Artime ART01
Cellini Jewelers welcomes ARTIME as its latest addition to its collection of haute horology maisons.
Founded by a team of watchmaking experts in design, management, engineering, manufacturing and sales, each of whom is passionate about excellence in their field, Artime arises at the apex of the horological hierarchy. The brand’s very first creation is making its mark on the world of watchmaking art, both technically and visually. Its six founding members together prove that passion, values and experience remain at the core of the most accomplished watchmaking, that the warmth of human relationships transforms creation. Guided by a team spirit and deeply shared values and affinities, they aim for perfection in the watchmaking gesture.
Their inaugural model ART01 expresses all the principles that Artime has made its own: to touch the most demanding customers in the heart, unambiguously, in all transparency, with a juxtaposition of materials, spatial volumes, innovative concepts and finishes of an exceptional level. This timepiece comprises an ethereal-seeming caliber in white gold, a tourbillon with a double balance spring and an ergonomic function selector, intimately embedded in a case where titanium and transparent sapphire commingle. An initial limited series of twenty ART01 watches in titanium lays out Artime’s principles for contemporary fine watchmaking in clear and ultra-modern terms.
The ART01 is a wristwatch with a case alternating between transparent sapphire and titanium. Its round shape with monobloc lugs houses a white gold movement with a three-dimensional code, equipped with a one-minute tourbillon regulator and controlled by a function selector. It is 42 mm in diameter, 11.4 mm high and mounted on a black grained calfskin strap with a titanium folding clasp. Each of these features is at the surface a summary of what the ART01 truly is.
The magnitude of which only becomes perceptible on the wrist and after a careful examination, inside and out. Only then do movement and exterior, form and function, invention and use reveal themselves in their nature: as intimately linked. An architectural inspiration passes through them. Santiago Calatrava’s work has made a strong impression on designer Claude Emmeneger and Didier Bretin, who set the tone in orchestrating this first movement. Thus, the bridges are arched with a subtle curvature. It is not only an aesthetic choice, but also a structural one. The bridges are neither juxtaposed, nor adjacent. They are nested. Their bases are cut like blocks shaped to fit together as in cyclopean masonry. This requires uncompromisingly precise machining and perfect alignments.
The tourbillon, just as architectural, was also created ex nihilo. In the same way that the project was developed in total freedom, the ART01’s rotating regulating organ was conceived without constraints. The cage, between an upper and lower bridge, is of an entirely new shape. It is built without the pillars that usually connect the upper and lower parts, freeing the space necessary for the regulating organ. Here, the cage forms a three-dimensional whole whose visual signature – a fundamental differentiating element for any watchmaker – is a three-armed shape, each stem flaring out like a stylized flower. The openwork characterizing the bridges extends to the confines of the cage, creating a new visual focal point. This three armed shape with open ends is echoed throughout the entire gear train, including the barrel at noon.
There are multiple advantages to this double balance spring arrangement. It ensures an improved quality factor, improved inertia and above all, perfect concentricity of the regulating spring’s ‘breathing’. The result is less stress on the pivots and consequently greater operating precision. The care given to the final adjustment is very particular. This is not a show tourbillon – although it has the effect of one – but truly a chronometric tourbillon.
Within this orchestra of technical systems, one of the most discreet and sophisticated is put at the service of ergonomics. Eliminating the drawbacks and awkwardness of a conventional crown, that on the ART01 is not pulled. Instead, it is pushed to control the function selector. You access its three positions – neutral, winding, setting – simply by pressing on the crown. The current position can be read from a satellite indicator, which circulates under the three sapphire inserts of the functions – N for neutral (or normal operation), R for ‘remontage’ or winding, and H for ‘heure’ or setting the time – that are revealed by contrast. This system is not new, but it so happens that Artime’s founding members are its original inventors.
In addition, this function selector incorporates a unique mechanism consisting of a dual function column wheel and a vertical clutch. Visible at four o’clock, between the central axis of the hands and the indicator, it triggers a question: Why is this here when it really belongs to a chronograph assembly? The upper cam controls the display of the function via the small satellite. It is closely linked to the second, one level below, which operates with the function rocker. This switching is usually actuated with the pull-tab, which is replaced here by a system of unique and obvious mechanical beauty. This design approach, off the beaten track and outside of the watchmaking canon, runs through the entire caliber.
In a classic watch design, the elements are superimposed in a very distinct stack. Case back, bridges, gear train, plate, dial, bezel, glass, case middle – such is the usual arrangement. In the case of the ART01, this established order is disrupted by the way in which the elements seem to merge. The caliber has no plate, not even an openworked one. The bridges are directly fixed in the case middle. Here, in this first edition, it is a block of titanium. “It serves as an amphitheater, to center and identify the piece. It has its own rhythm with its columns visible through the sapphire,” says the Artime team.
The round, very thin bezel is set on the sapphire, which is itself set on the case middle. This structural interaction fulfils not only a decorative but also a technical purpose. The way in which this assembly was conceived is the object of a patent application. Beyond its uniqueness, it is the visual result that is most important. The eye cannot see where one ends and the other begins, creating a ‘lightness’ and an apparent thinness that belie the ART01’s dimensions. At 42mm wide and 11.40mm thick, this watch gives off a totally different impression on the wrist.
Discover the Artime ART01 at Cellini Jewelers, an Authorized Retailer for Artime. Contact us for pricing and availability at 212-888-0505.
Learn more about the ART01 collection