out (notably the green bezel at just under 4,500 euros). It is difficult to resist the arguments of Clément Gaud, the French creator of Laventure, nourished by reading Jules Verne and saturated with beautiful iconic references: the case has the ideal size according to the canons of fashion (38, 9 mm), the graduated bezel has all the big ones, the oversized crown is reminiscent of other very famous ones and highly valued at auction, the “sandwich” dial (two plates, the one below being stuffed with Super-LumiNova) has held up well its lesson in Italian style, the hands are exactly as they should be, the glass is “superdome” as the times require (it is in plexiglass to make it even more authentic) and the movement is a very honorable Sellita automatic which claims 56 hours of power reserve while being chronometer certified with a “drift” of minus 4 to plus 6 seconds per day. The fourth hand (arrowhead) displays a second time zone, with the twenty-four hour bezel even allowing a third to be read. All waterproof to 200 m. Bravo for the setting inspired by Jules Verne (above), which manages to be nice for wrist adventurers. So many undeniable qualities in the same box, it’s rare…
IKEPOD: Legendary anniversary…
While this disruptive brand, which has become French through its multiple reincarnations, is preparing to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, keep a close eye on its offers between now and the end of the year: there are good deals in the air, like this Dark Chronopod C007 (thirtieth anniversary edition) designed by Emmanuel Gueit, one of the best watch designers of the moment. As Ikepod is becoming one of the watchmaking legends of the 20th and 21st centuries, as there will only be thirty (!) of these Chronopods and it is not even certain that there are still any left [à 790 euros, ce serait étonnant], still go to the site to try your luck. You never know, thanks to a misunderstanding: 44 mm of happiness awaits you. Otherwise, watch out for the anniversary series which we can reveal to you will include, always in ultra-limited series, Megapod, Horopod, Skypod, Duopod, Seapod and even sneakers for unrepentant addicts [à chacun de se familiariser avec ces futurs classiques horlogers du temps présent]…
BA111OD: Lunar aventurine…
Although strictly unpronounceable for the uninitiated, this Ba111od watch (“Baillod”, named after the creator of this young independent Swiss brand) is a stepping stone in the pond of feminine and pretentious “haute watchmaking”. This “Lunaire” watch has everything a great one, except, obviously, the price: admire this very elegant case (36 mm of steel), this bezel set with sixty cultured diamonds, the delicacy of these hands animated by a movement Swiss automatic and this aventurine dial which takes you into the great depths of the starry skies of summer. Say a price, to see? You are wrong to go so high: this “Lunaire” will only charge you around 1,500 euros to adorn the wrist of the lady who deserves it – any other house Swiss Made a slightly posh one will charge you quadruple or tenfold. This is the Ba111od advantage: the great watchmaking spectacle, as it should be, where it should be, but at prices which do not amount to extortion of funds by an organized gang…
ARNOLD & SON: Plant mineralization…
Since ancient times, Baltic amber is one of the symbols of the “globalization” of European trade: Baltic amber jewelry was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, in Egypt, four thousand kilometers from the shores of the Baltic. Both the Celts and the Romans traded in it and there was an “amber route” in medieval Europe. Curiously, watchmakers have only very little integrated this fascinating material – born from the fossilization of coniferous resins, 44 million years ago – and has been used very little by watchmakers. Let us therefore thank the independent house Arnold & Son for having adorned its double tourbillon with double time display in ivory and moiré amber, a masterpiece of watchmaking mechanics of great modernity and allure at the same time as its leader. – a transhistorical work, which will develop a patina over time since each amber dial will evolve over the years depending on the life and biotope of the person wearing the watch. Quite an original advantage of this dual time display: in each of the two time zones, you can set the hours and minutes separately, which is quite practical for the (rare) regions where the official time shifts in portions of fifteen, thirty or forty-five minutes. Significant precision: this Double Tourbillon in white gold, a remarkable example of ultra-contemporary neo-vintage style, will still cost you 240,000 euros. – it calms! In fact, almost all of the Baltic amber found on the market comes from the shores of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad (the former Königsberg of the Teutonics, between Poland and Lithuania): a material as precious as this “Baltic gold” is it not subject to the very ineffective European sanctions against Russia?
