Wei Koh, Author at Revolution Watch

Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’

Wei Koh — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 14:00:08 +0000

Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’

Our second collaboration with rising independent star Atelier Wen is a sparkling riff of our sold-out first drop with the brand. Presenting Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn,’ featuring a radiant champagne sunray guilloche dial and a grade 5 titanium bracelet with individually polished inner links for a stunning, shimmering effect.

Limited Edition

By Wei Koh

Oct 11, 2023

Translated from Mandarin, Càn (粲), means “brightness and splendour, and indeed our second collaboration with Atelier Wen, the independent brand that is tapping on the very best artisanal and watchmaking capabilities of China, is all that.

Similar to our sold-out first collab, Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’ is based on the brand’s wonderful integrated bracelet, sports chic, 100-meter water resistant watch named Perception, now made even more desirable with two key improvements. Our latest version features a matte brushed and high polished grade 5 titanium case and bracelet with polished inner angles on all the links for a shimmering statement. In place of the striking red dial of its predecessor, Càn features a radiant champagne-coloured sunray flinqué guilloché à main dial individually crafted by Master Cheng Yucai.

Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’ is based on the brand's wonderful integrated bracelet watch, Perception

As a refreshingly modern showcase of the very best artisanal and watchmaking capabilities of China, this collaboration is testament to how far Atelier Wen has come since its launch five years ago.

More than Just Perception

For those of you who are not already acquainted, Atelier Wen is brainchild of two talented young men Robin Tallendier and Wilfried Buiron, both self-professed Sinophiles. From the very inception of their brand, their goal is to introduce the global watch-loving community to the artistry latent in Chinese watchmaking, one that has long remained under the radar for the general watch-buying publics. Accordingly, their name Atelier Wen was derived from the French word for “workshop” and the Chinese word for “culture” (文),

Wilfried Buiron and Robin Tallendier (right)

Tallenier and Buiron aimed high with Atelier Wen, but if anyone could achieve these lofty goals, they could. Two of the finest minds of their generation, both recognized from an early age that the future lay in collaborations between East and West and sought out degrees at Peking University. A horological devotee since the age of 14, Tallendier made such an impact while in China that he was appointed an “Execution Expert” by the Chinese government, which gave him unparalleled access to the legendary Mainland watch companies, including the famous Dandong/Peacock company. He was also a private equity hot shot in Paris until he decided to dedicate his life completely to Atelier Wen.

Buiron, meanwhile, was born and raised in Hong Kong and graduated from not one but two of China’s top universities, Peking University (where he befriended Tallendier) and Tsinghua University. With his flawless command of Mandarin, he is something of a television personality in China. He is also the founder of a successful start-up, Zaapi, which builds digital commerce infrastructure for Southeast Asian MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises).

A Chinese Odyssey

In late 2018, Atelier Wen made its first splash in the watch world with a timepiece named Porcelain Odyssey that showcased the exquisite art of Chinese porcelain for its dials.

Atelier Wen Porcelain Odyssey – Hao Purple Edition

Atelier Wen Porcelain Odyssey – Ji

Their next launch was the stunning integrated bracelet sports chic Perception, which made watch lovers sit up and take notice. A work of remarkable maturity, Perception is balanced and ergonomic, beautifully constructed and nuanced, as evident in particular in its guilloché à main dials.

Atelier Wen's Perception, here pictured with different dials

These incredibly exquisite dials are the work of Chinese Master Cheng Yucai. Drawn to the traditional English and Swiss decorative technique of rose engine turning, which uses gear reduction driven by the human hand to transform elaborate large scale patterns into extraordinarily complex engraved dials, but unable to access the largely antique machines needed to perform this mimetic act of transubstantiation, Cheng did the seemingly impossible and designed and built his own, and even patented it. It was a stunning breakthrough and achievement after many years of grueling, solitary effort in his workshop in Xinmi, a rural town in Henan province. His dedication to his craft and skill are extraordinary; no effort is spared to create perfection.

Our first collaboration with Atelier Wen, Xi

For the circular panier design of our first collaboration Xi, for instance, Cheng created 36 separate sections at the edge of the dial, instead of the regular 24. But as these patterns converge at the center, they become so tiny that keeping them distinct is an incredible challenge. Suffice to say that Cheng went through several rounds before he was satisfied with the results.

Our latest limited edition features a radiant handcrafted champagne sunray guilloche dial

The dial of Càn, meanwhilem features a flinqué pattern which is somewhat more classic than the circular panier one used on Xi. However, this apparent simplicity is deceptively complex. Tallenier shares, “As it is arranged according to a ‘tunnel’ symmetry, extreme regularity between each section is needed. If a section is even slightly larger or smaller, then the depth-of-field effect will be compromised, and the dial will end up looking like a blurry assembly of lines.”

To ensure that each of the 24 sections making up the guilloché dial look like deep grooves, Master Cheng also had to work with extremely narrow angles between each of the sections, significantly increasing the rejection rate. But the final results were well worth it.

Presenting Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’

More than mere artistry, Perception represents something unique; it is a truly modern Chinese timepiece. Says Tallendier, “We both lived in Peking and explored as much of China as we were able to. What we see is a vibrant, dynamic and incredibly modern city. So we wanted to make a watch that was similarly modern and that responded to the needs of the contemporary collector yet continued to draw on the city’s impressive traditional roots. This was the impetus for Perception.

“We took inspiration from the shape of ancient pagoda rooftops for the case sides, and from the windows of pagodas for the center links of the bracelet. We were both fascinated about a type of traditional building construction method called Sunmao (榫卯), which doesn’t use nails or cement but uses complex interlocking joinery. Our dial is actually two layers that are 0.5mm and 0.4mm in thickness. The top level is made of the special copper compound and has the guilloché pattern engraved on it. The bottom features the indexes which fit through slots cut into the upper dial. Both levels are locked in place by the chapter ring without using any screws or soldering or glue. We wanted to express what we love about Chinese culture in a more complex way.”

Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’

Our latest limited edition bears the well-loved hallmarks of its predecessor such as the grade 5 titanium integrated bracelet, this time with individually polished inner angles on all the links, a painstakingly intricate process that is incredibly labor-intensive.

Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’ features a grade 5 titanium integrated bracelet, this time with individually polished inner angles on all the links

Tallendier shares that the reason why they decided to push for this improved bracelet is because, after delivering the first batches of regular Perception, a major theme that emerged from collectors’ feedback was that a number of them were curious to see how the bracelet would look like with more polishing.

“We are always keen to find ways to make our watches progress, be it improvements or simply stylistic evolutions. What is more, we are generally not fans of repeating the same concepts over again, so adding a layer of novelty to Càn felt like an avenue to make it more attractive and interesting to our eyes.”

A total of 288 angles needed to be polished by hand on every watch

This was not an easy journey to say the least. Firstly, by the time we had agreed on those changes, the 100 grade 5 titanium bracelets were already pretty much all made, meaning that it was impossible to change the design to implement flatter angles on the links. This also meant that each bracelet would need to be fully dismantled, very carefully, which, of course, took time. Secondly, and most importantly, each of the angles would need to be polished by hand, one by one. There are six angles on central links and 10 on H ones. A bracelet has 18 of each — meaning that a total of 288 angles needed to be polished on every one of them. That is a grand total of 28,800 angles to polish by hand for the series.

Tallendier adds, “We did not have extra bracelets as buffer, which meant there was no room for mistakes when polishing the angles. That made it all a very tense affair. Imagine having to polish close to 30,000 angles and not being allowed even one single mistake. This was so tough that Mr Liang, our supplier asked to stop the project on a few instances. Perhaps our candid idealism of always bringing in more to achieve our grand vision was what kept him in!”

Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’ is powered by the self-winding extra thin Dandong caliber SL1588

Other hallmarks include the quick micro-adjustment system that lets you adjust the bracelet with a mere push of the Atelier Wen logo, as well the self-winding extra thin Dandong caliber SL1588 that keeps the thickness of the watch at just 9.4mm.

Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’ is presented with an additional rubber strap for versatility

As with Xi, there are multiple ways of wearing Càn. It comes with an intuitive quick-change system fitted to the spring bars that gives the customer the option of switching to the accompanying additional rubber strap.

As its name suggests, Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’ shines a brilliant light on the incredible talent and vision behind this upcoming microbrand. The design appeal and the sheer luminous beauty of its handcrafted dial, its strong value proposition for a watch with a grade 5 titanium case and guilloché à main dial and its wonderful ergonomics are a splendid taste of the good things to come.

Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’ is available on RevolutionWatch.com on 18 October 2023, 10pm SGT / 4pm CET / 10am EST. For enquiries, please email shop@revolutionmagazines.com.

