The new Czapek Antarctique Tourbillon (incl. video)

Impartial watchmaker Czapek launched its first luxurious sports activities watch – the Antarctique – with the model’s first in-house motion in 2020. Avoiding the traditional method of angular bezels that populate this style, the Antarctique is a classy, comparatively skinny mannequin obtainable with time (and date) features and a complicated rattrapante chronograph. To mark the tenth anniversary of the model’s revival, Czapek presents a tourbillon pushed by a brand new calibre with a novel and modern hand-guilloché sample on the dial.

The primary design directive was to showcase the tourbillon, gear practice and barrel of the brand new motion on a vertical axis on the dial. The openworked flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock hovers between the mainplate and the dial and is linked to the gear practice within the centre of the dial, which is surmounted by an extended and finely curved openworked bridge. Skimming over the three parts, the luminescent hour and minute palms are connected to the highest of the central bridge. Overlapping the gear practice is the barrel at midday, additionally secured by an openworked bridge. The 2 bridges have hand-bevelled finishes, and the three-armed convex titanium tourbillon cage is satin-polished.

Whereas the calibre 9 was designed, conceived, and constructed by Czapek in-house, it doesn’t mark the model’s transfer in the direction of vertical integration. As at all times, Czapek defends its precept of établissage or outsourcing from specialist companions. Beating at a frequency of 3Hz, the automated tourbillon motion delivers a 72-hour energy reserve.

The dial was entrusted to longtime accomplice Metalem, the Le Locle-based dial maker, which developed the Singularité guilloché design on the dial. Composed of a collection of rhomboids that lower in dimension as they attain the vertically aligned parts within the centre of the dial, the guillochage produces a dramatic plunging vortex impact. The identify Singularité is borrowed from astronomy and describes locations within the universe like black holes, the place the usual legal guidelines of physics break down, making house and time infinite and undifferentiated.

The infinity impact of the hand-guilloché is enhanced by the truth that the hour markers will not be set on the dial however on the flange. Three dial colors – Glacier Blue, Photon Sphere (a rose gold hue) and the legendary gray Secret Alloy – can be found.

The three new Czapek Antarctique Tourbillon fashions are available in 40.5mm chrome steel instances with a thickness of 11.5mm. Like different Antarctiques, the barrel-shaped case has hollowed-out grooves on the flanks and refined crown guards to make sure the 50m water-resistance. The instances are embellished with sporty vertical brushed finishes, polished bevels and central C-shaped hyperlinks on the built-in bracelet.

Nonetheless, the case has been redesigned to mirror the spherical aesthetic and quantity of the tourbillon. To do that, Czapek took inspiration from the Antarctique Rattrapante and included glass field sapphire crystals back and front. Barely raised, the glass field provides rotundity to the method and eliminates the bezel, providing a extra expansive view of the dial, the tourbillon and the motion. The engravings that will usually seem on the caseback bezel are actually inscribed on the crystal, and the openworked gold rotor is convex and embellished by hand with the identical Singularité sample because the dial.

The brand new Czapek Antarctique Tourbillon comes on an built-in metal bracelet with micro-adjustment and a quick-change system, and a complimentary rubber or calfskin strap. All three fashions retail for CHF 63,000 (excl. tax), however the Secret Alloy is a restricted version of fifty items. Extra info at czapek.com.