Vianney Halter Goldpfeil: Baselworld 2001 Review

Many of my WIS friends know I love Vianney Halter’s Goldpfeil. This is no secret. If you didn’t know it yet, now you do, even if you skip the remaining paragraphs, as long as you have noticed my avatar and know what it is.

Several years ago, I wrote an essay about this watch for an oversea watch magazine. Here is a rough translation in English. It is a bit old now, and my rambling is quite long. Nevertheless I hope you may still enjoy it.

There is really no need to introduce Vianney Halter. So let me start with Goldpfeil the company and the project…





Goldpfeil is a German luxury label. The company was founded in 1856. The Goldpfeil brand name was registered in 1930. For more than a century, Goldpfeil has been focusing on its premium leather business. In 1998, Goldpfeil merged to Egana Group. Following the foot steps of other luxury brands such as Montblanc, Louis Vuitton, Bvlgari, and Dunhill, Goldpfeil was rapidly expanding its product lines into luxury watch sector.

As part of this new marketing strategy, in 2000 EganaGoldpfeil acquired German watch manufacturer Junghans Uhren. However, Junghans was not a high end watch brand. In an attempt to quickly bring Goldpfeil to top of the chain in the watch world, something else had to be done.

Great minds think alike. Like Harry Winston, Goldpfeil initiated joint projects with established independent watchmakers to build new watches for the brand.  Great minds also differ. While Harry Winston started its Opus 1 with only one AHCI watchmaker Francois-Paul Journe, essentially remodeling his groundbreaking Resonance and Tourbillon with new case and dial, Goldpfeil sought after seven other AHCI members to work out a total of 14 watches all from scratch at the same time.

I once had the chance to ask Max Busser, one of my heroes, about what was really going on behind the scene during that exciting time at the dawn of the new millennium. Was it a true coincidence that both houses were running similar projects in top secret, not knowing what the other party was doing?  Max told me that at least for him, until days before Basel 2001, he never realized someone else was working on the same concept.

Goldpfeil released two series of watches in Basel 2001. The first series is of seven unique pieces, which were auctioned by Christie's more than a year later, on November 20, 2002. The other series is limited edition of seven models, limited to 108 pieces per each model. The AHCI watchmakers who worked with Goldpfeil are Svend Andersen, Vincent Calabrese, Vianney Halter, Frank Jutzi, Bernhard Lederer, Antoine Preziuso, and of URWERK Baumgartner brothers with Martin Frei. Among all the 14 watches, my favorite has been Vianney Halter’s Goldpfeil Jumping Hours Moonphase from the limited edition series.





Aesthetics:
This is apparently a design watch. Designed by Pascal Pages and Vianney Halter, it is one of the very few watches that constantly remind me of more than just a beautiful watch. It is truly a piece of modern art. The geometry of this watch is a fascinating study of mathematical beauty. A lot of times when I look at it, I can’t help wandering my mind to Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The endless permutations of the basic shapes: rectangles, squares, circles, and triangles, presented in four simple colors: silver, white, red, and blue, and in three dimensions mixed with straight lines at front and curves on the side… this can go on and on. The overall tone of the exterior is a bit cold, yet romantic, as reflected by the ball pein hammered "raindrops" (all done by hand, drop by drop) filled on the dial side between the three otherwise isolated openings. The focus in the front view is the blued minute hand paired with the red enameled second hand. The minute hand is actually the Goldpfeil arrow, a common design element also visible in other Goldpfeil watches of the two series. The contrast of the blue and red on the ivory silver background is very dramatic yet pleasant to the eyes. The contrast between polished and brushed surface on the case, and also the crown, is more subtle yet very elegant as well. Even the dark blue Goldpfeil alligator strap becomes an indispensable part of the watch.




Functions:
This watch tells moon phase besides hour, minute and second. Time reading from this watch can be a little odd but very fun. At first glance, one can be easily mistaken by the minute/second hands, thinking they were hour/minute. This illusion is further enhanced by the jumping hour, as it looks more like the date window in a conventional dial layout. But quickly you will get used to the reality, and perhaps will like it too as I do. The jumping hour jumps precisely and instantly, with no dragging or any hesitation. The moon phase is one of my favorites. Its design falls in the same genre of abstract expression. A cool beauty! This moon phase is also a highly accurate one, with deviation of one day per 139 years compared to the usual 122 years on most of high end watches. Like in other Vianney Halter’s watches, neither the jumping hour nor the moon phase of the Goldpfeil is a high complication, but each is superbly overdone in typical Vianney Halter manner.






Specification:
The watch case is made of 18K white gold, in 39mmx30mm with 10mm thickness. A total of four sapphires are used. The sapphire on the back is round shaped and only reveals portion of the movement. The movement is rectangular shaped and built only for this watch. Vianney Halter used a Peseux main plate but essentially made all other parts by himself. It is arguably Vianney’s first in-house movement before the VH200 for Trio. The automatic rotor has an avant-garde appeal which complements the neo-classic case design very well. On the dial side, the rectangular aperture on the upper left shows off the jumping hour, the circle on the upper right displays the moon phase, and the square below has the minute and second hands.




Operation:
The Goldpfeil is a fun watch not only to look at, but also to use and play. Time and moon phase setting is super easy. Vianney made it work so neatly, by turning the crown in one direction (counter clockwise) to adjust the time, and the other direction (clockwise) to set the moon phase. This reminds me of the similar crown mechanism in Journe's Resonance. I don’t consider it as a mere coincidence, knowing these two master watchmakers had been close friends during their early career years in Paris.




Handling:
This watch has a nickname “camera watch” for its unique look and handling. Somehow it makes me thinking of Leica IIIf Red Dial Self Timer. The crown, cut from a single piece of white gold, has beautiful and sharp edges and looks like an enlarged column wheel. Indeed it works like the wind knob of the Leica. Yet the winding is so smooth, even more so than advancing the film in the camera. In fact, its winding is the smoothest among all watches that I ever had pleasure to have handled. And what’s most fascinating about it, is when you wind the crown, you got this mixed feeling at your finger tips as if they were gliding through a softest velvet blanket and the blade of a knife at the same time. Now, like many owners of this watch, I do have complaint but only one -- the buckle. It is very artistically designed and made, but not practical to use. It's just not easy to put on. In spite of this, the watch is comfortable to wear. It fits my ~7 inch wrist perfectly. I especially enjoy wearing it in breezy summer days. It is also a robust watch. For quite a long time, the daily beater of Vianney Halter himself was his Goldpfeil No. 000.




Ten years passed after Basel 2001. The Opus saga continues. Just two months ago we witnessed the arrival of Opus 11. The Goldpfeil project, unfortunately, saw a different ending. It turned out to be a commercial failure, albeit eventually getting over all technical road blocks. One can’t help making an interesting observation, that just two years later after Goldpfeil, in 2003, Vianney Halter created another masterpiece, this time for Harry Winston: the Opus 3. Even though it took seven years and several other watchmakers to make the final delivery from Vianney’s prototype, Opus 3 has always been held dear in many people’s hearts including mine. It is one of my all time favorites and certainly a legend in modern watchmaking. So is Vianney’s Goldpfeil.