Tech Specs

Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception “Càn”

Movement: Self-winding extra thin Dandong caliber SL1588; 41-hour power reserve

Functions: Hours, minutes and seconds

Case: 40mm; grade 5 titanium; water resistant to 100m

Dial: Champagne guilloché with “Sunmao” structure; rhodium plated applied indexes

Strap: Titanium bracelet (upgraded, polished inner angles of centre links) and additional grey rubber strap with folding buckle

Price: USD 3,600, excluding taxes

Availability: Limited to 100 numbered pieces

Limited Edition

By Revolution

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Atelier Wen

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Apr 14, 2023

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FEATURED FROM THE SHOP

TECH SPECS

Movement	Self-winding extra thin Dandong caliber SL1588; 41-hour power reserve
Functions	Hours, minutes and seconds
Case	40mm; grade 5 titanium; water resistant to 100m
Dial	Champagne guilloché with “Sunmao” structure; rhodium plated applied indexes
Strap	Titanium bracelet (upgraded, polished inner angles of centre links) and additional grey rubber strap with folding buckle
Limited Edition	Limited to 100 numbered pieces

The post Atelier Wen x Revolution Perception ‘Càn’ appeared first on Revolution Watch.

TORSTI LAINE × REVOLUTION ‘ONE LOVE’

Wei Koh — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 14:00:03 +0000

TORSTI LAINE × REVOLUTION ‘ONE LOVE’

Independent watchmaker Torsti Laine and Revolution create 12 unique timepieces celebrating the power of horology to unite people.

Limited Edition

By Wei Koh

Sep 29, 2023

Triple Guilloché À Main Dial with Breguet numerals

The moment I held my first Torsti Laine watch, I fell in love with it. In some ways, I feel that the understated and under-the-radar Finnish watchmaker has been creating the type of watches that the collector world loves — vintage-inspired designs with incredible attention to detail, like the works of Kikuchi Nakagawa in Japan and Atelier de Chronométrie in Spain — but with more exuberantly expressed dials and at a far more accessible price point. That is to say, Laine’s watches are wonderful 1940s and ’50s-inspired watches with stunning handmade dials and calibers that hark back to the golden age of watchmaking with their massive slow-beating balance wheels and beautiful movement architecture.

The stunning caseback view of the Torsti Laine x Revolution 'One Love' limited edition collaboration

I decided to make the pilgrimage to his atelier located in the heart of Le Locle, Switzerland, unassumingly situated on the first floor of a nondescript building. Inside, I found a wonderfully refreshing, incredibly authentic one-man show where Laine creates his watches. Sure, there was something of a mad scientist’s laboratory at his workshop, but that spoke of Laine’s inventiveness and self-reliance.

The Rising Star of Torsti Laine

So who exactly is Torsti Laine? After a brief stint writing and even teaching code programming, he became enamored with watches and enrolled in the famed Kelloseppäkoulu watchmaking school where Kari Voutilainen, too, had received his education. Amusingly, Laine began to supplement his formal education by deciding to build his own clock, which he accomplished in three years.

Torsti Laine

In 2014, he entered a competition held by A. Lange & Söhne. Fascinated by how the moon appears in different positions around the globe, he submitted an innovative design. It was of a watch with a single pusher that could be used to correct the moonphase so that it was accurate in any position on earth. The project also featured an indicator of the earth’s position as viewed from the moon. This design won him a 10,000-euro prize which he used to purchase his first tools. Following his success at the competition, Laine relocated to Le Locle to live in the epicenter of watchmaking and has operated his own brand since 2016.

Torsti’s initial work focused on chronographs using movements like the Valjoux 22, 23 and 72, and he even made one stunning sector dial pièce unique featuring a vintage Longines 13ZN movement.

Today, Torsti focuses less on chronographs and more on his time-only watches which are offered in two sizes: a 38mm version powered by a Vaucher micro-rotor movement and a 40.5mm version with a manual wind, largely proprietary movement based on a Unitas gear train. These are known respectively as the V38 and the GG3. Incidentally, GG stands for “Gelidus,” a frosted finish reminiscent of the snow in Laine’s native Finland, and “Guilloché,” the engraved decorative pattern he has become famous for.

Laine's V38 with guilloche salmon dial

In character, Laine is a stoic man of few words, though he possesses an intense intellect with an amusingly dry sense of humor. If you haven’t heard of him, then congratulations because you’ve just discovered an individual that I consider to be one of independent watchmaking’s very last best-kept secrets — partly because of his humility, as Laine doesn’t like talking about himself, and partly because his watches aren’t the type that shout at you, but man are they beautiful!

After wandering his watchmaking lair, I gathered my courage and proposed a collaborative series of watches with Laine, who looked back at me and basically said nothing for almost a minute. I started to panic. Had I offended his pure watchmaking sensibilities by proposing a commercial project? Then I realized he was reflecting on the nature of our project.

Two-Tone Meteorite and Frosted Dial with Eastern Arabic numerals

Laine looked down at the stunning GG3 watch in his hand and said, “I like the fact that Revolution is present in three major parts of the watch collecting world, the United States/Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Maybe we could make a watch that expresses the unity and solidarity that is created by our love for watchmaking.”

The Torsti Laine GG3

I would come to learn that the thing with Laine is, he is almost the Finnish version of a Buddhist monk, meaning that he doesn’t say a lot but when he does, his words are redolent with meaning.

One of the things I’ve always loved best about horology is that it transcends, age, race, religion, gender and nationality. I’ve always thought of watches as the great unifier. I replied to Laine, “How about if we were to create four watches — all united by the same color dial and micro-engraved movement, but each with a unique dial featuring a decorative pattern showcasing your mastery in guilloché à main? Then we will make these same four watches with Breguet (Western Arabic) numerals, Chinese numerals and Eastern Arabic numerals to pay tribute to the three languages that we at Revolution create our content in? Meaning that we will have a total of 12 pièce unique timepieces that are meant to be symbols of unity and solidarity, watches that remind collectors of the international appeal of horology and its capacity to bring people together. In fact, I have the perfect name for our timepiece — the Torsti Laine “One Love,” based on your 40.5mm in diameter GG3 platform.”

The 12 stunning variations of the Torsti Laine x Revolution 'One Love' limited edition

Why the 40.5mm watch? I get it that prevailing tastes have shifted to smaller sizes. But hear me out. It all has to do with the movement. The V38 is a spectacular watch from a size perspective, but the movement is a relatively straightforward execution of the Vaucher micro-rotor movement used by several brands, including Parmigiani Fleurier for the fantastic Tonda PF and even the aforementioned Nakagawa for his Murakumo. With the V38 watch, the customization is limited to the micro-rotor which Laine reworks to fantastic effect.

Laine's V38 with a straightforward execution of the Vaucher micro-rotor movement featuring his beautifully customised micro rotor

However, the GG3 is a different story. I remember being impressed with Torsti’s GG3 watch already for its sublime and purposeful take on classic ’40s-style chronometers, but turning the case over seriously took my breath away — that’s how beautiful the movement is.

While Laine might start with a relatively pedestrian Unitas 6498 ébauche, to say that he works some serious transubstantiation worthy of King Midas would be something of an understatement. Also, let’s take note that many of the world’s best independent watchmakers use relatively ubiquitous ébauches as the base of their movements. Kari Voutilainen, Ludovic Ballouard, Felix Baumgartner and Michiel Holthinrichs have all depended on the Peseux 7001. And both Richard Habring and Stefan Kudoke rely on the Valjoux 7750. Why? Because these are, first of all, available to them, and secondly, they are tried, tested and highly reliable. The Unitas 6498 is what is called in industry parlance a “workhorse,” meaning that, in the words of the old Energizer Bunny commercials, it “keeps going and going and going….”

Says Laine, “When it comes to a vintage-style chronometer, the Unitas offers all the characteristics that you would expect from the movement architecture. It features a large oversized balance wheel that vibrates at the classical speed of 18,000 vibrations per hour, like the old chronometers of the ’40s and ’50s, a single large barrel with an extremely stable performance, and a three-quarter-plate construction.”

But looking at a standard Unitas ébauche versus Laine’s GG3 movement is like looking at Eliza Doolittle before and after she meets Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady. Or Gigi and Bella Hadid before and after they decided to become supermodels. The point is, starting with the Unitas movement as his base allows Laine to create beautiful watches at an accessible price point.

Torsti Laine: Master of Decorative Techniques

What do I mean by beautiful? OK, hold on to your seats and let’s go through the particulars of Laine’s LA18.1 movement.

To begin with, the entire architecture of the movement is different. Instead of a straightforward three quarter plate, Laine has created a magnificent, sensually curved baseplate which snakes around the ratchet and barrel wheels with the litheness of a belly dancer, and features razor-sharp spear points that are hand beveled and polished to perfection just to showcase his extraordinary ability at finishing. This plate is made by Laine with his own miniature computer numerical control (CNC) machine. Then a custom finish is applied, combining frosting and the best miniature engraving in relief that I’ve seen, using Laine’s very own laser-engraving machine in a room in his atelier, next to where he applies the rose gold galvanic treatment to the plate himself.

