Independents

SJX
[Purist]
8540

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A look at the Christophe Claret DualTow

Created to mark the 20th anniversary of Christophe Claret, the famous complications specialist, the DualTow is a unique watch. Though the movement is complicated, it evidently created as an aesthetic exercise. The movement is as much a part of the watch design as any other component.

Especially striking is the chronograph mechanism visible beneath the sapphire dial with the multiple arms and heart-shaped cams clearly visible. This is a very attractive watch.

It features a tourbillon, monopusher chronograph with striking mechanism (a hammer strikes a gong each time the pusher is pressed) and time display on belts.

The striking mechanism is an novel, if useless, idea. The oblong shape of the gong and size of the watch result in a rather muffled chime.

Compared to the rest of the watch the tourbillon is a mere afterthought. Despite its extremely modern design, the movement contains some classical elements of finishing, including sharply angled interior corners on the bridge.

Interesting as the belt display is, the use of rubber belts results in printing that is slightly unclear, due to the texture and tension of rubber.

A watch like this cannot be small, and true enough the DualTow is a massive 43 x 48 mm, excluding the lugs which are huge in themselves. The movement itself is 40 x 32 mm.

Delivered in a enormous box with an extradordinary number of accessories (pen, notebook, documents, spare buckle, watch tools and also a certificate with photos of assembly and testing), the DualTow is a limited edition of 68 pieces, each of which is a piece unique as each will have a different combination of components (case, dial, hands, belt etc). In fact, Claret offers a Configurator on its website (click here to try it out) which allows a customer to see mock ups of various iterations of the DualTow.

This video from Claret illustrates the watch very well.

Christophe Claret is retailed in Asia by Sincere Watch Ltd.

click here to see an earlier post by WHL covering two other versions of the DualTow.

- SJX