Horological Meandering

Gaz
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Romain Gauthier - Collection Prestige (long post)...

After a nine month wait, my Romain Gauthier Collection Prestige finally arrived, hand delivered by Romain Gauthier himself (not sure why he couldn't just give me a discount and send it via FedEx). 

As many of you are familiar, Romain’s Collection Prestige comes in four “flavours” – two in rose gold, one in white gold and one in platinum.

I selected the rose gold with champagne dial primarily for the gilt frost finishing that Romain applies to this version.  I also think that the champagne dial matches up nicely with the rose gold case.

Upon closer inspection, one can see the intricate nature of the hand guilloche.

The dial consists of three pieces made from solid 18K gold.  The hands are also crafted for solid 18K gold and then black polished.

While the dial may not be to the taste of everyone, it would be difficult to disagree that the movement is nothing short of breath taking, both in design and in finish.

Let's take a deep dive into the movement, calibre 2206 Hm, with larger photos.  I would apologise to those without broadband but seriously, in this day and age, there is no reason to be using dial up.

First stop, the balance wheel.  Note the unique design of the balance wheel, which is designed and manufactured by Romain.  He maintains that to be truly independent, he needed to be completely self-sufficient in the manufacturing of the heart of the movement.

Here is the balance wheel and mainspring before assembly.

If you look hard enough, you should be able to see part of the escape wheel and part of the pallet.  The pallet is of particular interest as rather than the usual T design, Romain’s pallet is a triangle, which from an engineering stand point provides greater rigidity and hence able to sustain greater levels of stress.  This is just one of the many interesting design features of the movement that is the result of micro engineering rather than aesthetics with the aim of increasing efficiency or strength.  The S-shaped screws also bear an interesting origin as they were designed to prevent slippage and wear on the screw heads rather than just to look good. 

Also note how polished the sinks are, even reflecting my tripod.  I also like the two toned bridge bearing the RG inscription.

All the gears are manufactured in-house by Romain and bear a striking design.  Each gear is milled from a single block of brass with a CNC machine rather than being stamped.  This gives the wheels greater rigidity as does the use of circular spoke rather than the traditional spoke design.

The perlage work underneath is also rather stunning.

The horizontal crown is also a distinguishing feature of the Collection Prestige.  Winding the crown does require some getting used to but it becomes second nature very quickly.  By placing the crown in this position, Romain is able to again enhance the efficiency of the movement by firstly reducing the number of parts required for time setting and winding and also the transfer of energy from the crown to the mainspring.  While it winds a little tight, it doesn't take that many rotations to fully wind the mainspring, which has a 60 hour power reserve.

The main bridge dominates the movement.  Here we see the evidence of excellent hand finishing by Romain’s watch maker, Sebastien Berney.  Each bridge is completely hand finished and no two bridges are alike, which Romain demonstrated with three different working examples.

Here is Sebastien working hard on hand beveling the bridge for my piece.

And here is a close up of the click, which also shows off the hand finishing of the gilt frosting on the bridge.

The main plate before assembly and gold coating but after gilt frosting has been applied by hand.  The entire movement is made from brass, which is then coated with 18K gold.  According to Romain, this is achieved by slowly rubbing the surface with diamond paste and powder in order to achieve the fine frosting, which retains a fine frosted finish even under a microscope.  Since I don't have a high power microscope with me, I'll take his word on it.

The finished main plate and bridge before gold plating and assembly.

Bits and pieces before assembly. Looks like a little hobby set, now where are those instructions?

Assembled movement, gold plated but before casing.

The finished product.  Note the subtle but yet complex shape of the case.

And of course, the wrist shot.  Measuring 41mm in diameter and 11.3mm thick, it wears well on the wrist although, it is a rather large watch.  The lack of the normal crown does help streamline the overall look.

My journey from mainstream brands to independents began with Romain back in November 2007.  This was a considerable risk for me, as up until then, I had swum in the safe end of the horological swimming pool with well established brands.  Not only was I taking a dive into the deep end, I was doing it with a relatively new brand in the independent scene.  This can be daunting when you consider that the Collection Prestige is priced equivalent to a Patek 5711, which many collectors would agreed is a “safer bet”.  However, Romain and I were able to discuss in depth his operations, which gave me the confidence in his ability to deliver.

What impressed me most about this piece is the singular vision that Romain had created.  By merging his micro engineering background with the traditions of watch making, he is able to realise and extract greater efficiency by enhancing the basic mechanical design of a wrist watch movement, which has remained largely unchanged. The result is an honest but striking piece that bears the hard work of Romain and Sebastien and a little touch of Philippe Dufour.

In summary, I love the passion that Romain has for his work and given his age, there is a huge future for him, not just for his own brand but for the role he will play with other independent watch makers. 

Thank you and I wish Romain and Sebastien all the best for the future.

Cheers

Gaz

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