From Time Machine and Brave New World to Star Wars, Blade Runner and The Matrix, we are fascinated by the future. Usually, these worlds are portrayed as post-apocalyptic nightmares where the human species is undone by their own doing. An everyman, our hero or heroine, bucks against the evil system in power to save humanity.  Win some, lose some.

In these universes, technology plays a big role. All matter of machines and gadgets, including computers, weapons and automobiles have surpassed our current state-of-the-art. This alternate reality represents progress or regression, depending upon your point of view. But that’s another matter altogether. Within all these scenarios notice that we still cling to the concept of time. Can’t get away from the pesky idea. The ticking bomb always makes its appearance somewhere.

We’re always running out of time or trying to keep up with it whether we’re racing to beat the boss to the office or decimating the alien before he sucks our face off. And the gadget used to tell time? The watch, of course!

Watchmakers aren’t immune to dreaming the future. There are several out there who take inspiration from science fiction. Their timepieces provide a canvas of exploration and imagination. In some fashion these watchmakers break with tradition to synthesize a new dynamic of capturing the hours. A time not yet past…

Urwerk is the company piloted by Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei. When they founded the brand in 1997 their main mission was to defy convention. As Baumgartner says, “Watchmaking is not a dead science.” The two found inspiration in a centuries-old encyclopedia edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert published in the 18^th century. The text talks about imagining alternate methods and devising new machines.

Urwerk’s watches look like little spacecraft that flew out of another dimension and landed on the wrist. The unconventional curved shape of the case plays right into a popular image of future transportation.

For each new model released, Urwerk keeps the DNA of the brand intact using the revolving satellite complication, but interprets the watch in a slightly different way. Most recently, Urwerk brought their vision to a pocket watch called the Zeitwork UR-1001 that actually needs a custom suit to rest in its proper place.

 

An American brand, Devon Works stunned the watch world with the introduction of the Tread 1 last year and more jaws dropped when it was nominated at the 10^th Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in the Design and Concept category, though it didn’t win. It was beat out by the MB&F Horological Machine No4 Thunderbolt, another qualifier in the category that I’ll discuss too. The Tread 1 uses a series of belts to show the hours, minutes and seconds. It was almost unheard of for the Americans to punch through the Swiss curtain of the Grand Prix, but more so because they did it with a battery operated timepiece.

The recently released Tread 2 still runs on a series of belts but is in a simplified form that doesn’t eat up as much energy by getting rid of the running seconds. Though pared down from the Tread 1, the Tread 2 still maintains its rough and tumble look that would travel well to the future. I can see it on the arm of Colin Farrell in the upcoming remake of Total Recall. Open your mind…

 

Since its founding in 2002, DeBethune, founded by Denis Flageollet and David Zanetta, has experimented with different designs to showcase their advanced mechanics. They’ve already developed 12 different calibers and have 9 patents. Plus, they make everything themselves. Nope, they don’t outsource. Unbelievable for any company let alone one that only makes about 100 watches a year. After a decade, DeBethune has settled into an aesthetic that is nothing if not futuristic.

Most of the DeBethune watches foresee other worlds, like the DB27 Titan Hawk. The DB28, which won the Aiguille d’Or at this year’s Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, perhaps most reflects a time afar. It has a crisp modern case in polished grade 5 titanium. Looked at from the profile, the DB28 appears to be a foreboding tank or perhaps even a sentient machine on the prowl to crush disobedient humans. The top view reveals a three-dimensional moon nestled in the case below 6 o’clock lighting up an undiscovered landscape of the sparse dial, composed of the plate featuring the DeBethune stripes. Another perspective conveys the image of a rocket ship poised for takeoff to find other cosmos.

DeBethune DB28 

Located in Neuchatel, the historical capital of watchmaking, Hautlence honors the region by taking its name in anagram form. The company functions from the premise that several minds can break the time barrier to come up with technical and design breakthroughs. The team in the “college” comes together in a brain huddle and emerges with a construct. The latest creature to emerge from the laboratory is the HL2.0, a piece that took over 3 years to develop.

On a technical level the HL2.0 is fascinating. Without using a tourbillon, the watch accomplishes the same feat of keeping the balance and escapement in a revolving motion. You can read more about the mechanics here.

