Meistersinger

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UHREN
Meistersinger — Pocket-watch movement with modular addition
Paleograph — Simultaneously sporty and elegant
Meistersinger — Back to the origins with a chronograph
Paleograph — Monopusher chronograph with column-wheel
Magazin January/February 2014
UHREN-MAGAZIN
Special Issue
Exclusively for
MEISTERSINGER
Meistersinger
Paleograph
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TEST AND TECHNOLOGY
Back to
the Origins
Meistersinger — Paleograph
A chronograph in Meistersinger’s collection would seem to contradict this brand’s philosophic gesture,
which invites us to experience time in a more relaxed way. With its new Paleograph,
the watch brand from Münster combines the single-handed style of the first clocks with the look
of the first stopwatches from the early 19th century, thus transporting watch lovers back to the origin
in two different senses. Is this concept a success? Our test answers the question.
I
f you type the word »paleo« into a search
engine, the first websites that appear on
your list contain tips for a healthy diet. It
seems that nowadays »paleo« denotes a nutritional fad. Click one of the links and a website
will explain that the paleo diet is based on primeval tastes. A paleo menu features foods
eaten by our Stone Age ancestors: if they ate it
in prehistoric times, you’re allowed to eat it
today; if not, not! Incidentally, this diet really
touches the nerve of our times. In an era characterized by superfluity and excess, people
yearn for the simple and the pure. So »paleo«
means »original« and »primeval.« The neologism »paleograph« would denote a »primeval writer« or an instrument to show time in
its primeval form. But can this type of time be
stopped and measured as elapsed intervals?
Meistersinger’s new wristwatch is a chronograph, and this fact alone suffices to stop a
connoisseur in his tracks. After all, the brand’s
philosophy is definitely not about pursuing
time to the nearest fraction of a second, not
about feeling hurried, and not about watching
precious time slip through your fingers and
run irretrievably away. Like a sundial and like
the first mechanical clocks of the late Middle
Ages, Meistersinger watches distill the time
UHREN–MAGAZIN 1 / 2014
display into one lone indicator. This is intended to produce a welcome deceleration so the
watch’s owner can perceive time with a greater
sense of relaxation. And now Meistersinger
wants to stop time altogether? This seems like
a contradiction. This brand first launched a
chronograph in 2008. The so-called »Monograph« is a classical two-button chronograph
with vertically arranged totalizers: one for the
elapsed minutes and another for the elapsed
seconds. The timepiece is animated by a selfwinding ETA/Valjoux 7750. The elapsed seconds are shown from the center of the dial.
The Chronograph Button
Is Integrated into the Crown
We tested the Monograph soon after its
launch and we were duly impressed, although
we noted that its concept seemed to contradict
the brand’s philosophy. The difference between the Paleograph and its forerunner begins with the appearance. Each of the two models has two subdials, but the new watch
arranges them along the dial’s equator: the
subdial at the »9« shows the continually running seconds, while its counterpart at the »3«
indicates the elapsed minutes. The chrono-
2
graph mechanism starts when the wearer
presses its button, which is integrated into the
crown. The time can be set by pulling this button outward. A slight but palpable resistance
informs the user that the mainspring has been
fully wound. The caliber has no stop-seconds
function, so it’s difficult to set this watch to the
nearest second after withdrawing its crown.
This task is more likely to succeed if you first
set the hour-hand to its proper position, return the crown to its zero position, and finally
begin winding the watch when the time shown
on the Paleograph’s dial is synchronous with
the current time. All in all, the Paleograph’s
user-friendliness and the displays on its dial
concentrate on the essentials.
The same can be said for the styling of the
timepiece as a whole. The tripartite stainless
steel case is 43 millimeters in diameter. The
brushed, satin-finished middle piece of the
case transitions smoothly into the horns,
which are likewise brushed along their sides,
but glossy polished on their upper and lower
surfaces. The horns taper pointedly
downward, but they don’t touch the wearer’s
skin when the watch is worn, so the points
aren’t uncomfortable. The alligator-skin
wristband fits neatly between the horns and
WWW.WATCHTIME.NET
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TEST AND TECHNOLOGY
Rate
Meistersinger
Wearing
Test
Average daily rate
+ 2.8 s
Fully wound
After 24 hours
Timing
Machine
Rate
Amplitude
Rate
Amplitude
ZO
+ 7.2 s
307°
+ 3.6 s
279°
ZU
– 2.7 s
312°
+ 3.8 s
260°
9H
+ 4.6 s
272°
+ 3.6 s
223°
6H
+ 0.2 s
258°
– 0.9 s
231°
3H
+ 0.0 s
265°
+ 6.6 s
225°
X
+ 1.9 s
283°
+ 3.3 s
244°
D
9.9 s
54°
7.5 s
56°
DVH
– 0.7 s
– 0.6 s
DI
– 7.0 s
– 4.5 s
Explanation of rate results
Horizontal positions: DU dial up, DD dial down. Vertical
positions: 9H nine o’clock up (crown down), 6H six
o’clock up (crown left), 3H three o’clock up (crown up).
