CZAPEK & CIE
Czapek Quai des Berges No. 33 won the Public Prize at the 2016 Grand Prix d’ Horlogerie de Genève.
francs. So essentially, we could all look at the watches that were there, some with painted movements, and track their success on the Raizers website.
ONWARD AND UPWARD The three“ guardians,” as they occasionally call themselves, had obviously pressed the right buttons: A few months after the confab at the Potinière, Czapek & Cie had raked in pledges of nearly 1.1 million Swiss francs from ninety-three investors. The money has permitted them to implement the first collection according to plan.
Good ideas, a good yarn and excellent suppliers, and a bit of luck have contributed to making Czapek & Cie known among aficionados. In addition to having Chronode S. A. on board, they sought out LAB to make their cases, for instance, and Antoine Tschumi of Neo-Dysis for the design. De Roquemaurel also mentioned during a recent call that the suppliers have been given enormous freedom to come up with their own ideas. Then there is the element of luck: The project coincided with the craze for vintage watches that has been trending ever since the end of the 2009 recession.
Earlier this year a lot of behind-the-scenes work tweaking was being done. The issue of personalization loomed large for a while. Then, an investor-fan suggested engraving a private sentence on the dial of the Quai des Bergues models with grand-feu dials. They figured out a way to do it with the supplier, Donzé Cadrans S. A. and made this a part of their customizing service. The sentence, and the almost invisible Czapek signature, can only be seen when light hits the dial at a certain angle. It is also a guarantee against counterfeiting. The company also managed to find a way to make replicas of the original hands for the Quai des Bergues 33bis.
It is this watch that recently won the Public Prize at the 2016 Grand Prix d’ Horlogerie de Genève, a victory that has boosted the spirits of the Czapek team. This victory has placed the name Czapek back on the watchmaking circuit, so to speak, after around 170 years. For Xavier de Roquemaurel, Harry Guhl and Sébastien Follonier, and their merry investors, of course, the game is now on and it’ s serious.
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WRISTWATCH | 2017