Czapek’s Place Vendôme Complicité, made with master watchmaker Bernhard Lederer, gains heat-blued hands and a domed sapphire crystal.
Czapek today officially introduces the Place Vendôme Complicité Stardust Cobalt, limited to 13 pieces of the 100 in the first edition. The brand first showed it to journalists and buyers at Watches and Wonders.
Like the Stardust of August 2023, it is in white gold, but its indexes and hands are heat-blued, set against a grey, circular-grained track. A domed sapphire crystal replaces the original glass-box for a clearer view of the mechanism.
Two escapements sit beneath a butterfly-shaped sapphire bridge at 12 o’clock, joined by a central differential, and the sub-dials keep the pyramid layout of the original Place Vendôme. The hand-wound Calibre 8 has a 72-hour power reserve and 18 internal angles chamfered by hand.
CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel says the domed crystal makes this “the twist in the white gold model that many had been waiting for”.
Czapek describes its method as établissage, or horizontal manufacturing: working with independent specialists, as a conductor leads an orchestra.
The Basics
Brand: Czapek
Model: Place Vendôme Complicité Stardust Cobalt
Diameter: 41.8mm (lug to lug 48.22mm)
Thickness: 14.8mm with lugs (13.3mm on the wrist)
Case material: 18K white gold; domed sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective treatment; sandblasted, hollowed-out lugs
Dial: Open-worked, with double escapement, on a grainé main plate with silver galvanic treatment; circular-grained hours and minutes track; faceted blued indexes; partially skeletonised blued sword hands
Water resistance: 50m (5 atm)
Strap: Alligator, 18K white gold folding buckle
Limited edition: 13 pieces
The Movement
Calibre: 8, created with Bernhard Lederer; double escapement with differential gearing
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, power reserve indicator
Winding: Manual
Power reserve: 72 hours
Frequency: 3Hz (21,600 vph)
Images courtesy of Czapek.