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Marcus Hanke's "Basel 08 tasting notes" offers a critical yet hopeful perspective on Eterna and Porsche Design, likening them to "Grand Cru Bourgeois" wines—brands that consistently deliver quality without pretension. Hanke laments the industry's shift towards luxury fashion over traditional virtues but celebrates Eterna's renewed energy and innovative in-house movements, signaling a potential return to its heritage of reliable, finely engineered timepieces.
Eterna - Porsche Design: Grand Cru Bourgeois
tasted by Marcus Hanke
When I posted my very first “Basel tasting notes” some years ago, I compared the watch industry with fine wines, and stated to miss the “terroir”, the clear disclosure of the origin, from most of the novelties shown then. Unfortunately, this feeling has not changed substantially, in the contrary: it seems that most brands desire to play in the highest leagues, forgetting their own tradition and capabilities.
Returning to the example of wines: Not every vineyard can produce a Chateau de Pétrus, or a Margaux, regardless of the sums invested, and the number of experts hired. How honest, in comparison, are the products of people who simply want to make a good wine at not too high prices, that succeed in satisfying most tastes, even demanding ones! The Grand Cru Bourgeois, wines that might not have the mystic names of the Grands Crus Classés, but persistently offer high quality, without pretending to be what they aren’t. And, as lovers of fine Bordeaux wines perfectly know, many “Bourgeois” constantly outperform more famous, traditional - and expensive - “Classés”
Eterna is such a “Grand Cru”: its name always stood for reliability, fine engineering, high quality without any spectacular tourbillons, repeaters, or multi-dimensional time-relativity indications. In the good old times, one bought an Eterna, wore it for decades after decades, until it finally was handed over to the heir. It always worked and served its purpose.
During the last years, though, the trend went away from such products, mechanical watches were understood as luxury fashion accessories, and - worse even - as investment assets. The result was that unspectacular watches, that were made realising more traditional virtues, drifted out from the focus of the watch enthusiasts’ attention.
This, and some other internal turbulences, caused a certain stall in Eterna’s development, while Porsche Design, the sister brand also produced by Eterna, was satisfied with releasing always new and colourful variants of established designs.
I witnessed this with some sadness, since I cannot deny having a large affection for these two watch brands: Eterna for its pioneering efforts to make automatic watches becoming dependable everyday companions, and Porsche Design for its tradition and geographical proximity to my hometown. Longtime Purists might recall my various laments on this issue.
Last year, however, I was pleasantly surprised to see new energy flowing through the company, with many highly interesting novelties shown at Basel: a couple of completely new movements for Eterna, and the innovative Worldtimer by Porsche Design, the first watch worthy of bearing that name since several years.
So of course I was very curious, when this year, I went to meet Mr. Patrick Schwarz, Eterna’s CEO. And what shall I say, I was highly impressed by the purist spirit encountered in Mr. Schwarz: What I was shown were not colourful, semi-skeletonized, multi-titanium concept watches with main deflector dish or Jeffreys tubes, but developments, that, while not spectacular, will eventually influence all mechanical watches that we will wear in the future - just as Eterna’s first famous innovation, the ball-bearing for the oscillating winding rotor, had been.
But first, I was shown the new models of 2008, which are all refreshingly simple and wearable. Timeless designs that will accompany their wearers for a long time.
Here is the new chronograph addition to the popular Kon Tiki series. This Valjoux 7750-powered watch is also the only one I could well imagine in a larger case. Currently, it has some 40 mm diameter, but at about 44mm, it might have been possible to keep the unique luminous indexes at 12, 6 and 9 unharmed.
A highlight this year is the pink gold KonTiki Anniversary, limited to 50 pieces only, and sold in a very unique, handcarved box, showing the Polynesian god Kon Tiki. This is one of the most beautiful everyday wearer gold sports watches I have seen, and it is a pity that only 50 pieces are produced. Since this watch was present only in a showcase, I decided to show the press picture here.
The attractive Soleure chronograph houses a full calendar Valjoux 7751 chronograph movement, that has been modified to a monopusher configuration with only one pusher at 2. It is interesting to note that this particular configuration had been inspired by the famous MIH watch. This is not astonishing, since both watches had the same designer, Mr. Christian Gafner. I like this watch a lot, the only thing I am missing are some luminous elements on the hands, so it could be read in the dark as well.
