DonCorson
[AHCI]
3358
BaselWorld 2014 - Christophe Claret
BaselWorld 2014 - Christophe Claret
Christophe Claret showed his new models, the Margot, his first complicated watch for women, and the Maestoso a watch inspired by ship's chronometers.
The Margot plays the game of picking a daisies petals, he loves me, he loves me not. Except that in French the game has several possible outcomes, no just yes or no. So we have such possibilities as "just a little", "a lot" and "passionately" or even "à la follie" (crazy about me).
Pressing the button at 2 removes 1 or 2 random petals each time. One is rewarded with the chime of a gong at each press too. On the disk the outcomes change with each press until the final petal is removed and the oracles decision has been made.
On the back the rotor allows another game which coordinates the colors of the semiprecious stones with emotions. Whirl the rotor to see which one ends up aligned with the heart on the bezel and the associated emotion.
As you can see this is associated with a couple of "a girls best friend"s.
The Maestoso is a perfectly serious watch inspired by ship's chronometers. As a ships chronometer it uses a detent escapement and a cylindrical hairspring. Claret has been working on this watch for several years to make a detent escapement that is reliable for every day wear. As we all know (?) with the detent escapement the escape wheel is impulsed in only one direction and not in both as with a Swiss level escapement. This means that it is less disturbed and swings more freely, which enhances the timing ability, but also means that it is not necessarily auto-starting. it is often necessary to give it a little shake to get it started. The escapement has sometimes had spotty performance when used in wristwatches that are subjected to much more shocks and disturbances that a well protected ship's chronometer in its gimbal. Claret is satisfied with his development that this watch will be reliable on the wrist.
The watch shares the constant force mechanism introduced last year. The sapphire bridges on the dial side allow full inspection of the mechanism at work.
The Soprano is not new this year, but is one of my favorite repeaters. The architecture with the dial-side cocks allows puts the timing on the dial side and the repeater action on the back.
BaselWorld 2014 - Christophe Claret
