Collaborations between watch brands and news platforms dedicated to the world of watchmaking are on the rise.

 

Antarctique is one of the Czapek & Cie brand's newer lines. The brand only introduced this collection which intended to showcase the brand’s own take on luxury sports watches in 2020, although the segment came into being in the 1970s.

 

The brand itself was only revived in 2015 and can hardly be said to have a long history, although it has inherited an important legacy from namesake François Czapek, who founded the company Patek, Czapek & Cie with his associate Antoine Norbert de Patek.

 

Nevertheless, the collection managed to delineate its defining features in a very short space of time. It featured three-hand watches with integrated bracelets which were equipped with self-winding micro-rotor movements constructed with a number of skeletonized bridges.

 

Monochrome Montre de Souscription 2 x Czapek Antarctique “Monochrome White” Edition
Monochrome Montre de Souscription 2 x Czapek Antarctique “Monochrome White” Edition

Another of its important features has been textured dials, including the 3D geometric "Stairway to Eternity" pattern seen on the Passage de Drake model and the lamé technique used on the Terre Adélie, where the company's partners at Metalem used the graining technology they invented to scratch vertical lines onto the surface using a comb.

 

And then a model with a surprisingly low-key dial appeared out of the blue in December — the Monochrome Montre de Souscription 2 x Czapek Antarctique “Monochrome White” Edition created in partnership with the online watch magazine Monochrome. The latest watch has been given a wintry snow-white dial, reminiscent of a jagged icy surface.

 

The watch was released as part of the Montre de Souscription project for "subscription" watches, just like the subscription programs used by Breguet and François-Paul Journe to finance the production of watches with down payments in pre-orders. The first of these models for Monochrome was a watch based on the Habring² Chrono-Felix announced in the summer of 2021.

 

The Monochrome Montre de Souscription 2 has been released in a limited-edition series of 33 pieces with a case measuring 40.5 mm in diameter and 10.6 mm in height. When it comes to the case and bracelet, the watchmakers at Czapek & Cie have remained true to the typical characteristics of watches in the Antarctique collection.

 

The case is complemented by an integrated bracelet with brushed "C" links for Czapek, reminiscent of another famous bracelet with an "S" shaped link pattern, fitted on watches made by TAG Heuer for the legendary F1 driver Ayrton Senna. The watch is equipped with the Caliber SXH5, which has its 60-hour power reserve ensured by a single barrel. The architecture of engine powering the watch can be observed through its transparent caseback.