ANTARCTIQUE PASSAGE DE DRAKE AFTERGLOW

An effortlessly cool timepiece that introduces a new dial edition to the collection, the Czapek Antarctique Passage de Drake Afterglow is a stunning example of contemporary independent watchmaking. Featuring a vibrant purple dial rendered with the company’s emblematic ‘Stairway to Eternity’ motif, the watch is housed with a 40.5mm stainless steel case, and wears on a superb integrated bracelet. Distinctively sporty in personality, the model enjoys the advantage of the company’s acclaimed automatic Czapek SXH5 in-house mechanical calibre, decorated to Haute Horlogerie standards, and is water resistant to 120m to perfectly capture the spirit of the active, outdoor life.

Measuring an unobtrusive 40.5mm across, and just 10.6mm tall, the Czapek Antarctique Passage de Drake Afterglow is a thoroughly modern design with sleek lines and a wrist-hugging, slender profile. The wholistic styling of the watch continues almost seamlessly from case to bracelet as the brushed stainless steel links attach to each other and to the case itself via a series of polished C shaped links. An integral part of the Antarctique design, the bracelet features a folding clasp, and is also easily removed to be replaced with a rubber alternative which is also supplied.

The visual highlight of the watch is its purple dial which is achieved using PVD treatment, and which features the company’s registered trapezoidal ‘Stairway to Eternity’ pattern. Endlessly fascinating, the three-dimensional aspect of the motif stands out and catches the eye, playing with the light and casting tiny shadows as the watch moves with the wrist, and it provides an excellent contrast for the steel hands and indices which have luminous accents allowing for full readability in poor light conditions. The sweeping seconds hand is long and slender and is tipped in vivid red to complement the marker at the top of the dial. A date window at the six o’clock position completes the functions.

Inside the Czapek Antarctique Afterglow watch beats the company’s SXH5 self-winding calibre entirely designed, developed and assembled in-house. Finished to the exacting standards of Haute Horlogerie, it features a darkened, sandblasted mainplate, with mirror polishing, anglage and bevelling applied by hand to its components. Visible through the sapphire exhibition caseback, it is a breathtaking display of mechanical architecture, distinguished by its cascading series of skeletonised bridges, and its inner workings and the detailing of the free sprung balance and going train of interconnecting wheels and gears are fully revealed. Offset and fitted flush onto the main plate to shave excess height off the movement, the energy for the single barrel comes from the 100% recycled solid platinum micro rotor, whose constant free spinning rotations provide the chronometer-rated 28’800vib/h mechanism with a minimum of 60 hours of power reserve when fully wound.

A captivating timepiece brimming with distinctive character and class, the Czapek Antarctique Passage de Drake Afterglow represents a truly alluring proposition.