The new Schwarz Etienne 1902 Petite Seconde

Typically, transferring ahead means going again to recuperate the great issues from the previous. That seems to be the case at Schwarz Etienne, a small, impartial model from La Chaux-de-Fonds that desires to boost its profile and turn into higher recognized on the watch scene. Based in 1902, the model is now within the fingers of CEO Florian Brossard. Eager to take advantage of Schwarz Etienne’s excessive degree of vertical integration, the model’s full potential is about to be unleashed. Offered throughout Geneva Watch Week 2025, the 1902 Petite Seconde assortment marks a brand new chapter within the model’s design language. A mix of outdated and new, the three-hand gown watch in three dial colors reveals a refined sector dial design, and the motion heralds the return of the model’s signature finger bridges.

Brossard has an attention-grabbing background. Educated in micromechanics and motion design, he was concerned in rebuilding the legendary Minerva manufacture, adopted by lengthy stints at Montblanc and Greubel Forsey. As he factors out within the interview, Schwarz Etienne is a diamond within the tough and is usually higher recognized for its non-public label actions than its personal watches. As a part of an impartial watchmaking group owned by entrepreneur Raffaello Radicchi, Schwarz Etienne manufactures its watches and actions in-house and gives actions to third-party manufacturers like Ming.

The 1902 Petite Seconde shares a number of options with the Roma Petite Seconde, a mannequin that has impressed collaboration watches that includes guilloché dials and motion decorations by Kari Voutilainen, in addition to the latest Geometry fashions with fascinating deconstructed guilloché designs by Eric Giroud. The primary representatives of the brand new 1902 assortment have 39mm titanium circumstances with a thickness of 10.9mm and polished and satin-brushed finishes. A recent selection of fabric, the light-weight properties of titanium improve consolation.

Accessible in three colors – silver, slate gray or rose gold – the dials are harking back to old-school sector dials, a format that’s having fun with a revival as of late. Popularised within the Twenties, sector dials, also called scientific or railroad dials, divide the dial into distinct geometric segments to reinforce legibility. Whatever the dial color, the dials of the 1902 fashions play with completely different ranges and share a white peripheral railway-style minutes observe with thicker black markings on the quarters and Arabic numerals at 5-minute intervals. Barely raised, the broader opaline-finished chapter ring hosts the utilized and polished indices, alternating between elongated and rounded arrows at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock with double arrows at midday and rectangular indices.

The indices at 5 and seven o’clock are truncated to accommodate the framed and barely raised small seconds counter with its exterior white railway observe and snailed inside. The grained central space of the dial, additionally barely recessed, produces a round separation between the chapter ring. In tribute to the model’s heritage, the lance-style hour and minute fingers have a sandblasted aspect and a cultured aspect.

A mixture of outdated and new, the 1902 is powered by the model’s in-house ASE300.00 calibre, an evolution of the ASE200 powering the Geometry watches. With a micro-rotor on ball bearings, the barrel can retailer a powerful 86-hour energy reserve. The mainplate is embellished with a up to date sandblasted end, whereas the bridges characteristic concentric and round Côtes de Genève. The finishings are exemplary, with a sunray ornament on the ratchet wheel and hand-polished tooth. Just like the bridges discovered on the ASE 100, the motion options 4 elegant finger bridges, one among them securing the 3Hz steadiness wheel. 

The three fashions are paired with alligator or calfskin straps with a rubber lining and a titanium pin buckle. The retail value is CHF 18,000. Extra data at schwarz-etienne.ch.