DonCorson provides an exclusive pre-premier look at the 4N Digital Carrousel Watch, a project by designer François Quentin. This in-depth report details the evolution of the innovative timepiece, from its initial concept at BaselWorld 2010 to a working prototype in 2012. DonCorson's expertise illuminates the technical challenges and ingenious solutions behind this unique digital mechanical display, offering readers a rare glimpse into independent watchmaking innovation.
Pre-premier of the 4N Digital Carrousel WatchFrançois Quentin is a designer with ideas and perseverance. He started
his adventure in watchmaking with Hautlence in Neuchâtel working on the
design of the display and the housing. His particular interest is in
new ways of displaying the time on a wrist watch, an interest which he
has continued to cultivate since leaving Hautlence.
His present
project, the 4N watch, made its first appearance at the BaselWorld Fair
in 2010. At that time it was not much more than an idea with some rough
concepts of that ideas realisation and not more. I must admit that I
did see this presentation at BaselWorld 2010, but I ignored it. It
didn't seem to me to be realistic at all. I didn't see how it could be
fit into a wrist watch.
At BaselWorld 2011 François presented a
model of the 4N wrist watch with its digital display and an interesting
band attachment, also François' design. The correct functioning of the
display mechanism had been tested and confirmed with a scale model made
of plexiglass 10 times the size of the watch.
Note
the push buttons on the band's attachments. The bands do not have a
buckle, but are made to length and attach to the watch lugs using the
pushbuttons. Clean and easy.
Now we "fast forward"
to February 2012. The BaselWorld Fair is in 5 weeks and the excitement
is mounting. The first complete and working watch will be shown at the
fair. Prototypes movements are working fine, the testing has been
successful. The first watch is being mounted. These are the first
pictures.
Here on movement number 1 the sub-disks
carrying the digits are not yet mounted, but they can be seen on the
prototype below. Note how the display is put together. From the right
there is a large carrousel for the minutes low digit, a disk with the
minutes upper digit and another carrousel with the hours. The minutes
carrousel carries 5 sub-disks each with 2 numbers. At each minute the
carrousel turns 72 degrees, one fifth of a turn, bringing the next
sub-disk into place to indicate the next minute. Thus with 2 full turns
of the carrousel minutes 0 to 9 are indicated. The 10 minutes disk is a
simple disk with 6 digits, 0 to 5 that advance every 10 minutes. The
hours carrousel consists of 4 sub-disks each with 3 numbers thus showing
from 0 to 12. Every hour the hours carrousel turns 90 degrees, one
quarter of a turn. After three full turns of the carrousel all 12 hours
have been indicated.
The power to move all this comes
from 2 barrels in parallel which will give autonomy of several days. Of
course much effort went into engineering a system which needs very
little energy to work, in keeping with its being a watch mechanism. To
this end the traditional system using star wheels and jumpers could not
be used. A star wheel system requires peaks of energy just before the
movement which would be impossible sustain in this watch. Here a spiral
spring is wound continuously and released using a pawl and latch to
release the energy causing a smooth acceleration and deceleration of the
carrousel.
The movement of the carrousel is entirely
satisfying, not a fast jerk and stop, but a smooth acceleration and
then deceleration. As the carrousel turns clockwise the sub-dials turn
counter clockwise giving a very satisfying sensation that the digit is
smoothly moving backwards to find its new position.
The
depth of the movement and the free view into the mechanism is
fascinating. Here without the case we can really enjoy the entire
height of the movement and the finishing of all the parts. Note the
criss-cross côtes de Genève on the upper bridge of the carrousel cage.
This finishing on these parts made of German silver with black rhodium
plating gives the impression that the parts are made of carbon fiber.
As I mentioned this first finished movement is now just missing the
sub-disks with the digits to be finished.
François
confided the realisation and testing of his ideas to the company Renaud
& Papi in Le Locle, the daughter company of Audemar Piguet that designs and
produces APs complicated watches, but which is also one of the major
companies realising and producing complicated watches for many other
brands. Only approximately 50% of Renaud & Papi’s work load is for
AP. As such the 4N watch benefits from R&Ps long experience and the
finishing really shows. Note the main bridge with its perfectly
bevelled edges and the 19 sharp internal corners.
It has
been a long adventure from the first balking prototypes to a now
smoothly operation watch, but it has been worth it. Congratulations to
François Quentin for his success in bringing his idea with the minute
and hours carrousels to fruition. His perseverance has paid off. His
watch has a very unique display like no other. I am very much looking forward to seeing this watch completed at Basel in a couple of weeks.
