Christophe Claret takes the stage with Adagio
Christophe Claret’s Adagio returns to the spotlight as a series of gem-set and engraved unique pieces. Pleasing both sight and sound, this highly structured minute repeater combines with a large date and second time zone.
Claret’s fascination for 16th century arts is once again conveyed through the one-of-a-kind Adagio creations masterfully engraved by Neuchâtel-based artisan Eddy Jaquet. Working freelance for more than three decades, he is gifted with a rare expertise blending patience, meticulous care and artistic creativity, enabling him to join eye, hand and tools in sculpting matter. With a degree of finesse that requires a magnifying glass to appreciate each detail, a lute, a hurdy-gurdy, a tambourine and bagpipes appear on each of the lugs, while the minute repeater sliding bolt features two instruments: a sackbut and a bombarde, the respective ancestors of the trombone and the oboe. The case middle is engraved with rich ornamental motifs and volutes typical of Renaissance furniture.
It takes around 130 hours of work for the engraver to craft each of these one-of-a-kind models, on which the abundance of the motifs adorning the 44 mm case strikes a powerful contrast with the total purity of the watch face. The deep black onyx or hawk’s eye dial displays the functions and complications in an extremely contemporary spirit. Beating steadily behind the scenes, the 455-part Manufacture Caliber SLB88 drives central hours and minutes, small seconds in a 9 o’clock aperture, a large date appearing at 6 o’clock, and a dual-time (hours and minutes) display with day/night indication in a 2 o’clock subdial. Melodiously chiming the hours, quarters and minutes on demand, the “cathedral” gongs of the striking mechanism are fitted with a patented device that prevents them from colliding as they vibrate under the hammer blows.