Also new in the classic-looking Soleure series is this variant with Roman numerals and a light grey/silver dial.
A watch almost impossible to photograph, yet so attractive, is the Eterna Vaughan. It is equipped with one of the slimmest selfwinding movements ever built, the inhouse Eterna cal. 3030. What makes this movement especially unique, are two features: first, the big date (making it world’s thinnest selfwinding big date movement), placed at 3, and second, the fact that the movement’s upper side is domed, to permit domed dials, which again permit a very slim-looking case.
The cal. 3030 is not the only movement developed and produced by Eterna. There is also a very nice rectangular hand-winding movement, the cal. 3500. This one was presented last year already, dedicated for a limited series of watches in rectangular gold cases, the Madison line. 75 each are made in pink and white gold, with the appropriate surface finish of the movement: either coated with pink gold, or rhodium plated for the white gold version.
This movement features a very unique design of the bridges, especially the balance bridge is unconventionally shaped. Also note the uncommon fine adjustment mechanism.
A novelty at this year’s Basel fair is the new, unlimited Madison series in steel cases. For this line, the cal. 3500 is produced in a somewhat simplified version, cal. 3501, without the hand-bevelled edges and a simpler fine adjustment.
Please note the movement is still a prototype and the finish does not reflect production standard
For any other brand, the presentation of an own, self developed and produced movement, is a very big issue, and consequently duly announced and celebrated. Not so with Eterna. After the brand had presented two movements last year (cal. 3030 and cal. 3500), this year is once again full with great movement surprises: Besides the cal. 3501 mentioned above, I was also shown a great rectangular movement with two mainspring barrels, offering a power reserve of eight days, and a big date, cal. 3510. This movement will be used in further watches of the Madison series, due to be released during the following year.
Underlining Eterna’s high competence in good movement engineering is the fact that the big date is switching instantaneously, within a second, and - this is unique - that the date mechanism cannot be damaged by any manipulations of the watch. Consequently, the traditional ban of adjusting the date during a time window of several hours around midnight, in order to prevent damages to the wheelwork, does not exist here.
So far, so good, but then I was presented with an unspectacularly looking movement on the table. Since I am not a watchmaker, I had to be pointed out the innovation, that is so simple, but at the same time so important, that I am convinced it will influence the complete world of mechanical watchmaking.
I think that everybody interested in the watch business has realised meanwhile, that we are facing the start of a service crisis. While the production output of mechanical timepieces has multiplied during the last ten years, the output of trained watchmakers has continued to decline. Many young watchmakers became developers, are are assembling new watches in the companies, but the “horological infantry”, the service watchmakers, have become rare. In earlier times, the watch shops trained their own service people, who executed all basic service and repair works. Now, every watch, even simplest ones, are sent to the manufacturer (or national distributor), since the watch shops are not able to fulfil the routine service tasks.
The lack of qualified service staff increases the turnaround times of watches sent in for overhaul, and the bills, of course. Thus, the current efforts to develop maintenance-free movements, mostly by means of introducing new materials, like silicium and diamond, is an understandable consequence. However, what does the fines lubrication-free escapement help, when the gearing behind it dissolves from wear?
What Mr. Schwarz had placed before me, was nothing less then the solution of this problem. Instead of changing the escapement, its engineers approached the other end of the chain, the watch’s engine, or energy source: the mainspring barrel. Normally, the mainspring barrel is placed on a stud, which also holds the mainspring. While the power reserve is not an issue for selfwinding watches, the trend towards longer power reserves for hand-wound watches causes a problem: To get more energy from the mainspring, you can use a thinner coil. Yet this delivers less energy, and the rest of the gearing has to be optimised, to get along with the lower energy level. Or you can enlarge the mainspring barrel in order to accommodate a longer spring. This long and strong coil often delivers too much energy, when it is fully wound, so the balance’s amplitude can be too large, and the loss of power at the end is very noticeable, and causes the amplitude - and thus the watch’s accuracy - to collapse.
Additionally, the larger diameter of the mainspring barrel makes it more prone to damages from shocks. A common solution is the distribution of the mainspring power on several barrels; two barrels have become standard for handwound watches already, some even have four of them. All this necessitates a lot of winding effort, of course.