But beyond that, the HL2.0 is just amazingly cool to look at. A moving hours chain, which drives the balance wheel and escapement, shows the hours through an aperture, while a retrograde minute hands flips every hour across half the dial. The mechanics are very Fritz Lang Metropolis.

Of course, a piece on futuristic watches wouldn’t be complete without including Max Busser and his company MB&F. Together with his “friends” Busser captures his visions in a watch. Calling his creations horological machines, he draws upon the sci-fi memories of his childhood, presenting a vision that can inhabit both the present world and one yet to come.

 

Though the HM4 and Legacy Machine 1 could certainly be counted, it’s really the HM3 Frog that stands out with its googly alien eyes that tell the time. We covered the Purple Frog here. Like all of the machines, the HM3 breaks the two-plane barrier giving a three-dimensional context to the timepiece. The “eyes” are actually indications of the hours and minutes rotating under the domes. An amphibious, otherworldly piece… Finding it on the arm of Sigourney Weaver’s character Grace in Avatar wouldn’t be unlikely at all.

 

Enjoy the journey!

 

Article provided by Meehna Goldsmith you can also follow Meehna on Twitter @thewatchlady

Original article can be viewed at http://www.watchmatchmaker.com/brands/mbf/in-a-watch-world-far-far-away-yet-so-close-futuristic-watches.html

 

Written by Meehna Goldsmith

Watch Review

It’s hard to believe DeBethune turned 10 this year. In just a decade the brand, a combination of the design skills of David Zanetta and the technical virtuosity of Denis Flageollet, has done virtually the impossible for an independent. They do it all in-house, from movement to hands to balance wheels. And, they’ve achieved 10 individual calibres, and fourteen patents and innovations along the way. No rest for the wicked.

This year DeBethune graces us with the Titan Hawk, a calendar watch as sleek as the bird of prey it’s named after. The first piece in the new, lower-priced DB27 series, the watch is powered by the entirely new self-winding caliber S233, a modular movement named for the specific gravity of silicon. Flageollet took a modular approach in order to be able to add on complications down the line.

On view through the dome in the case back, you see the silicon and white gold annular balance wheel finished of with a terminal curve. The curves of the case make it seem like you’re looking under the hood of an in-line engine.

Even at the lower price-point of $37,000CHF DeBethune still comes through by providing the technological innovation the company built its reputation on. In addition to the balance wheel, the Titan Hawk incorporates the self-regulating twin barrel, triple parechute shock-absorbing system and those lugs, those fantastic floating lugs with pivoting system in grade-5 titanium, to hug any sized wrist.

Perhaps $37,000CHF doesn’t seem reasonable, as DeBethune advertises it as their lowest priced model, but compared to others it’s about a third of the cost. For an independent with an original in-house movement, the dollar amount isn’t unreasonable. For example, the Marin 1, equipped with Peter Speake-Marin’s first in-house movement, starts at $34,000.

Flageollet built the motor of the DB27, but Zanetta was responsible for the chassis and he is one hell of a stickler when it comes to his designs. He works on them until he deems them perfect. Look out if you want to change anything including the proportions, like making a smaller case when customers request one. DeBethune did it with the DB10 but Zanetta wasn’t too happy because it wasn’t “pure” anymore.

Think of Zanetta like a fussy chef. Change one part of a recipe and the creation is a total bust and he wants to cancel the dinner party. You can’t deny the results though. The DB28, originally made for a Rothschild —yeah, that one from the banking family—won the top prize Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix at the 11th Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix.

The Titan Hawk showcases Zanetta’s exacting aesthetic. The well-proportioned 43mm grade-5 titanium case features a mirror polishing that just makes it sing. A signature of DeBethune, the flamed blued hands, pop out from the sparkly silver-toned grained dial. The chapter ring with rounded and raised numerals resembles a life preserver, giving depth to the dial. I like the unusual triangular-shaped calendar pointer to indicate the date on a concentric ring, which seems an unusual design flourish when DeBethune usually gives function to every detail.

The DB27 hits all the right notes allowing admirers to buy in at a more reasonable if not economical level.

 

Article provided by Meehna Goldsmith you can also follow Meehna on Twitter @thewatchlady

Original article can be viewed at http://www.watchmatchmaker.com/1_mens_watches/debethune-introduces-the-db27-titan-hawk.html