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Czapek (formerly partner of Patek) is riding the zeitgeist wave, after even taking a break last year from launching new models, because demand was too high and the brand is still struggling to honour the orders by customers in the last years.

The brand is launching the Antarctique Revelation, the first skeletonized model in the collection, a watch that „recalls the Antarctique Rattrapante launched in 2021, which featured the first split-seconds chronograph to appear on the dial,” the brand said. ”The high art of skeletonisation allows connoisseur and neophyte alike to discover and delight in the inner workings of a watch, the interplay of the hollowed-out bridges, wheels, and hands around a filigree mainplate,” the watchmaker adds. The work on the dial also entailed reworking the calibre – which is why we now have the brand new SXH7, with small seconds instead of the central seconds hand. 100 pieces will be made, at 38,000 CHF. Deliveries will start in 2025.

Antarctique Titanium “Dark Sector” sports a minimalist monochromatic look, with a geometrical approach to the display of time. ”Each timepiece is  subjected to two sets of fundamental laws: mechanics, which means everything must function like clockwork, quite literally, and aesthetics, and this is far more subjective: a watch must be visually attractive, provocative, seductive,” syas the watchmaker, emphasizing that the Antarctique Titanium ‘Dark Sector’ strikes a perfectly symbiotic balance between these two poles. It is driven by the tried-and-true SXH5, and its dial was designed for excellent readability and viewing pleasure.

The idea is simple, but requires great precision to execute,” says CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel. “The hands crossing from segment to segment over the dusky backdrop of the dial looks almost like a shoreline seen from far above. The dial was designed in such a way that the marker becomes the void between each sector (an almost philosophical way of defining matter). This spontaneously inspired the model’s name ‘Dark Sector’, which comes from the Dark Sector Laboratory and telescopes at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The skies over Antarctica are the clearest and darkest in the world…”

The Antarctique S La Carte des Nuages comes in two versions – Stormy Grey and Misty White – whose ”new dials have been designed to capture the light in a particular way, creating a sense of movement and vitality through a play of constantly changing colours”, with guilloche mother-of-pearl dials and diamonds with the Antarctique cut at 12 o’clock. 100 pieces will be made, price is 26,000 CHF.

In terms of movement, the SXH5.01 automatic caliber of the timepiece ”is the first to be entirely conceived in-house by Czapek from a blank page. Every part of it has been made with care to detail and with the help of the top Swiss manufacturing partners and craftsmen, la crème de la crème, the magnificent orchestra directed by Czapek in the We Collect Rare People spirit. The microrotor, is placed off-center to allow a plunging view into the mechanism and its exceptional architecture. A free-sprung balance wheel with variable inertia provided by four gold adjustable weights enables the highest level of precision tuning. The gear train is held in place by a series of seven handsome skeletonized bridges. Their original shape is reminiscent of lace, inspired on one side by XIX century pocket watches, and by the very modern Czapek Faubourg de Cracovie chronograph’s rotor. The movement has superlative finishing on the bridges that merges Haute Horlogerie angling techniques with state-ot-the-art laser engravings,” says the watchmaker.

Lovely Pink Lotus and Azure dials for the Antarctique S Sashiko models. The calibre is also SXH5, the in-house mechanical movement with an improved power reserve, up to 60 hours. Azure is a nod to a 17th century Japanese embroidery technique, roughly translated as “little stabs.” The flinqué geometric pattern was inspired by the lotus flower.

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