Antarctique Tourbillon Glacier Blue

• Case: stainless steel
• Size: 40.5 mm x 11.6 mm
• Movement: Calibre 9: Czapek manufacture tourbillon movement, mechanical with automatic winding
• Function: Hours, minutes & 60 seconds flying tourbillon
• Water Resistance: 50 m
• Dial: ‘Singularité’ hand guilloché dial.
• Strap/Bracelet: Integrated stainless steel bracelet with Czapek • exclusive ‘Easy Release’ system and micro adjustment device • Additional rubber strap
• Factory Warranty: 2 year

When Czapek conceived the Antarctique, it was always intended as a canvas for creativity.

“Our collectors are always asking us ‘what’s next?’ with the Antarctique,” explains Czapek CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel. After the Rattrapante, we decided to take a perhaps unexpected direction: creating a new and sophisticated expression of a two-century-old regulator: the tourbillon. Our starting point was to play with the clash between legacy and avant-gardism and this new in-house tourbillon calibre is the outcome.

Czapek has introduced a daring movement architecture with slender bridges revealing the beauty of the underlying mechanics and coupled it with a dial that harnesses classical métiers d’art in a new and contemporary ‘vortex-style’ guilloché design.

Czapek called on Metalem,  to develop a new, trompe l’oeil guilloché design, a dramatic vortex effect, giving the impression of infinite depth.  Named Singularité – from the astronomical term singularity, meaning those places in the universe where the standard laws of physics break down, making space and time infinite and undifferentiated.  Enhancing the infinity effect of the guilloché, the hour markers are part of the flange. The bridges – including the soaring curve of the gear train bridge – are integrated to the main plate through the guilloché dial plate.

The Antarctique Tourbillon will be offered in a choice of three dial colors: Glacier Blue, Photon Sphere (a 5N gold hue) and the mythical grey Secret Alloy, a limited-edition of 50 pieces. All iterations will be proposed in stainless steel.

The case has been redesigned to echo the curvilinear aesthetic of the mechanism and dial. Taking the curved glass box principle of the Antarctique Rattrapante as the starting point, the front and back sapphire crystals have been subtly raised. On the reverse side, this creates the impression that there is no bezel and, indeed, the engravings that would normally appear on a case back bezel are done inside the crystal by metallisation – executed in mirror style so as to read ‘true’ from the outside.

The Antarctique Tourbillon will be offered with the same stainless-steel bracelet as other models in the collection, with a micro-adjustment, a quick-change system and a second rubber or leather strap included.