Laine GG3 platform featuring Torsti Laine's exquisite signature micro-engraving

For those of you who may have an opportunity to visit Torsti in the house where he works and lives in the center of Le Locle, I urge you to do so. In an era where many are jumping on the independent watchmaking bandwagon, Laine is seriously a wonderfully refreshing one-man show, with an incredible MacGyver-like atelier, which is a testament to his self-reliance, inventiveness, authenticity and autodidactic creativity. When I look at his incredibly efficient yet largely jerry-rigged laser-engraving machine, after carefully placing safety goggles on my face, I couldn’t help but ask how in the hell he’d invented his own laser engraver. He looked at me with a totally straight face and replied, “I read some books.” Classic!

Laine's beautifully engraved GG3 movement for this limited edition collaboration

OK, but I digress from the beautiful construction and hand finishing of his movements. Take a look at how all the parts of the baseplate’s complex engraving at the highest level are mirror polished by hand. Look at the beauty of the beveling around the entire plate that, as I’ve explained, forms one of the most complex shapes I’ve come across. Look at the stunning snailing on both his ratchet and barrel wheels. The contrast in reflection between light and dark on these wheels is truly magnificent.

Note the tiny peace symbol and a dove of peace on the top left, tucked into a roof-shaped section of the baseplate beside the barrel and ratchet wheels

Look at every one of its countersinks holding either a screw or a ruby, they too are polished to stunning effect. Look at the head of each screw and the way it reflects light, or more correctly, doesn’t reflect light at all because it is black polished, the pinnacle of polishing. This technique is also known as “spéculaire” in French, which means polishing a steel part to such perfection that it only reflects light in one direction, producing a “black” effect when the light strikes the surface at a right angle. But not content with this, Torsti also black polishes the click for the barrel as well as the two screw heads that you see underneath the balance wheel.

My favorite part of Laine’s movement, however, are the two bridges — the bridge that retains the escapement wheel and the complementary bridge that retains the balance. There exists a tradition for beautifully finished steel bridges in independent watchmaking. Christian Klings made some very beautiful ones on my friend Mark Cho’s pièce unique, while the Grönefeld Brothers and Petermann Bédat have also used them to ravishing effect. But you don’t normally find this element in an accessibly priced watch like Laine’s. I also love the beautiful and elegant shape of these bridges which feature slim Constantin Brâncuși-like elements. Being positioned close to the rubies retaining the balance staff and escape wheel staff, the bridges feature pointed wing-like shoulders, which to me makes them look like birds in flight.

A Paean for Peace

When it came time to design the relief engraving, Laine and I decided to push his laser-engraving machine to the outer edges of its capability. He explained to me, “Since our watch is about unity and respecting different cultures, why don’t we try engraving the word ‘Peace’ in as many languages as we can fit on the baseplate?”

Triple Guilloché À Main Dial with Chinese numerals

After a lengthy design process arranging each of these words to the best aesthetic effect, we managed to fit “Peace” in 70 different languages on the movement’s baseplate. It was only when I saw the final effect that I realized it reminded me a little bit of the secret engraving used on the Greubel Forsey Invention Piece watches, though I suppose that association can only be a positive one. As a surprise, Laine also added a tiny peace symbol and a dove of peace tucked into a roof shaped section of the baseplate beside the barrel and ratchet wheels.

Laine’s GG3 movement, here featuring the word ‘Peace’ in as many languages as we can fit on the baseplate — 70 in total

What was truly impressive was that once this spectacle of micro-engraving was completed and we were satisfied with the sharpness and clarity of each word under magnification with a watchmaker’s loupe, Laine set about the process of linear graining each “Peace” so that it stood out in fantastic shimmering contrast to the baseplate’s frosted finish. The end result is something that to me resonates with positivity and unity.

Each watch is housed in a steel 40.5mm case

Each Torsti Laine × Revolution “Chronometer One Love” watch has the same steel 40.5mm × 11.3mm case, and features a domed sapphire crystal as well as a lug width of 20mm. All four executions of the dials will be rendered in Torsti’s absolutely stunning shade of purple. Why purple? Because it represents strength, power, positivity and love. It is also the color of transformation. The four different watches offered are as follows:

One Love with Double Guilloché À Main Dial

Chronometer One Love with Double Guilloché À Main Dial: Both the outer and center sections are decorated with Flamme guilloché. The seconds section is decorated with Clous de Paris guilloché. Priced at CHF 11,000 each, excluding taxes

One Love with Triple Guilloché À Main Dial

Chronometer One Love with Triple Guilloché À Main Dial: The outer section is decorated with horizontal Panier (a basketweave pattern) guilloché. The center section is decorated with Flamme (a twisting sunray pattern) guilloché. The seconds section is decorated with Clous de Paris guilloché. Priced at CHF 11,000 each, excluding taxes

One Love with Two-Tone Meteorite and Frosted Dial

Chronometer One Love with Two-Tone Meteorite and Frosted Dial: The outer section has a frosted finish. Both the center and seconds sections are in meteorite, rhodium plated for color. Priced at CHF 11,800 each, excluding taxes

One Love with Guilloche and Frosted Dial

Chronometer One Love with Double Guilloche and Frosted Dial: The center section is decorated with panier guilloché and paired with Chinese numerals, flamme guilloche paired Eastern Arabic numerals or grain de ritz guilloche paired with Breguet numerals; the outer section has a frosted finish. Priced at CHF 11,800 each, excluding taxes

The first three dial executions are available with white rhodium Breguet, Chinese or Eastern Arabic numerals. Together with the three one-of-a-kind guilloche-and-frosted dial execution, our One Love project comprises a series of 12 pièce unique timepieces.

The Torsti Laine × Revolution “One Love” is available to the public for purchase on RevolutionWatch.com on 04 October 2023, 10pm SGT/ 4pm CET/ 10am EST. For enquiries, email shop@revolutionmagazines.com

Tech Specs

Movement: Manual winding caliber LA18.1, based on Unitas 6498-1; 46-hour power reserve

Functions: Hours, minutes and small seconds

Case: 40.5mm; stainless steel; water resistant to 30m

Dial: Four executions in 12 examples featuring variously triple and double guilloché (Panier, Flamme, Clous de Paris), meteorite center with frosted outer, and guilloche center with frosted outer

Strap: Leather with stainless steel pin buckle

Price: CHF 11,000 / CHF 11,800 excluding taxes

Availability: 12 unique pieces

Reference

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Sold Out

Laine

Laine x Revolution Purple Dial Frosted with Guilloché Center "One Love" (Hindu)

$13,200.00

TECH SPECS

Movement	Manual winding caliber LA18.1, based on Unitas 6498-1; 46-hour power reserve
Functions	Hours, minutes and small seconds
Case	40.5mm; stainless steel; water resistant to 30m
Dial	Four executions in 12 examples featuring variously triple and double guilloché (Panier, Flamme, Clous de Paris), meteorite center with frosted outer, and guilloche center with frosted outer
Strap	Leather with stainless steel pin buckle
Limited Edition	12 unique pieces

The post TORSTI LAINE × REVOLUTION ‘ONE LOVE’ appeared first on Revolution Watch.

Unimatic × Revolution U1 Milsub ‘Blue’

Wei Koh — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 14:02:36 +0000

Unimatic × Revolution U1 Milsub ‘Blue’

For their second limited edition collaboration, rising Italian watch brand Unimatic and Revolution present an all-blue U1 dive watch featuring a distressed Cerakote coating and a modern twist on the iconic MilSub design.

News

By Wei Koh

Aug 31, 2023

Our first collaboration with Italian brand Unimatic resulted in the all-white Unimatic U1 GMT “Arctic Fox,” a tribute to the winter camouflage adopted by both the animal which changes the color of its fur to pure white during winter, and the “snow camo” smocks worn by soldiers such as legendary Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä. Armed with nothing more than his rifle and his all-white stormtrooper-like livery, Häyhä famously dispatched 500 Russian soldiers in 100 days, earning himself the evocative sobriquet, “The White Death.”

Revolution's first collaboration with the brand — the Unimatic × Revolution & The Rake Modello Uno GMT ‘Arctic Fox’

But when it came time for our second collaboration, Unimatic co-founders Giovanni Moro and Simone Nunziato wanted to focus on blue, a color that reminds them of the oceans which occupy more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, and the history of exploration and conservation of this priceless resource. At the same time, they wanted to pay tribute to a hue that has fascinated some of their favorite artists, including Yves Klein, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.

