Czapek & Cie Quai des Bergues N°25ter « Courage Every Second » Only Watch 2017
Swiss luxury watch brand Czapek & Cie has created a unique piece with a very special dial to pay tribute to the children and their families fighting against muscular dystrophy.
The brand has a rich history that dates back to 1832 when a Czech-born Polish watchmaker named François Czapek settled in Geneva and started his own atelier. In 1839 he entered into a partnership with Antoine Norbert de Patek. In 1845, at the end of their partnership, he created Czapek & Cie and achieved considerable success. He became the official watchmaker of Napoleon III and opened what was most likely the first watchmaking boutique on the Place Vendôme in Paris. He wrote a book about watchmaking, one of the first ever written in Polish.
Czapek & Cie has been revived in 2015 with an exceptional collection, whose leading model won the Public Prize in the Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie in Geneva in November 2016. This collection takes its inspiration from a 1850s Czapek timepiece. It features a beautiful enamel dial and is powered by a 7-day proprietary movement, perfectly combining craftsmanship, design, exclusivity and rarity.
The uniqueness of the timepiece dedicated to Only Watch 2017 lies in its enamel ‘Grand Feu’ dial featuring a secret sentence: « Courage every second ». The sentence remains invisible and hence secret until its owner reveals it with a ray of light, for example when the sun is bouncing off the dial at a certain angle.
Technical details
Model: Quai des Bergues N°25ter « Courage every second »
Case
XO Steel: a secret stainless steel alloy unique to Czapek, normally used in the North Sea’s extremely corrosive conditions.
Dimensions: Ø 42.5mm – Thickness 11.8mm
Dial
Immaculate white enamel ‘Grand Feu‘ dial of 36.7mm ø with two welded sub-dials. The large size of the dial reveals a very rare bombé shape created by capillarity, and a ‘secret sentence’ created using a rare enamel making technique. It also boasts a secret signature by Francois Czapek in the small seconds sub-dial.
Movement
The SXH1 is a 3 hertz Czapek proprietary, double- barrel, 7-day, manually wound movement. It is an unusual re-interpretation of the original movement of Czapek model 3430 made in 1850. The movement’s bridges have been finely sandblasted to recall the original frosted nish of the nineteenth century movements. Angles are all nished by hand (bevelling) and ratchets are open as in the original version.
Bracelet
Alligator Mississippiensis « Emperor blue » strap with a stainless steel ardillon buckle
Estimate
CHF 12,000 – 20,000 (EUR 11,000 – 18,300/USD 12,500 – 21,000)
