Schwarz Etienne Petite Seconde Rétrograde Tourbillon

Schwarz Etienne is a historic watchmaking company, founded as it was in 1902 by Paul Arthur Schwarz and his wife Olga Etienne.  Through most of this time they produced movements for other brands.  In the 1980s the started producing watches under their own name.  Since 2007 under a new owner they have started a new series watches using their own movements.  They have a very deep production capability and recently have joined the very small group of brands producing their own hairsprings.  This makes Schwarz Etienne a truly independent watchmaker not subject to the whims of quasi-monopoly suppliers.  For more info see the report from my recent visit to Schwarz Etienne here.




The Petite Seconde Rétrograde Tourbillon is the newest watch of their line and IMHO also the most successful.  What makes it so successful is, in my opinion, the very balanced display under the dial.  One sees all the interesting portions of the movement mechanics without being overwhelmed.  The time display is also clean and uncluttered with a nice color accent.  Take a look for yourself.




The movement features a dial-side micro-rotor as well a a retrograde seconds indication that is driven directly from the tourbillon cage.  The tourbillon beats at 3Hz and has an autonomy of 72 hours.  Interesting is that the tourbillon turns counter clockwise.  Non-watch people never noticed, but all the watchmakers look and say “wow, the tourbillon turns in the wrong direction”.  All the other tourbillons that I know turn clockwise.  A small but wonderful detail.




Schwarz Etienne gave me the opportunity to wear this watch for a month to make this report.  On the wrist the micro-rotor seems to be very still and not to wind much, but I never had any problem of lacking power so it apparently winds enough.  I did notice that the rotor does seem to wind more freely when the mainspring has run down some.  The tourbillon timekeeping was very good, the only time I had to touch the crown was to reset the time after letting the watch run down completely to check the power reserve.  Over the course a 1 month the timing error was less than 1 minute.

 






On the arm the watch wears well even if it seems a bit on the thick side at 13.7mm for a diameter of 44mm, the case form fitting well on the arm.  The strap is black alligator with green alligator lining.





The dial "background" is the anthracite movement plate which has a bead blasted surface which is outstanding for presenting all the mechanics and the dial in front. The barrel bridge is decorated with côtes de Geneve with hand polished angling.  The dial ring is green aventurine standing out from the gray background.  The dial readability is very good.




The case back has unfortunately only a small window to see the tourbillon.  It would have been nice to see the entire movement, but this is only a very minor quibble.




In daily wearing this watch got much attention, even non-watch-people noticing it.  And all the remarks positive.  With it's well balanced dial showing much mechanics and the restrained but impossible to ignore color accent the watch is a winner.




I would like to thank the people from Schwarz Etienne for the possibility to test their watch.  As each new watch they bring out seems to me to be better than the last I can't wait to see how things continue at Schwarz Etienne.