Hands-On: Czapek Place Vendôme “Ombres”
While many are familiar with Czapek and the watch that introduced us to the brand, Quai Des Bergues, this year Czapek introduced a new watch, the Titanium cased Place Vendome. While the Quai De Bergues was a homage to the old pocket watches from Czapek with the duo register sub dials at 4 and 8. With the 8 o’clock sub dial displaying the small seconds hand and the 4 o’clock sub dial displaying the day of the week and the power reserve
The new Place Vendome takes a different direction with a titanium case and a instead of the power reserve at 4, it has the GMT function with 12 hour display and open dial showing the movement in the front. Since it is a 12 hour display, it also has a day/night indicator at the 6 o’clock position to help knowing the time. Taking place of the seconds hand at 8, is the 1 minute tourbillon.
The hour and minute hands has been moved to the sub dial off center just below 12 o’clock position and the power reserve at the bottom of the sub dial, winding counter clockwise and 60 hoiurs of power reserve. In having the 4 sub dial displays, the watch provides an excellent symmetry and balance.
The dial side has a sandblasted finish while the movement side has the nice beveling and anglage we have seen in previous Czapek releases. You may have noticed the sub dial at 12 has a black circle around, which is black enamel, adding another fine detail to the watch!
Powering the watch is the SXH2 with a tourbillon, GMT, day night indicator, and 60 hours of power reserve all in one barrel! The case as mentioned before is made with grade 5 titanium with a 43.5mm diameter. As you can see in the pictures, it is no wonder that the was has been pre-selected for the 2019 GPHG! Of course, all these features, the price comes at 88,000 CHF and limited to only 25 pieces.
Easy to see why this got selected for the GPHG for 2019!