The brand has introduced a watch without a dial.
The Czapek & Cie line has already featured chronographs. The company unveiled the Faubourg de Cracovie chronograph at Baselworld 2018, which journalists had only heard was being created three years earlier. The brand used its third movement created for its third collection at the time — a manually-wound movement with a week's worth of power reserve.
The chronograph collection has grown significantly since then, yet Czapek & Cie still managed to surprise watch enthusiasts with an unexpected debut at the Geneve Watch Days. The brand which is known for devoting a great deal of attention to how its dials are finished has done away with the dial completely for its new watch.
And this is a distinctly different chronograph from the Faubourg de Cracovie. The new Antarctique Rattrapante is a split-seconds chronograph, where the workings of the movement can be directly observed from the dial side.
The company's CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel claims the idea to create a watch which offers an unobstructed view of the movement had already formed long before the first collection of chronographs appeared. It was back in 2012, when the name Czapek was revived and re-registed.
That was when a close circle of the company's friends were lucky enough to get their hands on a chronograph equipped with the vintage Valjoux 7733 caliber. The watch was released to raise the company's initial funds, which was brought back to life thanks to a equity crowdfunding campaign.
One of the lucky buyers praised the movement for its beauty, sparking de Roquemaurel's idea to make it the star of the show for one of the brand's future chronographs. Almost ten years later, the idea has now been realized in collaboration with Chronode Atelier.
The proprietary SHX6 caliber which uses a chronograph horizontal clutch is enclosed in a stainless steel case measuring 42.5 mm in diameter. The movement is comprised of 292 components and has a 60-hour power reserve.
The minute totaliser and small seconds were shifted to the bottom of the dial in order to maximize the view of the chronograph movement. This choice brings the Quai des Bergues collection to mind, where the small seconds are accompanied by a power reserve indication with weekdays.
Other parts which work together as a pair in the Antarctique Rattrapante are the two column wheels, with one in the upper half of the dial and the other positioned between the lower indications.
The axis joining these two wheels runs through an unconventional tripod bridge in the center. It holds down the patented satellite minute train and split-second mechanism, which will also soon be patented.
It may have an openworked movement, but the Antarctique Rattrapante is still a sports watch. The watch was added to the Antarctique collection for a reason. The chronograph case is complemented by an integrated bracelet with polished central "C" links.
The watch also comes with an additional rubber or leather strap. Its case is water resistant up to 120 m. This is where haute horlogerie meets the style of a sports watch. Only 77 pieces will be released in total. Granted, all of them have already been snapped up by their future owners.