Unimatic × Revolution U1 Milsub ‘Blue’

A New Spin on the Diver

Says Moro, “When it comes to sports watches, there is nothing more iconic than the dive watch. Born in the early ’50s, the design of the dive watch is unmistakable. There are, first of all, the markers on the dial which are a combination of luminous circles with rectangles at 3, 6 and 9, and the famous inverted triangle at 12 o’clock. This was created to provide the ultimate visibility underwater so there would be no mistaking one index from another. At Unimatic, we have always oriented the rectangle at six o’clock horizontally as a design leitmotif.”

The Unimatic × Revolution U1 Milsub ‘Blue’ marks the second collaboration between Unimatic and Revolution

Nunziato adds, “Then there are the luminous sword hands of the watch. These are read off the watch’s unidirectional rotating bezel, which has a luminous pearl at its start point. For our watch, we wanted to demarcate each individual minute mark on the bezel, which is a bit of a tribute to the Rolex 5517 MilSubs [military issued Submariners] that were created for the British Ministry of Defense. We liked how this provided enhanced legibility and functionality to the bezel.

“Today, everyone has a dive computer that tells you when to resurface after a dive, but in the pioneering era of scuba, the rotating bezel was the instrument that was used to tell elapsed time and indicate when the dive was over.”

A Bolt of Blue

Moro reveals, “For our latest collaboration, we applied an all-blue colorway to the U1 dive watch, in the same way that we used the all-white theme for our last collaboration with Revolution. We like the idea of monochrome watches and blue is an important color for us.”

The Unimatic × Revolution U1 Milsub ‘Blue’ is all-blue twist on the iconic diver

Nunziato explains, “This is for two reasons. First, during a period of increased urgency for conservation, the idea of an all-blue dive watch is a nice reminder of our need to respect our oceans. In Italy, we love the sea and so much of our life and our culture from the Amalfi Coast to Capri to Taormina are inextricably linked with the water. At the same time, blue has been one of the most powerfully symbolic colors in the contemporary art that Giovanni and I both love.”

Giovanni Moro (left) and Simone Nunziato, co-founders of Unimatic

Giovanni Moro is unabashed in sharing about his passion for the hue. “Unimatic is a brand born from two designers. In school, we were deeply influenced by the seismic shifts towards modernism in the 20th century. From the Bauhaus in Germany to the modernism of Umberto Boccioni to the Italian Futurists, art in the 20th century — especially the explosion toward abstraction and the contemporary energy it brought — was so powerful. In art pieces such as Van Gogh’s Starry Night, the paintings from Picasso’s Blue Period, and the works of Wassily Kandinsky, Yves Klein and Chagall, blue was the color of change. So we wanted to apply this color in the most dynamic way possible on our U1 dive watch in collaboration with you.”

Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night (Image: Wikipedia)

Yves Klein, Anthropometry of the Blue Period (ANT 82), 1960 (Image: artsy.net)

Diving into New Worlds

To paraphrase the American Romantic poet Walt Whitman, Unimatic’s watches are large, they contain multitudes — which is to say the timepieces, from the Modello Uno dive watch to the Modello Tre chronograph, are so powerfully essential that they can be expressed through a multiplicity of collaborations, with each successive project injecting new energy into the brand while reinforcing the timelessness of these designs.

Says Moro, who co-founded Unimatic in 2015 with Nunziato, “One of the things that fascinated Simone Nunziato and me from the very beginning was this idea of design that is purposeful in an essential way. Because when you create something that has this sense of necessity, almost as if it has to exist, it tends to endure. It then also lends itself well to a process that we call ‘hybridization,’ which means collaborations with select others from another universe who are able to impart their own sense of identity to our watches, while expanding the universe we have created.”

Unimatic's collaboration with Japanese designer Mihara Yasuhiro resulted in the all-navy U1-MY

Nunziato elaborates, “A great example of this hybridization would be our collaborations with the Japanese designer Mihara Yasuhiro. In particular, with our all-navy U1-MY, we started with the iconography of the U1 dive watch, then we applied a blue Cerakote coating to the steel case. Then we intentionally distressed the case to create a worn effect. This was complemented with a navy dial, a navy aluminum bezel and cream colored, ‘old radium’ Super-LumiNova markers and hands. But for our collaboration with Revolution, we wanted to create something altogether more complex and modern in feel.”

The Unimatic × Revolution U1 Milsub ‘Blue’ features a distressed Cerakote coating

After significant discussion about the case color, Moro, Nunziato and I agreed upon Pantone 7462C, a stunning Cerulean blue which is almost a vibrant royal blue but with just a touch of stonewashed denim undertones, so that it would pair perfectly with jeans. Moro laughs, “You are by far the only collaborator we’ve had that thought about what he wanted to wear in terms of clothes with this watch and decided on the case color based on this.” However, those who know me will already be familiar with my penchant for all things denim, and how I love that denim has become elevated to a tailoring fabric by designers such as Ralph Lauren and Brunello Cucinelli. Moro concurs, “It’s true that in Italy on the weekends, everyone wears a nice jacket but with a denim shirt or jeans.”

Unimatic × Revolution U1 Milsub ‘Blue’

Says Nunziato, “We also love that Cerulean blue symbolizes peace and confidence. For that reason, it was used by the United Nations for the color of its logo.”

Lighting up the Dark

On the luminosity of the watch, Nunziato shares, “One touch we love is how we used white lume for all the markers and navy lume hands to give the watch a really modern feel in combination with the all-blue colorway. But in the dark, you realize everything white glows an electric blue. So we added an additional surprise hue of blue.”

As with most of our limited edition collaborations, the Unimatic × Revolution U1 Milsub ‘Blue’ features a distinctive luminous signature

To me, the luminous signature of any Revolution or Grail Watch limited edition is extremely important, as it has become one of our calling cards. In the Unimatic × Revolution U1 MilSub “Blue,” the luminous material has been added to just the white surrounds of the markers, while the white hands have been painted with navy Super-LumiNova. However, Unimatic has color matched these elements so that they both glow a shade of electric blue. Says Moro, “Toying with perception and subverting expectations is something we love doing and, we know, so does Revolution. The result is a watch that features so many wonderful hidden details.”

With its modern good looks, this all-blue diver wears well both in and out of the water

The 316 steel Cerakote watch measures 41.5mm in diameter including the bezel, with a lug width of 22mm. It features a screw-down crown and 300 meters of water resistance. It is made in Italy, save for its Swiss-made Sellita SW200-1b automatic movement with a 4Hz vibrational speed, 41 hours of power reserve and the hacking seconds function vital for a dive watch. It comes with two straps: a handsome navy nylon strap and a badass vintage navy NATO strap with fabric keepers.

The Unimatic x Revolution U1 Milsub ‘Blue is made in a limited and numbered edition of 200 pieces, priced at EUR 1,100, excluding taxes. It is available now. For enquiries, email shop@revolutionmagazines.com

ORDER NOW

Tech Specs

Unimatic × Revolution U1 Milsub “Blue”

Reference: U1S-REV
Movement: Self-winding caliber SW200-1b; 41-hour power reserve
Functions: Hours, minutes and seconds
Case: 41.5mm; 316 steel with Cerulean blue stonewashed Cerakote coating, matte vintage navy aluminum bezel insert; water resistant to 300m
Dial: Matte vintage navy; hour markers outlined in Super-LumiNova
Strap: Vintage navy TPU-coated nylon; additional vintage navy nylon with fabric keepers
Price: EUR 1,100, excluding taxes
Availability: Numbered and limited edition of 200 pieces

Videos

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FROM THE SHOP

Unimatic

Unimatic x Revolution U1 Milsub "Blue"

$1,220.00

TECH SPECS

Movement	Self-winding caliber SW200-1b; 41-hour power reserve
Functions	Hours, minutes and seconds
Case	41.5mm; 316 steel with Cerulean blue stonewashed Cerakote coating, matte vintage navy aluminium bezel insert; water resistant to 300m
Dial	Matte vintage navy; hour markers outlined in Super-LumiNova
Strap	Vintage navy TPU-coated nylon; additional vintage navy nylon with fabric keepers
Limited Edition	Limited Edition of 200 pieces

The post Unimatic × Revolution U1 Milsub ‘Blue’ appeared first on Revolution Watch.

Grail Watch 10: Ludovic Ballouard et Fils Upside Down “Series Gaga”

Wei Koh — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 14:00:30 +0000

Grail Watch 10: Ludovic Ballouard et Fils Upside Down “Series Gaga”

Ballouard’s first creation for Grail Watch, incorporating artwork by his young son, is a symbol of all the love and blessings he has received in his life. Available now on GrailWatch.com

Limited Edition

By Wei Koh

Aug 21, 2023

You might think the term “gaga” here, which in French is slang for “crazy,” refers to the way colors are scrawled in a wild, seemingly abandoned way on the markers of this platinum case, aventurine dial Ballouard Upside Down watch. But you would be mistaken. “Gaga” in this context is short for Gabriel, Ballouard’s son, who designed the watch you are looking at. The meaning behind this first partnership between the independent watchmaking journeyman and his son goes much deeper than that.

