Last week, we were able to visit the REXHEP REXHEPI Atelier in Old Town Geneva to see the all-new Chronograph Flyback (abbreviated as, RRCHF). We photographed the watch, spent a few hours examining its fine details, and spoke at length with the master watchmaker about his latest creation. It’s a stunning timepiece – photographs extremely well, yet remains even more impressive in the metal.
As with any watch of this standard, the high-level outline only tells a small part of the story. Here, we’ll start with the timepiece’s specifications and functions, then move deeper into the details that truly define the REXHEP REXHEPI Chronograph Flyback.
The REXHEP REXHEPI Chronograph Flyback
Arriving in two variations, black Grand Feu enamel dial with rose gold case and stormy blue Grand Feu enamel dial with platinum case, the RRCHF is a flyback chronograph. Hours and minutes are displayed at 12 o’clock, instantaneous chronograph minute at 4 o’clock, and a running second at 8 o’clock, with the central flyback second tying it all together akin to a regulator. The ultra-traditional enamel is juxtaposed with hyper-modern sapphire crystal subdials, allowing for collectors to glimpse at the intricate chronograph mechanics moving beneath the dial.
Consisting of 320 components and 30 jewels, the chronograph caliber features a symmetrical architecture. The bridges are closest to the sapphire crystal caseback, creating structure and order for the complex chronograph to live beneath. Finished with Côtes de Genève, black polish, circular graining, and poli-bercé (a finishing technique that creates a polished dome effect), the escapement is an in-house, traditional Swiss lever.
It should be mentioned that building an in-house, fully integrated chronograph is no easy task. Nearly everyone, including the biggest brands from Patek to Lange to Vacheron, used ébauche movements for their chronographs until more recent history. Many others with in-house chronographs have used an ébauche movement as the blueprint for the architecture or adopted a modular construction. In-house and fully-integrated, this is a big swing in terms of movement construction from the REXHEP REXHEPI Atelier, and no surprise that it took more than a few years to move from idea to prototype to production.
Many timepieces focus primarily on the dial and movement. The case is kind of an afterthought. That is not how things are here. Years with Jean-Pierre Hagman have a huge impact on the REXHEP REXHEPI Atelier in the most positive ways. The elongated lugs in the RRCCII return, but the rest of the case is a significant evolutionary step for Rexhepi. 38.8mm in diameter and 9.7mm in thickness, it features an elegant step on the bezel, adding both more visual depth as well as great texture for the touch. Composed of 52 components, it rounds out a timepiece that delivers on years of anticipation from watch collectors.
What Stands Out on the RRCHF
The thing about watchmaking is, it’s all about the details. The details are where things become interesting, different, innovative. A watch is always a small surface area to express anything – personality, design, creativity. So, you always have to zoom in to see what is really happening. Zooming in here, the RRCHF has a few very fascinating features, all of which push Rexhepi farther along his path of growth and development as a watchmaker.
(1) The Indented Hour Hand at 12 O’Clock
It’s genuinely very rare that something is done for the first time in watchmaking. It’s possible that this isn’t a first, that it lives in some obscure nook of the craft’s long history, but we have never seen (as well as the watchmakers that we asked) anything like the polished, indented hour hand at 12 o’clock. It’s an inversion of the usual hand shape. Rather than rounded outer edges, it’s actually rounded in the metal to the edge. In person, it catches light in a way that draws you to the hour first, as one does naturally when reading the time. It’s a fascinating way of thinking about how design can draw the eye closer, or more easily, to the place it already wants to go.
(2) Movement Architecture That Sends a Message
Everyone will talk about the movement on this timepiece. Above all else, Rexhepi is an outstanding movement constructor. What most will not talk about is the subtle message in this in-house integrated chronograph caliber: the column wheel is obscured. It’s there, you can see it semi-hidden beneath the minute counting wheel at 8 o’clock on the caseback. This is a decision that very much goes against the grain of fine watchmaking norms. The watch industry has for ages put the column wheel on a pedestal. It is the marketed thing in a high-end chronograph, most of the time.
The other aspect of this movement that feels noteworthy is the finishing. Everything you would expect from Rexhepi, especially the wide beveled edges. What is unusual and very playful is the mirror-polished bridge spanning the entire diameter of the movement from 3 to 9 o’clock. This bridge interrupts the Côtes de Genève that moves vertically across the other four bridges. Normally, any form of interruption of the Côtes de Genève would be considered unusual at best, but when specifically interrupted by such a wonderfully huge, black-polished bridge, the rules of watchmaking are bent.
(3) The Traditional, Modern Minute Track
Unmistakably REXHEP REXHEPI, the minute track is both beautiful and clever. It follows the aesthetic for minute tracks on the RRCCI and RRCCII, and is a great representation of the watchmaker’s balancing act between past and future. It feels very “vintage,” a railroad minute track, yet the way that it jumps “in and out” – creating space for the subdials and then removing space where the dial is open – is something extremely modern.
(4) The Instantaneous Chronograph Minute
The instantaneous chronograph hour is not so uncommon that it doesn’t exist, but this is generally a mechanism that only the “biggest” players in watchmaking have in their catalog. Only the flyback second hand sweeps, the chronograph minute subdial at 4 o’clock snaps to the next with lightning speed with every passing sixty seconds. There are different ways to “read” this unusual addition to the RRCHF, but one of the most obvious is, this is a flex for a manufacture consisting of ~50 people. It’s the finishing touch on the in-house integrated flyback chronograph caliber, the cherry on top. Something that places REXHEP REXHEPI in the conversation with in-house, fully-integrated chronograph calibers created by brands with facilities orders of magnitude larger.
What makes Rexhepi so great, fundamentally, is that he is a watchmaker’s watchmaker. He researches and knows the history of watchmaking extremely well. He’s aligned his taste, creative vision, and execution as a watchmaker in such a way that every timepiece feels like a natural extension of the man himself. He is neither overly grounded in history, making it an idol to worship, nor detached from the tradition, living in some self-made, ahistorical present. Whenever we speak with him about his creations, there is always the sense that he wants the watch to speak on its own. Picasso never wanted to explain his work, he rarely did – it always spoke for itself, or it spoke to those with the ears to listen. The RRCHF is such a timepiece in modern independent watchmaking. It’s well-executed, an expression of the atelier’s identity and increasing in-house capabilities across movement, dial, case, strap, even métiers d’art with the enamel workshop. The RRCHF speaks clear messages for those with ears to listen.
Special thanks Rexhep, Annabelle, Alex, and Tamara for the hospitality at the atelier in Geneva!