When Czapek conceived the Antarctique as the quintessentially modern sporty-chic watch, it was always intended as a canvas for creativity, to be constantly revisited and renewed.
“Our collectors are always asking us ‘what’s next?’ with the Antarctique,” explains Czapek CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel. “After the Rattrapante, we decided to take a perhaps unexpected direction: creating a new and sophisticated expression of a two-century-old regulator: the tourbillon. Our starting point was, as always, to play with the clash between legacy and avant-gardism and this new in-house tourbillon calibre is the outcome.
”Taking advantage of the form of the new tourbillon, Czapek has introduced a daring movement architecture with slender bridges revealing the beauty of the underlying mechanics and coupled it with a dial that harnesses classical métiers d’art in a new and contemporary ‘vortex-style’ guilloché design.
To amplify the beauty of the mechanics, Czapek called on Metalem, with whom Czapek has been collaborating since the beginning, to develop a new, trompe l’oeil guilloché design. The result is a dramatic vortex effect, giving the impression of infinite depth.
Czapek has named the new pattern Singularité – from the astronomical term singularity, meaning those places in the universe where the standard laws of physics break down, making space and time infinite and undifferentiated – best exemplified by black holes.
The pattern may look deceptively simple but is very difficult to execute: unlike a classical guilloché pattern, in which the guillocheur cuts lines at different angles that always start from a single point, in Singularité, the starting point moves with each passage of the lathe.
Enhancing the purity of the mechanical structure and the infinity effect of the guilloché, the hour markers are not set on the dial but are part of the flange. The bridges – including the soaring curve of the gear train bridge – are integrated to the main plate through the guilloché dial plate.
Since its very beginning, Czapek has always liked to offer collectors a certain freedom of personalization, so that they can wear a watch that's just like them. That's why, the Antarctique Tourbillon will be offered in a choice of three dial colours: Glacier Blue, Photon Sphere (a 5N gold hue) and the mythical grey Secret Alloy, a limited-edition of 50 pieces. All iterations will be proposed in stainless steel.
The case has been redesigned to echo the curvilinear aesthetic of the mechanism and dial. Taking the curved glass box principle of the Antarctique Rattrapante as the starting point, the front and back sapphire crystals have been subtly raised. On the reverse side, this creates the impression that there is no bezel and, indeed, the engravings that would normally appear on a caseback bezel are done inside the crystal by metallisation – executed in mirror style so as to read ‘true’ from the outside.
The Antarctique Tourbillon will be offered with the same stainless-steel bracelet as other models in the collection, with a micro-adjustment, a quick-change system and a second rubber or leather strap included.
