Independents
Small-luxury-world's personal review of the Christophe Claret Kantharos offers a firsthand look at this complex mono-pusher chronograph. The article highlights the watch's striking mechanism and constant force escapement, providing valuable insights and live pictures from Basel 2013, making a 10-year-old forum post relevant to contemporary enthusiasts.
You probably have already seen the Press Release and some reports
from fellow PuristS. Nonetheless I wanted
to share my pictures and thoughts
after my visit in Basel 2013.
What we have here is a mono-pusher
chronograph with striking mechanism
and constant force escapement from
a
well-known and outstanding watchmaker, known especially for his highly complicated
watches. So far it is quite
mouthwatering, isn´t it? At least for me it was and
I was really keen on to see it in Basel. The teaser before Basel
did a good job 
The word Sonnerie
on the dial caused my curiosity even more, but at the end I expected more or
should I say
something different than “just” a nice sound when using the
chronograph.
But let´s start from the beginning instead of judging too early.
First impressions :
It is a modern and sporty looking chronograph with additional
spice – technical and visual features of haute-horlogerie.
There is a lot to
observe and the readability is good.
Inside we see a very interesting movement which is designed,
developed and assembled in-house. It is not build up
“layer by layer”, it is fully integrated and that is for sure an
essential part of the beauty.
The front side of the movement …
… and the back side, both look amazing – because of the
features, the execution and the finish shown.
The sapphire back and the open
worked rotor allows enjoying the beauty of the very complex movement
and had to
be covered in more than just one picture
Even the dial allows you to appreciate the striking part of
the movement and the constant force escapement,
without disturbing the
readability of the watch. Readability is also good when it comes to the time
indication
in general, as well as for the chronograph function.
Note: If you observe any
kind of “tiny flaws” in the next close-ups please keep in mind that I took the
pictures of a prototype.
No doubts, the serial production will be perfect.
The case is well done as well and looks good from all sides.
The side view shows that the watch is not
thin (Height: 15.83 mm), but
absolutely wearable for what it is.
The clasp looks nice and is quite comfortable, but without big guesses a scratch magnet.
Always very important for me is, how does it look & feel on my wrist.
The case diameter is 45mm, but even on my 6.5 inch wrist it
is comfortable and looks well. Maybe not perfect
for business occasions, but
that is not a big issue for such a casual/sporty watch.
The watch is available in several versions and I saw most of
them. For taking pictures, only the pink
gold/anthracite titanium version was
available. There have been just too many people who wanted to see
this novelty,
which is quite understandable.
My personal favorite is …
… the titanium version with rhodium plated dial (second watch
in the picture above). It looks sporty without being
too sporty and it is not
too heavy on the wrist. I was surprised to see so many different options at
that time, to be
honest. But diversity doesn´t hurt, at least not the customer.
Final conclusion :
It is a very nice offer from Christophe Claret and an affordable
one, compared to his watches in the past.
One gets a hell of a watch, with 558 very
well executed components and 75 (!) jewels. Something special you
don´t see
every day.
Still think the word Sonnerie is somehow misleading, but this is the only thing I don´t like that much.
So if you like chronographs with additional spice, you
request something special and you are in the market for
something like this -
you should have a closer look.
Oliver
PS: If you are interested in more technical details I would
recommend using our search function and having a
look at the previous posts
about this novelty. Thanks!
And I will come back to it later. I found the idea to add the "sound" feature excellent... like a starter at the beginning of the race. And I also found the price quite reasonable for a Claret watch with such contents. Thanks for the presentation Oliver. Fx
The movement looks amazing, love it. The watch is not my style, but nice. Thanks for sharing, Oliver. best vte
It's an amazing watch. I was also deep impressed when I've seen it @ Baselworld. But the combination sound+chronograph is not new. A couple of years ago GlashĂĽtte Original made the PanoRetroGraph with a countdown function and a little <ding> at the end of it. In my eyes one of the most underrated watches ever. stere
Excellent report and photos. I have just researched the model to see how the Sonnerie works and how it looked in the various metals. I wonder if there are any other brands that uses this can of sound function in their chronographs?
This thread is active on the Independents forum with 4 replies. Share your knowledge with fellow collectors.
Join the Discussion →
