Gübelin, a multifaceted Swiss brand that makes jewelry, sells watches from many brands and operates a gem analysis laboratory, had not produced a new watch model of its own for more than 20 years. But that changed in October with a timepiece celebrating the company’s 170th anniversary.
The Ipsomatic, a 170-piece limited-edition 39-millimeter platinum watch, was the result of a conversation between Raphael Gübelin, the company president, and the celebrated Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, a Gübelin family friend. “When Santiago presented the idea and showed me his sketches, I immediately knew we had to collaborate,” Mr. Gübelin said. “If we were to introduce a new watch after two decades, it had to be a remarkable piece with a distinctive design, and this collaboration was the perfect opportunity.”
Inspired by the nature of time itself, which, according to Mr. Calatrava, is a “continuous, dynamic flow,” the watch merged a classic round dial with two wavy wings that seem to melt into the lugs.
“Designing a watch feels intimate; it’s more than aesthetics, it’s about the tactile experience,” Mr. Calatrava said during a video interview from his Zurich studio, likening it to the experience of designing large-scale buildings and then moving to details such as door handles.
And in this case, he said, the timepiece is “as much a celebration of watchmaking as it is of our friendship.”
The watches are powered by Felsa movements, which had to be found on the secondhand market as they are no longer produced.
“In 1954, we celebrated our centenary with a watch powered by a Felsa movement, so it felt fitting to include a historical element as an homage to our heritage,” Mr. Gübelin said.
Gübelin’s name is inscribed on the dial and the buckle. The buckle is also set with a ruby, a feature of all Gübelin designs and a reference to the company’s expertise in gemstones.
The case back has Mr. Calatrava’s name and his sketch of two bulls — a nod to the prehistoric Lascaux cave paintings in France, and what he described as humanity’s innate will to create.
Inside the watch, the rotor is engraved with the dates 1854-2024 and the phrase Gübelin Jubilé (Gübelin Jubilee) to emphasize the celebration.
The watch’s name, Ipsomatic, is a combination of Latin (“ipso”) and Greek (“matic”), meaning “moving by itself.” It is a repeat of the name of a Gübelin model from the 1950s and 1960s that also had a Felsa movement.
But there is a contemporary aspect to the new timepiece. The platinum in each watch was embedded with what the company calls Physical Tracers, nanoparticles that collect information that would be readable even if the watch were polished. Each watch also is registered on the brand’s Provenance Proof Blockchain system, to ensure its authenticity.
The Gübelin website offers the timepiece at 34,900 Swiss francs ($39,505), but sales are limited to members of the brand’s newly established Friends of Gübelin community. (Anyone not already in that group may apply for membership online.)
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