Ludovic Ballouard et Fils Upside Down "Series Gaga"

Looking at the dial, you might be charmed by the lovely aventurine, and then intrigued by the seemingly primal and vivid application of prime colors on the hour marker disks and the small seconds indicator. You might ask, is this some kind of Cy Twombly, Jean-Michel Basquiat-like artistic scrawl? But this watch is something more than a visually appealing act of design.

Ludovic Ballouard et Fils Upside Down "Series Gaga"

The hand coloring on the dial was created by his son Gabriel when he was three years old and represents what Ballouard hopes is the first of many collaborations between father and son. But it is the story of Gabriel’s birth and how it inspired the creation of this timepiece that I find so poignant and that provides an understanding to Ballouard’s attitude to life. Indeed, the story of this watch and the story of Gabriel are so inextricably intertwined that I feel compelled to tell his story even before delving into the details of the timepiece. If this seems an unconventional way to launch a watch, please bear with me. I think you will find this story worth reading.

Gabriel hard at work, coloring in an outline of his father’s dial

To Love Again

If you’ve watched the 2022 film Making Time, executive produced by Ian Skellern and Hind Seddiqi, you’ll know that the first half of Ballouard’s life, while at times carefree, was largely overshadowed by the worst tragedy that can befall a human being. That was the loss of his wife Eveline to cancer. Though Ludovic and Eveline battled courageously and relentlessly against the onslaught of the disease, eventually, Ballouard’s wife succumbed.

He recalls, “One of the last things my wife Eveline said to me before she passed, was that she wished that I would meet someone else and that I would have a child with her. At the time, I didn’t believe her. I would have never thought it possible.” And so after her passing, Ballouard resigned himself to be, in the words of Thomas Wolfe, “God’s Lonely Man.”

He threw himself fully into his new brand. But after the day was done, after he cleared his bench, washed his hands and turned off the lights, his world was touched by a pervasive sense of melancholy. To pass the time, he would go to Parc Bertrand in Champel, a neighborhood in Geneva city. The metronomic regularity of his almost daily visits to the park offered distraction, if not solace. Then, one day, Ludovic met Flavia.

Grail Watch 10: Ludovic Ballouard et Fils Upside Down 'Series Gaga' with Chinese characters

She recalls, “I had just moved to Geneva and was working for a Mediterranean shipping firm. I had a group of colleagues and friends and, after work, we would often go to Parc Bertrand. One day, I met Ludovic who was acquainted with someone in the group. I found him fascinating from the first moment, someone so easy to talk to.”

Says Ludovic, “In my mind, I had convinced myself that I would never meet anyone again, and so I just wasn’t receptive to that. But somehow with Flavia, our conversation was so natural. We soon became friends.”

A Gift from the Universe

Flavia shares how their relationship began. “We were always together, we would go to the cinema or to meals and kept each other company. Then, one day, he mentioned that he was going to visit an art gallery with someone, a woman. I was surprised to realize that I felt very jealous. And it was then that I understood I was in love with Ludo. Soon afterward, I told him. He looked at me and said, ‘OK, then you need to come with me to Brittany [France] to meet my family.’”

She laughs and adds, “He said that considering that we were not young anymore, we shouldn’t waste our time. We went back to his home in December. I remember waking up on January 1, and thinking to myself, ‘This is it. This will be my life. Then, by the end of the month, everything changed again! I found out I was pregnant. I told Ludo and he was so overjoyed.”

Ballouard, Flavia and baby Gabriel

Ludo recalls with a laugh, “I couldn’t believe it. It was wonderful.” Says Flavia, “At first, I was cautious. I was older and I knew that there could be complications. Also, I had so many friends that had so much trouble getting pregnant, it just didn’t seem likely. So I didn’t tell anyone at first. I needed to see an obstetrician- gynecologist. But because I had moved to Switzerland from the United States, I didn’t have a doctor. A friend recommended one. But I was a bit frustrated. It was the end of January and the first appointment we could get was on March 13.

“It was at this moment that a series of coincidences started to appear. Says Ballouard, “When she told me this date, I stopped in my tracks. I said to her, ‘But this is the exact date that Eveline passed away.’”

Ludovic Ballouard and Gabriel

Flavia elaborates, “We got the name of the doctor. We entered the name of the clinic into the GPS of our car and we started driving. When we turned onto the road, Ludovic stopped the car. He said, ‘This is the street where I used to bring my wife for her chemotherapy.’ Then we continued to the clinic. Ludovic couldn’t believe it — as we climbed up the stairs, we realized that the oncologist who had treated his wife had his clinic just across the hall facing the clinic of our obstetrician-gynecologist. The coincidence was too much to believe. We walked into the clinic shaking.”

Flavia’s doubts regarding her age were dispelled when the doctor reported that her pregnancy was 100-percent healthy, and their baby boy was absolutely normal in every way. She recalls, “We walked out of the clinic and looked at each other. I told Ludovic that the Universe was giving us an incredible gift — that was our child, Gabriel.”

Ludovic Ballouard Family Portrait

Says Ballouard, “Sometimes, people might say that Gabriel came to us later in life. It’s true we are a bit older as parents. But, to us, he came at the perfect time. For me, I was really questioning why I was working so hard to establish my brand if, in the end, my name and the work and sacrifice I committed to its creation dies when I do. But when Gabriel was born, it all suddenly made sense.

“I cannot tell you how much it made sense. He and Flavia made my life complete. My life is so beautiful. It is hard for me to even describe it … I think that I am proof that everyone goes through hardship. Everyone suffers. But if you make yourself receptive to the beauty this world has to offer, then the Universe will reward you, as it did with Flavia and myself with Gabriel.”

Ludovic Ballouard et Fils Upside Down "Series Gaga"

A First Collaboration Between Father and Son

After hearing this story, I remember feeling somewhat overwhelmed with emotion. I was staring at the glass of wine in my hand as the late afternoon sunlight streamed into their living room like in a Terrence Malick movie. On Ludovic’s lap was their one-eyed, three-pawed dog named Tosca, who seemed to be contentedly listening along with me. Before I knew it, I said, “Flavia and Ludovic, would you consider asking Gabriel to design the dial of our watch?”

Both of them paused for a moment and looked at each other. Then Ballouard said with a grin, “Why not? If we like the design, it would be nice to put Ballouard et fils [and son] on the dial.”

The dial proudly bears the phrase, “et Fils”, a nod to the father and son collaboration

A week later, I opened my phone to a message from Ludovic. It was an image of an outline of his dial, which had been colored in by Gabriel. Instinctively, Gabriel had used the colors to create a stunning visual effect. It was child-like, yes, of course. Yet somehow it was expressive of the same wonderful freedom of naïve expression that painters often search for in their adulthood. Ballouard had already taken the liberty to transpose the etching and crayon marks using contact printing onto an aventurine dial. The result was, to my mind, spectacular.

Ballouard The Watchmaker

Now let’s talk about Ludovic Ballouard, the watchmaker. From a young age, he was fascinated by mechanical devices, disassembling and, often unsuccessfully — he recalls humorously — reassembling household objects. Recognizing his aptitude, his parents sent him to watchmaking school. But when he graduated, he wasn’t ready to leave his idyllic family home in Brittany.

With no work there to be found in watchmaking, he transformed himself into a specialist in aviation instruments. Model airplanes have always been a passion for him, and the transition was not difficult. Close to a decade later, he realized that if he wanted to pursue his horological dreams, it was now or never.

Ludovic Ballouard Upside Down Heures en Rose featuring pink marquetry and mother-of‑pearl

He first landed at Franck Muller. Ballouard recalls, “I like the style of watches. My first job was in the aftersales department. To test me, they gave me eight chronograph movements to overhaul. At first, I struggled to remember everything I learned in school, and it took two days for the first movement. But then I finished the next seven in a very short time as the memories came back quickly.”

He stayed three years and is rumored to have had a major role in the creation of the “Crazy Hours.” He saw Franck Muller grow from a star in independent watchmaking to a juggernaut industrial powerhouse, and decided to look for a smaller, more personal company. He found himself at François-Paul Journe’s atelier in rue de la Synagogue, Geneva.

Upside Down Lapis Lazuli

Ballouard states, “I loved François-Paul’s philosophy that a single watchmaker should oversee every aspect of a watch from its function to its finishing and, on top of that, be responsible for that watch in perpetuity. This means when that watch comes back, it goes to the person that made it. This sense of ownership over a creation is wonderful.”

Journe soon spotted Ballouard’s talent and handpicked him to be the only person, besides himself, to work on his most complicated watch, the Sonnerie Souveraine, his revolutionary grande et petite sonnerie.

