From every angle, every view and every touch, the David Candaux DC6 Night Forest watch has been crafted to stir the aesthetic senses. The use of unidirectional carbon on the caseband and bezel gives the piece an immediate organic feel, with the wholesome texture of the cutting-edge material recalling natural wood grain. Clasped within cleanly defined titanium brancards which extend to the elongated lugs, the basin-shaped case profile remains unbroken due to the ingenious ‘magic crown’ placed at the 6 o’clock. Sized at 45mm diameter, with a height of 11.29mm, the housing incorporates a sapphire crystal caseback and weighing only 45 grams, it boasts an impressive water resistance of 50 metres.  

From the front, the watch has a tactile character. While fine hand-guilloché is often shielded beneath sapphire crystal, on the DC6 Night Forest, the texture of the Pointes du Risoux motif is exposed, so one can feel every nuance of the artisanship beneath the finger. On the left, the dial for the hours and minutes is rendered in vibrant, fresh topaz green with a sunray finish achieved by hand, and with an airbrushed darkened edge, and is fitted with white lacquered titanium hands whose convex forms conform to the shape of their dial. Providing perfect equipoise, the flying tourbillon which is placed within its own demi-sphere on the right is offset at an incline of 30º. Within its round aperture, it rotates every sixty seconds, and a little pointer indicates the seconds while the tiny mechanism revolves on its axis. At the 12, a curved letterbox aperture displaying the power reserve finishes the arrangement.

Inside the case, and visible through the sapphire exhibition caseback the movement is entirely manufactured and finished by hand in the watchmaker’s atelier in the village of Le Solliat, using traditional local Joux Valley know-how. A breathtakingly beautiful work of uncompromising precision and exquisite finesse, the manual winding calibre is manufactured in natural titanium, and is finished with hand-polished beveled angles, and with mirror-polished, straight grained and perlage techniques, in addition to the maker’s unique Côtes du Solliat decoration. Even where it is largely hidden from sight, the watchmaker’s obsession with perfection and individuality are to be found, as the plates and the gear train are inclined at 3º and cascade in subtle but obvious increments from one to the next. Beating at 21’600 vib/h it derives 55 hours of power reserve from its two coaxial in-series barrels.

A truly profound talent from the very cradle of Swiss watchmaking in the Vallée de Joux, David Candaux is a third generation master watchmaker who follows in the footsteps of his grandfather and father.. Refining his prodigious gift for traditional haute horlogerie over many years at the grand maison of Patek Philippe, the uncompromising craftsmanship which is evident in his extraordinary timepieces has gained him full membership of the prestigious, invitation-only Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI). The DC6 Night Forest Carbon and Titanium 8 piece edition is a watch that affirms his place at the upper echelon of artisanal independent watchmaking, and his mastery of his craft.