Jules Rules : find your way to Mysterious Island. Jules Verne's imagination inspired this new gyroscopic tourbillon; HD3 did the rest.
When Fabrice Gonet read the novels of Jules Verne at his grandfather's house in Switzerland, he imagined fantastic undersea worlds, hidden hideaways on the oceans and incredible inventions. Spurring his young mind too were the details illustrations that accompanied the stories.
Now, as a designer for HD3, the Jorg Hysek-founded firm known for its futuristic complicated watches, Gonet can create his own imaginary world, but on a micro-engineered scale.
That he can make a Verne-influenced timepiece owes as much debt, possibly, to his own influences as to the company he keeps. His new watch, called Vulcania, could only have been made within a progressive high-end firm like HD3, with Hysek at its helm. Hysek, whose own watch designs have become icons for firms like Ebel, TAG Heuer (the Kirium), Tiffany and Breguet (its Marine), has dedicated HD3 to technically bold design “without compromise”.
In other words, his firm creates timepieces Jules Verne might have imagined if given the task.
Nautical cues
On the new Vulcania, pictured on this month's cover, you'll find a lateral porthole and a subdial that looks like a nautical sextant. What's more, the minutes hand is actually a disc that mimics a Chadburn telegraph, which used to send orders into the engine room of most ships at sea in Verne's time. )It's that waist-high pedestal instrument with a pair of handles that a sea captain would purposefully pull and push while barking orders like “full speed ahead” or “half-speed”).
“Vulcania has been imagined like a forgotten machine from Jules Verne,” attests Gonet. The name of the watch itself recalls Captain Nemo's island headquarters.
And there is a secret map.
Hidden in plain view are the coordinates of Jules Verne's own mysterious island, based on his novel of the same name. On the back of the titanium case is clear sapphire caseback engraved with the outline of the island that Verne described, complete with its cartographic coordinates.
“It's something like a hidden trick for the wearer to reveal the coordinates of the island, so he can “discover” it, like a child would dream about”, he explains.
The design also seems to take cues from Verne's descriptions, from book illustrations and from the 1954 Disney film “20'000 Leagues Under the Sea”. Harper Goff's sets and models, particularly his much-lauded versions of Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus, strongly influenced Gonet as he set about creating his Vulcania.
“The crown is totally inspired from the turbines of the submarine”, Gonet explains. He adds that the design of the ship's helm, its naval engines and closing system of the hatch also worked into his final Vulcania rendering.
It's not just the appearance of the watch, however, that magnifies the uniqueness of the design.
“The way Vulcania tells time is definitely unusual”, reports Gonet, nothing that the power-reserve display (which looks like a sextant), the minutes dial (Chadburn telegraph) and the hours (via the lateral porthole at 9 o'clock) combine in a way not seen before on a watch.
Then there is the gyroscopic tourbillon, a dual-axis regulator (one minute and thirty-second) made, like the movement, working closely with BNB, the maverick Swiss movement maker (see International Watch, January 2007, pp. 142-147). This rotating marvel is clearly visible through the sapphire caseback. It can be seen via another porthole, this time cut from the aluminium bridges in the movement. Portions of the winding mechanism, as well as the reverse side of the hours indicator, ar also visible through the back of the titanium case.
The case
Gonet notes that the Vulcania's titanium case was itself a difficult achievement.
“The movement was crated first, and it was so phenomenal that it was difficult to make a case that would fit perfectly in order to develop a unity with the movement,” he explains. In other words, he adds the watch's case wasn't designed to merely cover the movement, but to complement it. Its titanium is accented with a platinum crown and platinum porthole.
Do you need to be a Jules Verne fan to enjoy the Vulcania ?
Not according to Gonet, who says veteran watch collectors will appreciate the historical context of the piece, its relation with Verne and with high-end watch-making. Younger collectors, he feels, will readily appreciate the high-tech nature of the proprietary movement.
But as only eleven are being made (priced at $ 375'000 each), these distinctions will likely be merely academic.
Newest: Three Minds
While most of the releases from HD3 have been imagined primarily by Gonet, Hysek or Valerie Ursenbacher, the firm's newest timepiece is a team effort. Appropriately called Three Minds, it's an automatic model that seeks to create an alternative method to viewing the time on the wrist.
Rather that eyeing the traditional hands to gauge the hours, minutes and seconds, Three Minds offers fan-shaped apertures that show each of the three indicators. The time is displayed on three discs located just beneath the apertures.
Working with BNB, Hysek and his staff have crated this somewhat digital universe within a traditional base movement, the ETA 2000-1. The numerals are clearly visible, given their yellow, orange or green luminous colour. That the discs and the dial itself are black titanium further emphasizes the readability of the numerals.
This new piece is offered in greater numbers than most HD3 models, largely because it starts with a more widely available base movement, which affects the other factor, its price: $ 55'000 to $ 60'000. The firm offers ninety-nine black titanium models, which break down to thirty-three per numeral colour (orange, green or yellow).
If you want gold, thirty-three units with a pink gold case will be made, as will 333 models in titanium with white gold or pink gold accents.
Team Efforts
Fabrice Gonet, who designed the new Vulcania for HD3, was only seventeen years old when he first worked with Jorg Hysek on his earlier designs. Gonet, Hysek and his fellow team member Valerie Ursenbacher form a triple-threat design team that started only two years ago, but have since created several unusual, futuristic-looking timepieces. In 2005, the trio unveiled Raptor and Capture, followed by last year's Idalgo. Raptor, designed by Gonet, combines a genuine digital readout with a high-end tourbillon. The tourbillon and analog upper portion of this jaw-like case flip up to reveal the Swiss-made digital display.
According to Gonet, the Raptor name derives from the reptilian jaw function of the case. The case is fully 19 mm thick, but nonetheless fits snugly on the wrist as a result of a nicely curved (and large) case. It can be made in titanium or ceramic, and combined with gold or platinum.
The Capture is designed by Ursenbacher and is a 43 mm round model with a tourbillon. Rubies or blue sapphires are places on the tourbillon bridge. Another unusual element: sixteen small imbus screws on the bezel that are both functional and decorative.
The firm's third piece, Idalgo, was introduced last year. It amazingly creates two dials from one ETA 2892 automatic movement. The Hysek design places bold futuristic elements into one of two models : one with the two-dialed feature and another with a single dial.
The double-faced version reveals a jumping hour aperture, a 180-degree retrograde 60-minute hand, a 360-degree seconds hand, a large date display and the second time zone. The single-dialed model (model number ST-1, which the firm calls the “little sister” of the original Idalgo, XT2) features only the jumping hour, retrograde minute hand, seconds hand and large date. No second time zone is seen.
INTERNATIONAL WATCH, APRIL 2007
By Michael Thompson