Says Ballouard, “François-Paul gave me an incredible gift, the gift of friendships with some of the most incredible collectors in the world. It was only me or François-Paul who were allowed to present the Sonnerie Souveraine, so I ended up traveling the world and meeting these wonderful people who had ordered the watch. You could tell it was so meaningful for them to meet the person who made their watch from beginning to end.”

Upside Down Meteorite

During these meetings, collectors would frequently take Ballouard out to dinner and ask him about the watch he would make if given the opportunity. He explains, “I wanted to create a watch that reminds us to treasure the time we are in. The Zen Buddhists believe our lives are often out of balance, because we spend too much time reliving the past or worrying about the future, rather than existing in the present.”

With that in mind, Ballouard dreamed of a watch where the rest of the numbers were inverted and therefore meaningless, with only the current hour marker turned the right side up. He says with a smile, “That was the beginning of Upside Down.”

Ludovic Ballouard Upside Down

Look at the back of the Upside Down watch and the stunning movement, and you’ll see one of the most original conceptions in high watchmaking.

The charming Ballouard caliber B01

The complications uses 12 individual hour markers fixed to mobile disks and attached to Maltese crosses. A snail attached to a minute wheel is in contact with a large finger similar to that used to read the time in a minute repeater. Once an hour, the finger drops off the top of the snail and releases a large driving ring to rotate 30 degrees. The ring is otherwise blocked from moving until this moment. This ring, in turn, is programed to turn the Maltese crosses in sequences. The micro-mechanical dance of this unique mechanism is wonderfully charming and utterly without comparison, which is also a way to describe its creator.

On the dial side, each time a Maltese cross turns 180 degrees, a new hour flips right side up while the previous one goes back upside down. Visually, you can identify which hour is right side up, thanks to a dot on the hour disk, which is otherwise hidden under the watch’s rehaut when upside down.

Up close with one of the most original complications in high watch making

Ballouard released the Upside Down watch in 2010 and has stayed faithful to the watch’s original design iconography, playing with different dial materials. Most notably, there was the launch of an Osmium model last year. From a perspective of size, at 41mm in diameter and 11mm in height, it is very well balanced and wears a touch smaller than these figures would suggest, thanks to nicely curved lugs. The new “Series Gaga” represents the most radical deviation thus far over the 13 years of the model’s existence, and for a very compelling reason, as it represents the first partnership between Gabriel (now four going on five) and Ludovic.

When I asked Flavia if she had any lasting message to the watch community about our project, she says smiling at her husband and her son, “Only that life is truly beautiful and that we are blessed. I hope everyone finds the same happiness.”

Ballouard adds, “We’d like to think that this watch, this Ludovic Ballouard et Fils Upside Down ‘Series Gaga’ is a symbol of our happiness and our gratitude for what we’ve been given. I think it is the most beautiful watch I’ve ever made because it is my first collaboration with our son, who is a gift from the Universe to Flavia and to me.”

The dial proudly bears the phrase, “et Fils”, a nod to the father and son collaboration

His statement brings to mind a passage from one of my favorite books, titled Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield, about the 300 Spartans that marched to Thermopylae to defend Greece against the Persian Army of two million soldiers. Throughout the book, which details the martial prowess of the Spartan army, you understand all men feel fear. But the question it continuously asks is instead, “what is the opposite of fear?” Is it courage, loyalty, strength? The question is finally answered by Dienekes who says, “The opposite of fear is love.”

At 41mm in diameter and 11mm in height, it is very well balanced with nicely curved lugs

I believe that Ballouard’s life is a testament to this, and that his watch made with his son Gabriel, whom he considers a gift from the Universe, is a symbol of the power of love to resurrect, to heal and to set all things right.

Due to Ludovic Ballouard’s extremely small annual production of less than 20 watches, Grail Watch 10: Ludovic Ballouard et Fils Upside Down “Series Gaga” is available as a souscription-only limited edition.

It is priced at CHF 108,000, excluding taxes; 50 percent of the total price will be taken as deposit upon order and watches will be delivered over the course of a year. It is available for order on GrailWatch.com. For enquiries, email shop@grailwatch.com

Tech Specs

Grail Watch 10: Ludovic Ballouard et Fils Upside Down “Series Gaga”

Movement: Manual winding caliber B01; 40-hour power reserve
Functions: Jumping hours, minutes CASE 41mm; platinum; water resistant to 30m
Dial: Aventurine; Breguet, Chinese or Eastern Arabic numerals on jumping hour disks
Strap: Handstitched alligator leather; platinum B-shaped pin buckle
Price: CHF 108,000, excluding taxes
Availability: Limited edition of twelve pieces (four with Breguet numerals; four with Chinese characters; four with Eastern Arabic numerals)

Independent Watchmaking

By Cheryl Chia

Ludovic Ballouard Upside Down Explained

Jul 14, 2023

FEATURED FROM ARTICLE

Sold Out

Angelus

ANGELUS x REVOLUTION CHRONODATE "ANGELS' SHARE"

$23,800.00

TECH SPECS

Movement	Self-winding caliber A-500; 60 hours power reserve
Functions	Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph and date
Case	42.5mm; titanium; water resistant to 30m
Dial	Salmon (6N gold plated) with gené or frosted area; Super-LumiNova filled Arabic numerals
Strap	Ballistic gray rubber; titanium folding clasp

The post Grail Watch 10: Ludovic Ballouard et Fils Upside Down “Series Gaga” appeared first on Revolution Watch.

How My De Bethune DB28 Pièce Unique Went to Michael Rubin’s White Party

Wei Koh — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 10:28:41 +0000

How My De Bethune DB28 Pièce Unique Went to Michael Rubin’s White Party

The unique DB28 with white minute track that I commissioned more than 10 years ago was one of the first watches to feature De Bethune’s stunning blue aesthetic. Here’s how it ended up in the Hamptons.

Opinion

By Wei Koh

Aug 16, 2023

Yes, I am old. And like the semi-desiccated Corvina grape found in one of my favorite Italian wines, Amarone, time has only made me more intense in flavor. I am a salty and contentious mother**ker well on my way to becoming a curmudgeonly old fart. But I’ve learned to take it easier, and to treasure the moments of tranquility in life. Because at every given moment, especially when trying to keep up with my stunning Lululemon ambassador and fitness high priestess girlfriend, I feel my knees are about to explode. One thing I’ve realized is that once you hit the mid-century mark, as I did a full four years ago, there are few things that you find as edifying as a strong cup of coffee followed by the smooth enactment of one’s morning ebullitions. While I have not yet achieved my “Coming to America” dream of having professional “wipers” that prestidigitate out of thin air when I clap, let’s just say this is a special moment of personal reflection for me.

During these moments of meditative introspection, I like to watch YouTube Shorts. My discovery feed invariably draws from a variety of subjects such as women’s high diving, Harley-Davidson stunt riding, dachshunds attacking lions and, of course, watches. It was during one such moment a few weeks ago that YouTube fed me a video of a young man named Chad Alexander who specializes in what YouTube calls verticals, where he projects images of celebrities wearing watches and narrates around them. I landed on his story detailing all the watches worn by the various ballers, shot callers and elite underwear models who attended Michael Rubin’s White Party in the Hamptons. I paused to view the story because the cover image featured two of my favorite contemporary timepieces, Audemars Piguet’s blue ceramic Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, one of which I’m lucky enough to own, and Richard Mille’s ultra thin chronograph, the RM 72-01. Incidentally, I recently discovered something pretty amazing about Richard Mille’s chronograph. When I remarked to François-Paul Journe that the caliber CRMC’s design used the barrel to drive the minute and hour counters, and thus reminded me of Journe’s Centigraphe, the great man winked at me and said, “That’s because I helped design it.” That to me only makes this oscillating pinion chronograph even more extraordinary. Talk about incredible watchmaking pedigree. Nothing beats having a movement that Journe was involved in.

DJ Khaled (left) wearing an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked In Black Ceramic; Michael Rubin (middle); Corey Gamble (second from right) wears the Patek Philippe Grand Complications in rose gold. Photo: @michaelrubin Instagram

But I digress. Back to Chad Alexander’s White Party video. I watched with amusement as he chronicled the watches worn by Jay-Z, his Patek reference 2499 with integrated bracelet sourced for him by retired watch dealer Tony Kavak, Kevin Hart’s vintage Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, DJ Khaled’s black ceramic Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, and Travis Scott’s Richard Mille RM 69 Erotic Tourbillon.

