Czapek Promenade Diamond Drops
SHINE ON, YOU CRAZY…
Czapek & Cie is delighted to present Diamond Drops, a glittering gem-set model that epitomises the Promenade philosophy. The collection is as much about style and artistic expression as mechanical excellence and Diamond Drops takes a ‘promenade’ in a new territory.
The new dial is a dazzling sequel to the original Gouttes d’Eau, which captures the ripple effect when a drop of water (a goutte d’eau in French) falls onto the surface of a calm pond. The ripples emanate from the off-centred small seconds sub-dial, which serves as the impact point.
Diamond Drops is a natural progression from that first expression of the idea, says Xavier de Roquemaurel, CEO of Czapek & Cie. “When we sold out of Gouttes d’Eau during its launch at Watches and Wonders 2024 we immediately started playing with other water in its various forms – how it looks when light dances on the surface, how dewdrops sparkle on a sunny morning, what happens when water freezes to become snow or ice… This invited us to play not only with design, colour and materials but also the craft of gem-setting, asking ourselves how we could express the original idea in new ways.”
Czapek turned to its trusted partner, AB Products to meet the challenge of creating the Diamond Drops dial. For snow-setting, rather than creating uniform rows of gems held bygold claws, the gem-setter chooses differently sized stones – many less than 0.5 mm in diameter – which are placed into tiny wells hollowed out of the 18K white gold dial base. Each must be set as close as possible to its neighbour, like a microscopic jigsaw puzzle of gemstones. Adding to the challenge, a watch dial must be very thin with a perfectly flat surface, every stone had to be individually measured and the size of the well adapted to its exact size to ensure a perfectly flush finish.
While the snow-setting technique always demands an exceptional level of gem-setting skill, combining stones of different hardness and contrasting colours adds further complexity. Along with the diamonds, sapphires in different shades of blue are used, to make the final effect as naturalistic as possible. Setting the 360 diamonds (~1.5 cts) and 319 sapphires (~1.58 cts) requires six days of intensely focused work. Representing an additional two days of work, the bezel, flange and crown are set with a total of 173 diamonds (~1.63 cts).
THE MOVEMENT
Since its introduction in May 2020, the automatic Calibre SXH5 has continually evolved. For Promenade, Czapek and its engineers played with its architecture purely for the sake of the dial aesthetics – another example of the Maison’s “Beauty above all” approach, positioning the small seconds mechanism now directly beneath, and on the same axis as the dial display.
Immediately recognisable by the six skeletonised bridges that hold the gear train in place – inspired by the 19th-century pocket watches of François Czapek – the movement plates and bridges feature fine haute horlogerie finishes, including bevelling, straight-grained sides and hand-chamfered inward angles. Beating at 4Hz (28,800 vph) and wound by a micro rotor with a mass of 100% recycled platinum, SXH5 offers 60 hours of power reserve.
EVERY DETAIL COUNTS
In fine watchmaking, every little detail counts. Besides the exceptional SHX5 movement and the sleek and sharp design of the case or the dial, a great deal of attention was put on the straps. This is why the Promenade Diamond Drops is proposed with a refined sapphire blue calf leather strap.
