Czapek
Promenade Ecume Des Jours on Bracelet

A NOVEL ON THE WRIST

Since its introduction in 2024, the Promenade collection has offered Czapek a more intimate canvas for storytelling. With L’Écume des Jours, that canvas turns toward literature, drawing inspiration from Boris Vian’s 1947 novel. Limited to 18 pieces, the watch translates its surrealist world into watchmaking through layered materials, poetic references and a design shaped by imagination, music, and romance.

BETWEEN MUSIC AND WATER LILIES

The dial brings together two motifs from Vian’s novel. A ring of piano keys circles the flange in reference to the pianocktail, while a water lily marks the seconds at 4:30, recalling Chloé’s fate. Blue enamel, pearled mother-of-pearl and hand-painted jade create a layered composition in which literature becomes texture, rhythm and colour.

CRAFTED IN LAYERS

Creating the dial calls on several specialised crafts. Donzé Cadrans produces the Goutte d’Eau enamel base, while MD’Art prepares the recesses for the mother-of-pearl ring and jade disc, both fixed by hand. The black piano keys are hand-painted, and the titanium water lily seconds hand is laser-cut for lightness before being finished in delicate miniature painting and carefully, individually assembled.

THE MECHANICS WITHIN

Inside the 38 mm stainless steel case, the automatic Calibre SXH5.1 provides the mechanical foundation. Its recycled 950 platinum micro-rotor winds a single barrel delivering a 60-hour power reserve, while seven skeletonised bridges echo nineteenth-century Czapek pocket watches. Visible through the sapphire caseback, the movement combines contemporary engineering with refined finishes including sandblasted black bridges, bevelled angles and straight-grained sides.