Jay-Z with Beyoncé. He wears a vintage yellow gold Patek Philippe Reference 2499. Photo: @michaelrubin Instagram

James Corden with Kevin Hart, who sports an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in yellow gold. Photo: @michaelrubin Instagram

Travis Scott reportedly wears the Richard Mille RM 69 Tourbillon Erotic. Photo: @michaelrubin Instagram

But the last person featured was NBA star Kyle Kuzma of the Washington Wizards. To my surprise, on his wrist was a very special De Bethune DB28 Pièce Unique watch which I knew very intimately, because for more than 10 years, it was my watch. And as I saw it on Kyle Kuzma’s wrist decked out with an all-new, all-white strap which not only fit the theme of the party, but also perfectly complemented the special white minute track of the watch, a vast range of emotions ran through me.

From left: Winnie Harlow, Kylie Rubin, Michael Rubin, Kyle Kuzma. Kuzma wears Wei's pre-owned De Bethune DB28 Piecè Unique

De Bethune DB28: All the Best Innovations in One Watch

My love affair with De Bethune stretches all the way back to 2004, two years after the brand was launched by Denis Flageollet and David Zanetta. I remember Mike Tay, the owner of Singapore retailer The Hour Glass, organizing a trip to his favorite independent watchmakers. And our last stop was in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, where we met the individuals behind the brand. Immediately, I was smitten with De Bethune’s unique design philosophy and horological language. The aesthetics of the watch were like nothing I had ever seen, like 18th-century watchmaking married to science fiction, with a brilliant integration of ergonomic details such as crowns at 12 o’clock where they couldn’t hurt your wrist, and (later) spring-loaded flexible lugs that made the watches wearable by a wide variety of wrists. For years, De Bethune would fly decidedly under the radar, one of those best-kept secrets, a community symbol for ultra watch nerds that loved discussing Flageollet’s relentless advancement of horological innovation, best represented by the 10 different balance wheels he’s created over the years.

De Bethune started to gain momentum around 2011 with the launch of its sublime DB28. Says the brand’s CEO Pierre Jacques, “The DB28 was kind of the greatest hits list of everything that was De Bethune.” And he was right. It was almost all of the brand’s signature inventions in one watch — the front facing movement with the mirror polished Delta-shaped bridge, the in-house balance wheel and hairspring, the three-dimensional moonphase indicator, the triple shock absorption system, the crown at 12, the mirror polished titanium, and the flexible lugs. It was no wonder that this absolute watchmaking masterpiece won the top prize, the Aiguille d’Or, at the 2011 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG).

After a decade-long love affair and scrupulous saving of my shekels, shortly after the launch of the DB28, I commissioned my own watch. Around this time, Denis Flageollet had been experimenting with flame bluing titanium. He explains, “I started this initially to harden and protect the arms of our titanium balance, but then I found that I really loved the color and started to apply this thermal bluing to other parts of the watch.” I encouraged Flageollet to use my timepiece as a test platform for the maximum amount of flame blued parts. Says Flageollet in my video interview with him, which you can watch at our Revolution Watch YouTube channel, “Yes, that’s true, yours was the first piece.” This would eventually lead him to create the Kind of Blue series of fully flame blued watches and I’m lucky enough to own one of the very first tourbillons made with this treatment.

OK, I know what you’re about to ask. With all this love for De Bethune, why did I eventually end up selling my DB28 Pièce Unique? The answer to that is simple. It was in order to buy another De Bethune, a Pièce Unique DB25 40mm Perpetual Calendar with a blue titanium case. How did this happen? Well, at the beginning of this year, I was lucky enough to collaborate with De Bethune on a tiny limited series of the DB25 40mm Perpetual Calendar with the sobriquet “Rhapsody in Blue.” In fact, the idea of putting the perpetual calendar mechanism inside this smaller case size was born during a Clubhouse chat on De Bethune, which I had organized during the COVID pandemic when we were all stuck in our respective houses. My friend, renowned collector and GPHG Jury member Ahmed “Shary” Rahman suggested the idea during the virtual get-together and, to my amazement, Pierre Jacques replied that he would discuss it with Denis. A few days later, he replied, “We can do it as long as you don’t mind if we do our own version of this watch.”

Needless to say, I was blown away with gratitude. Even cooler was that De Bethune’s commercial director Jörg Hysek Junior messaged me to tell me that Denis had also approved an all-blue unique execution of this for my personal watch. This was amazing, but the reality was that I simply didn’t have the requisite amount for the new watch lying around. I eventually spoke to both Pierre Jacques and Jörg Hysek Jr. to see if they would mind if I were to sell my DB28 to fund my DB25. Jacques checked with Flageollet, then replied, “Yes, it’s fine, everyone knows you’ve owned this watch for more than 10 years and it meant a lot to you.”

I also checked in with Danny Govberg, the co-founder of WatchBox, which purchased De Bethune. He replied, “I get why you want to trade in for the new watch because the DB25 is, to me, more wearable at 40mm. Not only do I feel it’s okay, we [at WatchBox] will help you out.” And incredibly, they took in my DB28 and helped me afford the new DB25. Of course, I was incredibly grateful to them, and especially to Govberg and Mike Manjos, WatchBox’s chief sales officer, for helping me.

Wei's Pièce Unique DB25 40mm Perpetual Calendar with a blue titanium case

Naturally, I was completely overwhelmed with my new DB25, but I would occasionally think of my DB28 and wonder what happened to it. That was, of course, until I landed on the video about Kyle Kuzma wearing it to Michael Rubin’s White Party. This piqued my curiosity about Kuzma and his watch tastes. Fortunately, there was another video on Chad Alexander’s page chronicling Kuzma’s watches. From what I could see, his collection featured an end-of-series Tiffany Blue Patek Nautilus 5711, an end-of-series olive dial 5711 with diamond bezel, a Journe Élégante, a frosted white gold AP Royal Oak Chronograph, and a Patek skeleton Calatrava. It seems like he has a genuine passion for watches and the De Bethune represents his first foray into more hardcore independent watch fare.

De Bethune made watches cool again

What is cool is that De Bethune has clearly shifted from being the insider’s hardcore watch nerd brand to becoming something more mainstream. Much of this has to do with the merits of the watches themselves, which — let’s admit it — are stunning to behold. But at the same time, it is representative of the tireless efforts of the De Bethune team to connect their brand to the contemporary world by collaborating with artists like Swizz Beatz as well as WatchBox’s capacity to galvanize some of the most passionate high visibility celebrities around the brand. This March, at WatchBox’s stunning apartment concept lounge in West Hollywood, in an intimate event hosted by CEO Justin Reis, De Bethune launched its new DBD Digitale “Season 2.” Apart from the insane guest list, the single most memorable image of the evening was of Alicia Keys rocking two De Bethune watches, including one that became hers when it was purchased for her by Swizz Beatz that evening.

Why do I feel that the gain in public awareness for independent brands like De Bethune is so important? It’s because the watch industry is about to face another major challenge, and the brands that will come through it will be those that have created something truly authentic and singular, and those that have made the effort to ensure the significant growth in public awareness of their brands, like De Bethune and WatchBox have done. So, for that reason, it doesn’t bother me that my ex De Bethune DB28 Pièce Unique went to Michael Rubin’s White Party without me. In fact, I’m proud that it did and congratulate the people that made it happen.

Reference

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FEATURED FROM ARTICLE

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Angelus

ANGELUS x REVOLUTION CHRONODATE "ANGELS' SHARE"

$23,800.00

TECH SPECS

Movement	Self-winding caliber A-500; 60 hours power reserve
Functions	Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph and date
Case	42.5mm; titanium; water resistant to 30m
Dial	Salmon (6N gold plated) with gené or frosted area; Super-LumiNova filled Arabic numerals
Strap	Ballistic gray rubber; titanium folding clasp

The post How My De Bethune DB28 Pièce Unique Went to Michael Rubin’s White Party appeared first on Revolution Watch.

Introducing Nomos × Revolution Tangente neomatik 41 Update ‘Resilience’

Wei Koh — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 14:00:40 +0000

Introducing Nomos × Revolution Tangente neomatik 41 Update ‘Resilience’

NOMOS Glashütte and Revolution present the Nomos Tangente neomatik 41 Update ‘Resilience’ that is an ode to humanity’s ability to transcend the odds.

Limited Edition

By Wei Koh

Aug 11, 2023

Of all human qualities, the one I admire the most is resilience — that is, the ability to withstand, adapt and grow in the face of adversity or trauma. In the history of the modern world, very few cities are as synonymous with resilience as Berlin, the creative home of German watch brand Nomos Glashütte. While today we consider Berlin one of the global epicenters for art and culture, with the world’s greatest nightclubs and an innovative epicurean scene embodied by chef Tim Raue’s eponymous two Michelin starred restaurant, it wasn’t so long ago that the capital city of Germany was in the international spotlight for a very different reason: Between 1945 and 1990, Berlin was a hotspot in the superpower rivalry known as the Cold War.