X average of values (average daily rate), D difference
between the largest and smallest value, DVH difference
between the average value of the vertical positions and
the average value of the horizontal positions, DI difference between 6H and DU.
MYN13: The movement is
embellished with a classical brushed pattern so
that one’s gaze isn’t distracted by sophisticated
ornamentation, but can
fully concentrate on the
finely crafted columnwheel mechanism.
WWW.WATCHTIME.NET
helps to make this chronograph comfortable
to wear. The other end of the strap slips easily
into the stainless steel folding clasp. The
wristband is 20 millimeters wide where it
joins the horns: this contributes to the elegant
appearance of the timepiece, but initially
seems too narrow for the relatively large and
rather tall case. Our test on the wrist showed
that this impression was mistaken: the strap
keeps the watch comfortably and securely fastened to its wearer’s forearm. The slim, glossy
polished bezel gives the dial ample space for
optimal legibility. The silver-colored face
bears an unobtrusive sunburst pattern. Arabic
numerals and slender indices, both printed in
black, mark the hours in five-minute increments. They’re surrounded by another
scale: it’s accurate to the nearest second and is
necessary for using the chronograph. The
wearer shouldn’t allow himself to be confused
by the fact that these indices are not collinear
with the hour strokes. A bit of practice soon
makes it easy to read the chronograph. The
elapsed minutes, on the other hand, are effortlessly legible on their subdial at »3 o’clock.«
This counter tallies up to 30 elapsed minutes
before its little black hand comes full circle
and begins another orbit. The subdial for the
continually running seconds is positioned diametrically opposite at »9 o’clock.« Although
we wondered whether this display makes
4
sense on a timepiece which lacks to-the-minute
indication, it’s nonetheless an attractive detail
because it assures that something on the dial
is always clearly in motion. The hour-hand
moves too, of course, but its slow progress isn’t
instantly perceptible. Green luminous material has been applied to dots at »3«, »6«, »9«
and »12 o’clock«.
This too is a nice detail because it adds
colorful accents to an otherwise very uniformlooking dial, but the luminosity isn’t genuinely
useful because the hands don’t glow in the
dark. When the lights are dim, this timepiece
is difficult or impossible to read. The Paleograph’s unobtrusive styling fits tastefully into
Meistersinger’s existing collection, but this
watch’s inner life is all the more interesting. In
many respects, this timepiece is indeed a »primeval writer«, with a construction enlivened
by classical details.
A hand-wound ETA/Unitas 6498-1 ticks
inside the case. Originally conceived for pocket-watches, this caliber doesn’t necessarily
seem appropriate for the chronographic complication. On Meistersinger’s behalf, the Swiss
firm of Synergies Horlogeres added a modular
plate to this archetypal caliber. Modules are
usually inserted onto the dial-side of a movement, where they’re invisible to the wearer,
but the Paleograph reveals the added construction through the case’s generously glazed
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TEST AND TECHNOLOGY
Meistersinger Paleograph
As a reference to the first timepieces with built-in elapsedtime function from the early
19th century, the Paleograph is
equipped with a column-wheel
mechanism. It can be started by
pressing a button that’s integrated into the crown.
back. Thanks to manual winding, there’s no
rotor to block the view of the movement. Ample size is another advantage of the Unitas caliber: its spacious plane provides plenty of
room for viewing the module. This marks the
first time in the recent history of mechanical
watches that a pocket-watch movement has
been augmented with a chronograph module.
In accord with Meistersinger’s philosophy, the
engineers who accomplished this were inspired by the origins of the chronograph per
se. The first portable timepieces with built-in
stopwatch function were built in the 19th century. The start, stop and zero-return functions
were controlled by a column-wheel and triggered by a single button.
A Large Glazed Back Reveals a
Neatly Crafted Movement
Compared to coulisse chronographs, which
were developed to facilitate mass production,
column-wheel chronographs are considered to
be the more technically elaborate variant.
