In 2010 the world got its first glimpse of Pequignet`s in

Manufacture: 71
In 2010 the world got its first glimpse of Pequignet’s in-house movement
– then known simply as EMP01. This year’s Baselworld saw the unveiling
of the first watches containing the French brand’s reliable, accurate, new
powerhouse, now known as the Calibre Royal, and currently causing quite
a stir within the industry. James Gurney and Tracey Llewellyn
The French side of the Jura Mountains has long lagged behind
as a watchmaking centre – ground that Pequignet is working hard
to capture. Founded in 1973 in Morteau, Pequignet has built
a following thanks to watches that made up in tactile elegance
anything missing in terms of horological tradition. Never quite as
on trend as the major fashion brands, Pequignet concentrates on
a longer lasting quality in its designs and has forged a reputation
for timeless, original beauty combining Swiss precision with French
elegance and spirit. And, for this reason, the brand has been
consistently popular ever since its launch. This is not to say that the
designs are bland – clearly, they are not – simply that the company
has carefully evolved designs that stay in date.
Emile Pequignet founded the company with an ambition to deliver
lasting excellence and, as the signature Moorea bracelet watches
show, design for the brand is about quality as well as looks. It’s
a well-kept secret, but Pequignet makes some of the most
comfortable and best-engineered bracelets in the business. And if
the Moorea looks a classic, that is because it first appeared in 1984,
an aeon in design terms.
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Paris Royale
Circular graining, hand chamfering,
hand-drawn strokes and côtes de
Genève design typify the Calibre Royal
collection. The Paris Royal displays
hours, minutes, small seconds, date,
day of the week and power reserve.
A year on from its unveiling, the Calibre Royal has already
demonstrated its exceptional reliability. At just 31mm
in diameter and 5.88mm in height, a large and precise
moonphase display, an 88-hour power reserve indicator
and a triple instantaneous jumping date and day have
been integrated into its plate and an integrated GMT is
due to join the family in 2012, followed by a tourbillon and
column-wheel chronograph.
French fancies
Pequignet has, however, long harboured
ambitions to create a true manufacture
movement that would bring traditional
watchmaking back to the French Jura. The
final piece of this jigsaw was put into place
when Didier Leibundgut took over the
company in 2004 and this year sees the first
fruits of that decision taking place.
Watchmaking is in Leibundgut’s blood – his
grandfather and father were both involved in
watchmaking in Moreau and his career path
had already included a stint as French brand
manager for Zenith watches and marketing
director for LVMH watches. He brought to
Pequignet a spirit of flair and passion and
a clear vision to recreate haute horlogerie
in France, manifested through his belief
that there was room in the watch world for
manufacture watches with Pequignet’s mix
of understatement and style as an alternative
to the ever more fantastic and complicated
watches the industry was concentrating on.
With a brief to design a simple honest
movement that made the best use of modern
technologies, Pequignet’s team, which
boasts experience from Switzerland’s finest
makers, set to work on what would become
the Calibre Royal. The first steps were taken
about four years ago when engineer Hoy
Van Tran and watchmaker Ludovic Perez
joined the company and began the long
process of the creation of the Calibre Royal.
According to UK brand manager Guy Allen,
the company will initially produce 3,000
units per year of what he calls, “one of the
greatest modern movements” featuring
patented systems and unique features. And
so far things look good says Allen with an
extremely positive reaction from both the
trade and the pubic. “We started with a blank
page,” explains Perez about the project
that was then code-named the MVT 1111.
“We wanted to do everything right from the
beginning, to achieve high performance in
terms of power reserve, isochronism and
especially great reliability.”
Design for life
With both Perez and Van Tran excited to
have the rare chance to design a movement
from scratch, every possible detail was
examined and the full potential of CAD
and design technology was applied, with
endless prototyping and tests carried out
through the development period. The end
result is a comparatively large automatic
movement full of clever ideas and designed
to be robust, precise, reliable and ultimately
simple to service.
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These concerns are apparent in
everything from the 72-hour power
reserve to the decision to use a larger
but slower balance than normal – 3Hz (six
beats per second) rather than 4Hz. The
balance also has a variable inertia screw,
which is both easier to set-up and service
and allows greater precision when being
regulated. Every part has been designed
to be easy to maintain and adjust, the
clearest example being that the whole
balance and escapement can be removed
without any other part being touched.
The intention from the start was for mass
production of the movement so the
aim was to be able to include different
functions from within the design instead
of the normal practice of adding separate
modules on. The basic movement
features central hours and minutes, a
small seconds hand at 4 o’clock, a large
instantaneous date and month at 12
o’clock and a power reserve indication
at 8 o’clock. Within the original design it
will be possible to fit moonphase, annual
calendar, GMT indication and a tourbillon.
Further down the line a chronograph
will be unveiled, though this will need a
redesign of the movement.
Pequignet’s slow-burn approach looks
to be paying dividends as people
increasingly look for more personal
choices that have a quality and integrity
that it has been hard to find in the past
few years.
The Rue Royale is a more classic piece than
the Paris Royal and features a precision and
integrated large moonphase indicator that
can be placed horizontally or vertically.
Rue Royale
The Royal Family
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is the Calibre Royal’s sporty
watch and features a carbon
fibre dial, mounted on a black
rubber strap.
The Royal Family
Three Strikes
Now in series production, the first models to be equipped with the Calibre Royal were announced this year:
Paris Royal
The 41mm Paris Royal features a high
level of finishing with circular-graining,
hand-bevelling,
hand-drawn
strokes
and stippling. The yellow gold case has
alternating diamond-polished and satin
finishes, overlaid horns, screw-in bezel,
anti-reflective sapphire crystal protecting
the dial and caseback and is water-resistant
to 50m.
The silvered dial features a satin-finished
chapter ring and applied Arabic numerals, a
blue power reserve indicator, small seconds
and a large date and day. The piece is
finished by a hand-stitched and beaded
alligator leather strap with butterfly clasp.
Rue Royale
The dial of the Rue Royale features the
time, month, date, moonphase indicator,
subsidiary seconds dial, and a power
reserve indicator. The stylised steel case
is a generous 42mm with decorative lugs
that complement the blued steel hands
and guilloché engraving. The Rue Royale’s
decoration continues with the circulargrained bridges, a main plate featuring snail
design and côtes de Genève pattern, as
well as a sunray finish and rhodium plating
on the oscillating weight.
The dial is silvered and textured and features
a chapter ring, small seconds in a circular satin
finish and black transferred Roman numerals.
Moorea Royal Triomphe
The sporty 44mm Moorea Royal Triomphe
has a polished black titanium shell and red
gold screw-in crown bearing the logo ‘EP’
in black rubber. Water resistant to 100m,
the piece has a black opaline dial with
faceted and brushed applied numerals, a
power reserve indicator and small seconds
featured in red gold.
As brand identity dictates, the model is
mounted on the signature Moorea grained,
satin-finished, red gold and rubber strap
with double folding clasp.
Further information: www.pequignet.com
Moorea Royal Triomphe
The Moorea Royal Triomphe
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The result of a strict organisation, culture and a thorough
technological approach, every single Pequignet timeiece
is conceived with the utmost attention to detail from the
power reserve (top left) to the grand date (top right),
winding system (bottom left) and balance (bottom right).