Independents
I would like to share with you my recent interest in Vincent CALABRESE creations. Mr CALABRESE was not unknown for many of you, but for me I know little about this watchmaker and his creations except those realized for Corum. Prior Basel 2017, I read a post mentioning the presentation of an interpre
I would like to share with you my recent interest in Vincent CALABRESE creations.
Mr CALABRESE was not unknown for many of you, but for me I know little about this watchmaker and his creations except those realized for Corum.
Prior Basel 2017, I read a post mentioning the presentation of an interpretation of Kronos, the God of Time. I was very intrigued.
So, I went to his site and start to discover more this model and had a close look at the design and the jumping hour system. I was done.
I contacted him and wanted to meet him.
Our meeting was extremely passionating and I could express my gratitude for the 4 hours time spent together and all answers regarding his work, his philosophy regarding time and watchmaking. Vincent is a Great and Passionate Man who deserve very nicely the “Haute Horlogerie” with creativity and additive vision of time representation through international cultures and their expressions.
His collection reflects his Love for emotional pieces with special interpretation of time. His watches could speak to everyone.
Vincent is fluent in many languages and also loves France and Paris as this poster (with inclined Eiffel Tower) demonstrates. Look at his wrist: Kronos N°1/100.
If you have a look at his Logo for Nova Hora Calabrese : NH combined, you could see a H with an oblique line in between the 2 vertical colomns meaning this oblique line breaks the classical rules of Horology: All the story of this Great man.
His book “Le Temps d’une Vie” has to be read by all watch lovers as it is a very interesting point of view on life, education and creations.
For those interested in: French ref: ISBN 978-2-8321-0780-5 & English ref: ISBN 978-2-940506-18-7
Back to the Kronos model.
Kronos, the Titan god of time, is flying, clasping hours and minutes in one hand, seconds in the other. A young woman is chasing the time in vain, attracted by eternal youth.
Vincent created a living dial with a jumping hour after one rotation per hour and a second hand represented by the hourglass in the center of the dial. Very interesting is the back rotation for the Hour disc without risk for the mechanism.
If you have a look at the circular turning hour markers, you could understand that 6 and 9 could be difficult to be distinguished. Vincent found a very interesting solution and here is his rationale:
“The reason for the four letters arose because of the discomfort of reading for the 6th and the 9th. These numbers being multiples of 3, esoteric figure par excellence, and the dial comprising 12 digits as multiple of 3, it did not take me a long time to solve my problem by highlighting the four multiples of 3. The adoption of this solution was immediate when I realized that the initials of these four numbers were identical in the four main Western languages: English, French, Italian and Spanish.”
3H is represented by T=Three=Trois=Tre=Tres
6H is represented by S=Six=Six=Sei=Seis
9H is represented by N=Nine=Neuf=Nove=Nueve
12H is represented by M=Midday or Midnight=Midi or Minuit=Mezzogiorno or Mezzanotte=Mediodia or Medianoche
So English, French, Italian and Spanish persons could be Happy to read time in their own language. A real Genious thought IMHO.
Being an Italian (born in Napoli), Vincent’s culture is rich of Italian history and paintings. So, it was obvious for him to ask for an Italian spirit creation for the Kronos dial.
Being very impressed by the neo-style paintings from Shinji HIMENO, they created under the Vincent direction this very nice dial representing Kronos and a young woman.
Shinji lives and works in Berlin since 1997. He was educated by the famous School of Paintings in Leipzig “Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst” and in Vienna “Akademie der bildenden Künste”. Here are 2 paintings from his numberous creation below.
which could be of inspiration to create together the Kronos dial?
Congratulations to Mr Vincent CALABRESE and Mr Shinji HIMENO.
Stay tune for the parts II and III…..
Cheers,
Patrickh
Nevertheless, I bought, few years ago, a strange watch from an obscure brand called Jean Marcel (almost impossible to find a worst name for a watch brand in my opinion LOL). His name is Mystery Jump Hour whose movement was made by Vincent Calabrese. Below a shot of mine at that time (sorry for the bad quality) You have a rotating disc, with an aperture for the hours (jumping ones) which indicates you the minutes and a little triangle for the seconds. I really loved this watch but, unfortunately,
He obviously worked behind the scènes for many brands and has so many anecdotes... Many thanks for this insightful article Patrick . Best, Mike
Thank you for your compliments. Best, Patrickh
of Vincent CALABRESE during his long run creations. I am not sure the brand Jean Marcel exists anymore??? But, the service provided by Vincent himself is of very high quality. I hope you will have a Great Positive experience with the current NHC collection. Follow my next posts (Part II & III) ;-))) HAGWE, Best, Patrickh
I don't know if the brand Jean Marcel still exists (I think so) but, after the misfortune I had with them, I prefer to avoid this brand. Regarding NHS, it's another story and I definitely keep an eye on their creations ;-) Best wishes Alkiro
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