Cognizant of this prestige, Synergies Horlogeres equips the Paleograph with a columnwheel mechanism operated via a button integrated into the crown. Horizontal gear
coupling is further evidence of horological
savoir-faire. The tidy craftsmanship lavished
on the components is readily visible through
the glass back. A meticulously executed
brushed pattern and sand-blasted bridges
create a uniformly matte surface. This unpretentious look is a good match for the sleekly
simple aesthetics of the Paleograph and is fully in harmony with the philosophy of the MeisterSinger brand. Everything looks very harmonious. One shouldn’t forget, however, that
it’s quite challenging to equip a pocket-watch
movement with a chronograph module. Our
test confirmed the manufacturer’s claim that
the Paleograph will keep running for 46 hours
between windings, but it’s recommendable to
wind a manually wound watch at approximately the same time every day in order to ensure a uniform rate. Our measurements on the
timing machine confirmed this. The fully
wound Paleograph gained an average of 1.9
seconds per day; the daily gain increased to
3.3 seconds after the watch was allowed to run
for 24 hours. When fully wound and with the
chronograph switched on, the amplitude declined from 283° to 254° on the average. Of
course, this also affects the operation of the
chronograph. The watch accordingly gains six
sec-onds. Amplitudes decline farther after the
Paleograph has run for 24 hours with its chronograph switched on. This suggests that the
stopwatch function will create difficulties for
the user after two days have elapsed with-out
manual winding. The same findings were confirmed by a fourteen-day test.
If this watch is regularly wound, it runs at
a steady rate and no prob-lems are encountered when using the chronograph. A bit of
practice is needed before you can swiftly read
the elapsed time because you must concentrate
your gaze on the relatively narrow scale along
the dial’s outer ring. The uniform color scheme
shared by the time display and the stopwatch
function exacerbates the difficulty. Furthermore, the chronograph’s elapsed-seconds hand
doesn’t advance in the same increments that
are marked on the scale: instead, it progresses
in much smaller motions, so genuinely exact
measurements aren’t always possible. In all
other respects, this watch is comfortable to
wear and convenient to use. Its diameter of 43
millimeters isn’t unduly large, although the
case is a noticeably tall 15.8 millimeters. This
shouldn’t pose a problem for men with burly
forearms. And with a weight of just 112 grams,
the Paleograph thrones lightly atop its wearer’s
wrist, where it occasionally calls attention to
itself with its relatively loud ticking. But this
audible volume is usual for a pocket-watch
movement, and the steady ticking sound lends
a special charm to this watch.
Various details repeatedly remind the
wearer of the meaning behind this watch’s
name. The Paleograph’s styling consciously
references the origins. Meistersinger not only
pays homage to the genre of the monopusher
column-wheel chronograph as it was built in
the 19th century, but also opts for an authentic
pocket-watch movement, to which a modular
plate is added. This wristwatch could very well
appeal to many enthusiasts of mechanical timekeeping. With neither fanfare nor self-aggrandizement, Meistersinger combines its
philosophy of decel-erated time with both the
modern zeitgeist and the desire to stop time
and measure elapsed intervals. With a retail
price of 5,498 euros, the Paleograph is a bit
costlier than most other Meistersinger watches, but the extra expense is definitely justified for a chronograph wristwatch that encases
a special caliber.
Text: Melissa Gößling
Photos: Zuckerfabrik Fotodesign
Data about the Watch
Meistersinger
Manufacturer
Meistersinger GmbH & Co. KG
Model
Paleograph
Reference number
EDSC101
Functions
Hour with five-minute
subdivisions, subdial for the
seconds, chronograph (60
elapsed seconds, 30 minutes)
Case
• Diameter
• Height
• Crystals
Stainless steel
43.0 mm
15.8 mm
Sapphire, cambered,
antireflective on inner
surface (above dial), pane of
sapphire crystal in back
50 meters/5 bar according to
German Industrial Norm
• Watertightness
Wristband
• Width at horns
• Clasp
Alligator skin
20 mm
Double folding clasp
Total weight
112.0 g
Model variants
With blue dial,
Reference EDSC108:
5,498 euros
Flaws in tested model
None
Data about the Movement MYN13
Basic caliber
ETA/Unitas 6498-1,
hand-wound
Produced since
2013
Diameter
36.6 mm
Height
7.60 mm
No. of jewels
20 rubies
Power reserve
Ca. 46 hours
Balance
• Frequency
• Shape
• Hairspring
• Hairspring’s shape
• Shock absorption
• Fine adjustment
Gold-plated brass balance
18,000 A/h = 2.5 Hz
Closed hoop
Nivarox 2
Flat
Incabloc
Swan’s neck spring
Decorative patterns
Brushed pattern
Beveled edges?
Yes
Skeletonized?
No
Screws
Blued
Modular architecture?
Yes
Chronometer certification? No
Seal of quality?
No
Price category
Under 10,000 euros
Price of tested watch
5,498 euros
Evaluation
••••••
[4.83]
Pros
Constructive specialty
User friendliness
Rate values
Timelessly elegant design
Wearing comfort
Cons
Legibility of the chronograph
Not legible in the dark
Constructive height of the
case
Pangaea
Automatic
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