Eterna approached the issue in full correspondence with its own fame: It used a ball-bearing to place the mainspring barrel upon, without any other attachment, like a bridge or cock. The balls in the bearing are made from zirkonia oxide and are free from wear and maintenance, while the “flying” mainspring barrel perfectly resists any shocks and bumps. The main advantage, though, is its effectiveness. Already the first tests showed a 15% increase of mainspring effectiveness, and the coil’s thickness had to be reduced, since the balance wheel’s amplitude was far too large. Finally, it was noticed that the optimum energy output level of the mainspring was achieved after but two complete turns of the crown, and when the mainspring’s tension is released, it is staying within the optimum energy level tolerances until very shortly before the watch would run down.
Unlike other watch manufacturers, that make an 8 days power reserve movement, but have it ‘switching off’ after seven days, to prevent a highly inaccurate time display on the eighth day, Eterna’s movements will be highly accurate over most of the working time offered by the mainspring.
So the new ball-beared mainspring barrel offers a manifold of advantages: Due to increased effectiveness, thinner coils can be used, permitting longer springs and thus longer power reserves. And - in my opinion the most important bonus - the wear on the wheelwork transferring the energy from the mainspring to the escapement is drastically reduced, minimising the need for overhaul. This saves costs and valuable watchmakers’ working time.
Unfortunately, Eterna is not able to introduce a full series production of this innovation yet, so the conventional movements will be produced - and introduced. But I can imagine Eterna to choose a similar path as Omega with its co-axial escapement, that also was introduced at first in a few selected models, only to be - slowly but steadily - integrated into the majority of watches. Anyway, I am convinced that Eterna will renew its fame as a pacemaker of the watch industry, when ball-beared mainspring barrels make our watches reliable and maintenance-free (well, I MAY dream, right?).
And what about Porsche Design? Well, after some years of myself lamenting over betrayed design principles and succumbing to fashion trends, Porsche Design last year reconciled me with the marvellous new Worldtimer, so my Qi is in perfect harmony, and cannot be disturbed by the release of a Worldtimer and even the Indicator in pink gold.
Porsche Design Indicator in 18k pink gold and PVD titanium
That the Dashboard series of chronographs has been slightly touched up to improve the legibility (issues I had criticised in my experience review, like the rounded tips of the hands, and a lacking optical difference between the small second and the chronograph counters), and gets two new members, from which one is in pink gold, and the other in attractive black DLC (scratch-resistant Diamond-Like Carbon) outfit, is also a definite progress and a nice addition to what I already listed.
Dashboard P'6612 PTC: titanium case with DLC coating
P'6612 PTC: titanium case with DLC coating
Dashboard P'6612 PGC: 18k pink gold case with rubberized titanium bezel
All in all, this watch tasting session at the Eterna/Porsche Design booth was a highly pleasant experience, and proved to me that remaining faithful to a company’s tradition and “terroir” is not an outdated virtue. I sincerely hope watch enthusiasts from all over the world will give this company the attention and success it deserves.
Copyright April 2008 - Marcus Hanke & PuristSPro.com - all rights reserved
PuristSPro Homepage | ThePuristS Homepage
Comments, suggestions, and corrections to this article are welcome.
This message has been edited by Marcus Hanke on 2008-04-15 00:02:29
This message has been edited by MTF on 2008-04-16 06:54:01 Key Points from the Discussion
- While the aesthetic of the Eterna Porsche Design collection may not appeal to all, the introduction of new in-house movements is a significant development, with potential for future complications like calendars or moonphases.
- Eterna's Caliber 3800 movement is noted for its technical advancement, featuring ceramic ball bearings for both the winding train and barrel arbor, surpassing the 3500/3501 series.
- The Porsche Design Worldtimer, despite its thickness due to the Valjoux 7750 base movement and module, is surprisingly wearable on the wrist.
- Eterna's renewed focus on innovation, including new movements and collaborations with designers like Mr. Gafner and Paul Gerber for mechanisms like the monopusher, positions them as a key player in mainstream horology.
- The Eterna KonTiki in rose gold is praised for its elegant design, practical features, and resemblance to the Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris, suggesting a strong appeal for collectors.
- Eterna's resurgence is welcomed by collectors who appreciate its historical commitment to dependable automatic watches and its distinctive logo, despite a period of mixed designs.
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