Oileán H-B1 by John McGonigle
Oileán is an haute-horlogerie brand founded by Independent watchmaker John McGonigle.
John McGonigle was born in Athlone in Ireland. The brand name Oileán (pronounced ill-awn) is Gaelic for ‘Island’. As an Independent watchmaker, John processes several years of experience in developing high complication watches including a number of notable projects for various Swiss luxury watch manufactures. A former member of the prestigious AHCI of Switzerland, he returned to Ireland in 1999 to set up his own watchmaking atelier. He also established the McGonigle watch brand in 2006 in partnership with his brother Stephen.
Oileán Watches is the latest project by John McGonigle. The introductory model from Oileán Watches is the H-B1, a manual wind chronograph with triple calendar and moonphase. The H-B1 is a made in Ireland timepiece with a Swiss heart beating inside. Paying tributes to the cultural history of the Celtic region, this high-complication watch houses a hand-finished movement based on the legendary Valjoux 88 calibre.
The H-B1 model has a 40mm diameter, classic styled case made from Grade 5 Titanium. This distinctive watch case highlights contrasting polished and straight grained finishes on its surface.
The beautifully sculpted and finished titanium case also incorporates a crown at 3H for time-setting and winding, pushers at 2H and 4H for operating chronograph mechanism and two corrector pushers for adjusting the calendar mechanism. The corrector pusher at 10H is used for setting date and month. For setting day and moon-phase, the corrector pusher at 8.30H is used.
The movement driving the Oileán H-B1 model is a heavily modified and hand-finished vintage Valjoux 88 manual winding triple-calendar chronograph movement. The type of chronograph is a twin-pusher, column wheel featuring central seconds and counters for 30 minute and 12 hour.
Topped with a sapphire crystal glass, the Oileán H-B1 watch provides a clear view of its dial indications. This timepiece houses a multi-layer dial featuring a smoked sapphire crystal central insert and outer printed section in black and silver. The smoked sapphire crystal dial hosts hour, minute, chronograph central seconds hands, central date hand, chronograph 30-minute and 12 hour registers, small seconds dial, and two windows for displaying day and month. The black dial ring features steel hour marking indexes embedded with luminescent material. The silver outer ring features dates of the month inscribed in black digits from 1 to 31.
Both the movement and the rotating discs of day and month are visible through the sapphire dial. Hour and minutes are indicated by two rhodium plated steel hands with spear shaped tips inserted with luminescent material. The central date hand is blued and treated with luminescent material on its spear-head shaped pointer.
The blued, extra-long chronograph central seconds hand has luminescent coating on its pointing side and features a spear shaped counter-weight. The 30 minute chronograph counter at 3H, 12 hour chronograph counter at 6H and small seconds dial at 9H feature blued and spear-head shaped hands with luminescent tips. The 12 hour chronograph dial also features a moon-phase display as well as the inscription IRELAND as a tribute to the founder’s country of origin. The radiating color of the luminescent material used in this watch is blue.
The mechanical manual-wound movement that powers the Oileán H-B1 watch beats at 21,600 a/h and provides a power reserve of 40 hours. For finishing each movement, the watchmaker employs techniques like beveling and polishing of component edges, straight graining/flat polishing for steel parts and gold or rhodium plating for main plate and bridges.
The Oileán H-B1 watch is secured with a screwed case-back with transparent sapphire crystal glass that generously offers the fascinating views of the high horology movement. Secured with 4 large screws, the stainless steel ring of the case-back features the engravings OILEÁN and MADE IN IRELAND.
The watch is worn on a black leather strap with titanium pin buckle. Its production will be limited to eight pieces per year.
Technical details
Model: Oileán H-B1
Case
Material: Grade 5 Titanium
Diameter: 40 mm
Height: 14.20 mm
Water resistance: up to 3 bar (30 meters)
Glass: sapphire, convex, double anti-reflective
Caseback: Secured by screws, sapphire glass
Crown: Embossed with logo, two gaskets
Movement
Highly modified, hand-finished vintage Valjoux 88
Manual winding
Power reserve: approximately 40 hours
Balance frequency: 21,600 a/h
All component edges hand bevelled and polished
All steel components straight grained with shellac stone or flat polished on tin with diamond paste
Bridges and mainplate available with gold or rhodium plating
Functions
Hours, minutes, seconds, day, date, month, moonphase, chronograph
Chronograph mechanism
Twin pusher
Column-wheel
Central seconds
30-minute and 12 hour registers on sub-dials
Triple Calendar mechanism
Day and month displayed in windows
Central pointer date indicating on outer sector
Moon phase
Corrector pushers for adjusting the calendar mechanism (tool supplied)
Dial
Smoked sapphire crystal central insert
Outer printed section in black and silver
Day and Moth discs available in white or black
Hands
Hour and Minute hands rhodium plated with luminescent tips
Blued chronograph hands with luminescent tips
Blued central date hand with luminescent tip
Strap
Black leather strap
Clasp: Titanium pin buckle
Edition
Limited production of eight pieces per annum
Warranty
Two years manufacture
Price
€23,500 + Tax
Website: www.oilean.watch
