Swiss luxury watch brand AK Genève presents LAB-ONE, a unique laboratory wristwatch meant to experiment a new generation of in-house manufacture caliber and a new interaction between the watch lovers and their watch calibers.
After the presentation of the Chronoscaphe project in July 2020, AK Genève continues the development of this highly technical and challenging timepiece. AK Genève teamed up with a renowned master watchmaker of La Vallee-de-Joux to create a ground-breaking innovative Hybrid mechanical watch calibre.
To experiment this new design of the mechanism and its new features, AK Genève presents produce LAB-ONE, an experimental watch produced in limited quantities and only once.
The case of the watch is immediately recognisable, a small piece of titanium, carefully hand finished and having a shuttle shape. It measures about 39mm on the 6 to 12 axis and around 42 mm in the 3 to 9 axis. The maximum height is around 10mm while on the 9h side it is about 6mm.
Light in weight yet rock-solid, this elegant timepiece is offered with a Nomex™ strap band and a titanium buckle. An optional Titanium bracelet will be available to those who prefer metallic bracelets.
AK HYB-001, the hybrid movement that drives this timepiece, blends the traditional fine watchmaking craftsmanship with electronics and distant tethering, to give the maximum of information and a control of the mechanical settings to the wearer. The calibre is made of titanium and is hand finished. The oscillator is a balance wheel set at 4Hz (28’800 Alt/h). The chronometric power reserve is 48h. It has 3 hands: Hours, Minutes, and Seconds.
The electronics system is designed around a simple, ultra-low power SOC (System on Chip), with an embedded Bluetooth 5.2 communication unit. The battery is charged via radio frequency power. This means no cables and no charging cradle.
If the charging antenna is connected to a power source, and within a radius of 40cm the battery is fully charged in 3 to 5 hours. The battery last up to 15 days. The embedded sensors are microphones, accelerometers and a laser. The barrel shaft is an electric engine connected to the SOC and the index is driven by a linear engine.
All this excluding the battery is integrated in a bit more than 2mm of thick and 30mm of diameter. The movement is fully developed in la Vallee de Joux in Switzerland.
The watch is connected via Bluetooth to an IOS or android device with a dedicated app installed. This app will ask also the wearer to share the monitoring of the watch movement once a week. This will allow each LAB-ONE owner to have a contact with the development team and participate to the calibre improvements.
If something unusual happens to the mechanism, if the watch needs to be serviced, if there is a need of a manipulation or fine tuning, the watch can send you an alert or a message. The watch may draw your attention at any moment to request an interaction with the owner.
Watch lovers will be for the first time, able to fine tune the accuracy of the escapement and analyse the torque curve of the spring barrel. In the app a complete dashboard shows all the curves and the data related to LAB-ONE. All the most sophisticated watchmakers’ tools are integrated directly in the caliber.
But LAB-ONE has its private life, and all the sophisticated components of the watch can be set in an automatic mode to adjust permanently the movement to deliver the most accurate timing. If one day the watch ruins out of batteries, the calibre will continue to deliver its best mechanical performance, in a full mechanical mode.
LAB-ONE is offered in five beautiful finishes: Steel 904l / Titanium Grade 5 / Sandblasted Titanium Grade 5 / Stealth Black Titanium Grade 5 / Isotropic Carbon Fiber. Only 49 pieces of each material will be produced once. Retail price of each timepiece is € 5’000/US$ 6’150.