Today Berlin is one of the global epicenters of art and culture, by elxeneize

Caught in the ideological conflict, the city was divided into East and West Berlin; the former was run by the Sovietbacked Communist government of East Germany, while the latter was deemed a territory of West Germany. The 96-milelong Berlin Wall, built in the 1960s by East Germany, was the most notorious symbol of the conflict between the Eastern/ Communist bloc and the Western/Capitalist bloc. The Wall divided families and friends and separated Germans from their jobs, leading to anguish and generational trauma. Yet, somehow encoded in the DNA of every Berliner, was the determination to fight back against this oppression. Nothing could crush the spirit of Berlin and its people. They withstood. They adapted. They grew.

A SYMBOL FOR RESILIENCE

One day, sitting on the terrace of Berlin’s Soho House with Martina Etti of NOMOS Glashütte and my friend Amo Völker, the conversation found its way to the subject of Berlin, Glashütte and resilience. At this point, Nomos and Revolution had been discussing the idea of a collaborative watch for some time, but we just couldn’t find the right idea. Then, Amo paused for a second before stating, “Actually I have an idea.”

Model-photographer Amo Voekler wearing the limited edition Nomos x Revolution Tangente neomatik 41 Update 'Resilience'

Now before we get to the watch, let me describe my friend Amo. She’s a model who has graced Revolution’s cover and appeared in multiple photo spreads in The Rake magazine. She’s also an art director and a great photographer. We met during a job she did for The Rake when she was shooting Savile Row’s next generation of rockstar female tailors, and we became friends. I soon recognized in her the quality of resilience that I find so admirable in others.

As an example, after a prolonged bout of COVID, she decided she wanted to be of help to her city. So, she enrolled in paramedic training and, after a grueling year of training while battling her own long COVID symptoms, became an officially licensed paramedic. During the years of the pandemic, she would ride in the back of ambulances and administer aid to those injured or in need. I used to joke with her that people being resuscitated by her might be in danger of thinking that they had passed away and ascended to Valhalla. What is impressive is that two years after the pandemic, she remains firmly committed to the cause, dedicating a part of her week to working as a paramedic in Berlin.

Amo explained, “I’ve been doing some research and discovered that the symbol for resilience in nature is the helix. Helix patterns form when pressure, adversity or trauma is experienced by an entity in nature. When a root finds a barrier, it forms a helix around it. It twists around and conquers its former foe and transforms itself into a symbol for stability. Nautiluses and seashells also form this pattern when they experience pressure of any kind.”

The Fibonacci sequence is subtly integrated into the minute track of the Nomos × Revolution Tangente neomatik 41 Update “Resilience”

Martina Etti immediately replied, “I love this idea. The story of resilience is very important to the town of Glashütte and to our brand Nomos.”

THE STORY OF NOMOS GLASHÜTTE

For those of you who don’t know the story, “Nomos” which means “law” in ancient Greek, was founded in early 1990, just a few months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Brand founder Roland Schwertner, a professional photographer with no experience as a watchmaker, was remarkably prescient in understanding the incredible savoir faire that existed in Glashütte. He wanted to revive the watchmaking know-how that had been almost buried when the watchmaking factories in Glashütte were taken over and nationalized by the Communist government of East Germany.

Roland Schwertner, founder of NOMOS Glashütte

There is the well-known story of Walter Lange, his father and uncles rebuilding the A. Lange & Söhne factory, which had been bombed in one of the last air raids of World War II in Europe (the Glashütte watchmaking companies were likely targets of air raids because they had been used to manufacture war equipment under the Nazi regime). However, in 1948, the Lange family were informed that their business would be nationalized as a so-called “People’s Own Enterprise” or “Volkseigener Betrieb” (VEB). The Lange company was absorbed into Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB), and its role henceforth would be to produce reliable watches for countries in the Eastern bloc as well as for export to other countries. Walter Lange was given the option to work for them or be sent to a uranium mine; he chose instead to leave his hometown and escape to Pforzheim.

Yet one silver lining amidst all the Cold War restrictions was that the Quartz Crisis never affected East Germany, which continued through the GUB to produce millions of reliable mechanical watches.

Nomos Ludwig

From the beginning when he founded Nomos, Schwertner’s mission was clear. He wanted to tap into the strengths of precision watchmaking in Glashütte to create accessibly priced, great value, reliable and very handsome Bauhaus inflected timepieces that showcased German manufacturing and design. His first watches launched in 1992 were the round-cased Orion, Ludwig and Tangente, as well as the square-cased Tetra.

The square-cased Nomos Tetra

All the watches were refreshingly bold and minimalist in design. The round watches measured 35mm in diameter, while the square-cased Tetra measured 29.5mm × 29.5mm. From the beginning, quality was of paramount importance. Movements were sourced from ETA and Peseux, but Nomos modified, improved on and refined the ETA raw movements or ébauches with stop seconds, the traditional Glashütte click and other Glashütte features, such as a three-quarter plate, sunburst on the ratchet and crown wheels, and tempered blue screws. In addition, a separate mainspring was used, and the movement was given a Triovis fine adjustment; even then, it was finely regulated in six positions.

In this way, a more functional, more precise and finely decorated NOMOS Glashütte caliber was created from a reliable Swiss ébauche, which bore the designation Nomos 1 TSP until 2005.

Nomos Orion

Early success gave way to an investment made by a German retailer which Schwertner used to create his own in-house movements. Says Martina, “From the beginning, it was his [Schwertner’s] objective to create watches with the greatest integrity, and for him that meant in-house calibers that showcased the skill embedded in the town of Glashütte.”

Nomos Tangente

Incredibly, in 2003, Schwertner bought the shares back from the retailer and re-established the brand as a fully independent entity. While he does not talk about it, I imagine that this period must have been a challenge for him on multiple fronts. The transition for Nomos that he initiated, from a new brand to a full-fledged manufacture, and then purchasing back the shares so that Nomos became not only an independent brand again, but also a successful one equipped with its own in-house movements, were an apt demonstration of remarkable resilience as well as a brilliant example of tactical leadership.

The brand's first in-house caliber, the manual wind Nomos Alpha

By 2005, Nomos unveiled its first in-house caliber, the manual wind Nomos Alpha, and shortly afterwards, its first automatic movement, the Epsilon. As more than 50 percent of each Nomos watch was now created in Glashütte, it officially joined the ranks of the town manufactures. In 2013, Nomos created a new line of movements named Deutsche Uhrenwerke Nomos Glashütte. And by 2014, incredibly, Nomos began the production of its own escapement called the Nomos swing system.

The NOMOS Glashütte Swing system

In 2015, Nomos introduced the DUW 3001, an incredible 3.2mm-thin automatic movement. This movement which features a full traversing balance bridge is 94.2 percent efficient, meaning that just 5.8 percent of its energy is lost to the sliding friction of the escapement.

Nomos’ original DUW 3001 caliber

What is remarkable about Nomos’ growth is that it has largely eschewed traditional advertising, relying instead on partnerships, word of mouth and community building through various platforms such as its own website and online store, which, before the accelerated growth of e-commerce brought on by the pandemic, was unusual for a luxury brand.

Throughout it all, Schwertner has remained an understated, indeed mysteriously elusive figure, giving hardly any interviews and preferring to let his timepieces speak for him.

NOMOS Glashütte Headquarter

What you need to understand is that today Nomos is an absolute juggernaut. It is the largest manufacture in terms of number of timepieces made in Glashütte by a large margin. Its manufactory is home to 300 employees and consists of several buildings, with the administration and sales departments located in the headquarters at the former train station building of Glashütte village. The brand’s satellite creative office, named Berlinerblau, is two hours away by car in Berlin.

NOMOS Glashütte Chronometrie

In 2018, Nomos created a watch that definitely spoke to me. It was the Tangente neomatik 41 Update featuring the caliber DUW 6101. This is an evolution of the original DUW 3001. The movement in this watch has a unique complication — a double patented date mechanism with ring display and quick adjustment in both directions with significantly shortened locking time. To me, the resulting watch represents Nomos’ Bauhaus inspired design code at its creative best.

Nomos Tangente neomatik 41 Update featuring the caliber DUW 6101

The dial of the watch features the Tangente signature iconography that dates back to 1992 and that is deeply rooted in Walter Gropius’ philosophy of “form follows function.” But at the perimeter of the dial is a full date track abbreviated by small rectangular apertures in between each marker. The correct date is marked by colored indicators on either side that will jump instantaneously at midnight. Nomos was able to integrate this complication by adding just a mere 0.4mm to its in-house movement — an impressive engineering feat.

The caliber DUW 6101 powering the Tangente Neomatik 41 Update

The resulting watch is extremely handsome and, while at 40.5mm today, it can be considered large in light of the current trend for smaller timepieces, I would point out that the majority of François-Paul Journe watches are also around this size for one simple reason: legibility. To make the Tangente neomatik Update in a way that would compromise the legibility of the date indication, in the eyes of a brand with a slavish devotion to function, just wouldn’t fly.