CODE41: Slimming diet…
Wisdom is a virtue for traditional watchmaking houses, which acquire it over time, but especially for young brands, who sometimes have to pay dearly to “learn the trade”: driven since its birth, in 2016, by a very buoyant dynamic, the Code41 team had perhaps grown up a little quickly, also having eyes a little bigger than their stomachs, while the market had a tendency to turn around, both in terms of price and aesthetics of the watches. Reacting was necessary and Claudio D’Amore, the creator of the brand, maneuvered well to reduce both the size, the prices and the mechanical expressionism of his watches. Once the team has been slimmed down and readjusted, here is the new Unify, a watch also slimmed down and readjusted: 38 mm quite nicely unisex, with all the visual codes that please – the cut-off case with integrated metal link bracelet, the dial of great “sectorized” sobriety, with a small seconds at nine o’clock, just a date and no other complications, all Swiss Made obviously for 860 euros in the quartz version (which will have a small seconds at nine o’clock: below) and 1,490 euros in automatic version [c’est très sympa d’avoir le choix]. This Unify, symbolic of season 2 of Code41, even offers a little shot of Wokist fever, as useless as it is inappropriate, by adding to these excellent watchmaking arguments a touch of stupidity: once a minute, the small seconds draw – vaguely , not even exactly, the “Peace and Love” symbol, the colored background of this seconds counter taking on the hues of the different skin colors of humanity [une série limitée d’Unify avec un poing sur le cadran a d’ailleurs été lancée l’activiste irano-californienne Sharoz Marakechi, icône bobo qui opère dans le commerce « éthique » du cannabis, avec le même poing fermé sur ses paquets de joints pré-roulés]. With or without “Peace and Love”, the essential remains: a pretty watch, very easy to wear, offered at a very intelligent price and capable of uniting a new community around Code41. It is already a lot…
GOOD TO KNOW: in bulk, in brief and in complete freedom…
•••• STATISTICS : the months go by and the Swiss watch industry is no longer able to get its head above water, after years of “bubble” which pushed its watch exports to new heights. According to official figures from Swiss Customs, the decline is already 2.5% for the first five months of the year compared to last year, with an anticipation of between – 5% and – 10% by the end of the year. end of the year. Very uneven decline depending on the brands, with some limiting the decline to a few points of decline (2 to 3% expected at Rolex), others collapsing below 30%, sometimes to 40% or 50%. [nous ne donnerons pas les noms par charité]. The three largest export markets (the United States, China and Hong Kong, which represent a third of these exports, were negative last month. Obviously, the Swiss watch is no longer what it used to be and it is not maintaining more than a simulacrum of accounting growth by increasing its prices… •••• OCHS UND JUNIOR : it’s the least show off independent Swiss brands, although it is one of the most expressive with its mechanical ultra-minimalism. The whole art of Ludwig Oechslin, its creator, is to give as much as possible in terms of time display, but with a minimum of parts: to display hours, minutes, seconds, date, sun , the phases of the moon and the relative position of the moon in relation to the earth and the sun, it only needs six components (dial included) – where any other mechanical movement requires five or ten times more! Without going into too much detail, we can distinguish two superimposed discs in the center: the upper disc (ring) represents the moon, while the lower disc (round on one side, heart-shaped on the other) represents the sun (it is this heart which allows you to display the phases of the moon with the lunar ring). The center of the watch is the Earth: the sun revolves around it in twenty-four hours (at twelve o’clock, it is noon; at six o’clock, midnight). The moon will orbit the Earth in twenty-nine and a half days. For the date, the circle of “holes” around the center allows it to be specified throughout the month (thirty or thirty-one days). This Luna Sole (40 mm titanium case) also has the excellent minimalist reflex of being priced at only 6,000 euros excluding taxes. That is the demand of the people ?
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