Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Open Gear Pink Panther
The Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Open Gear Pink Panther pairs a hand-guilloché dial in eye-popping pink with a black DLC case. It shares many of the attributes of other Chronoswiss models, however, the name of this watch evokes thoughts of childhood. It seems the Swiss brand has expertly targeted fiftysomethings with a sizeable dose of nostalgia.
Since it was founded in 1983, Chronoswiss, the luxury watch brand based in Lucerne, has witnessed much change. In its formative years, the company made chronographs and then branched into making regulators (1988). The firm’s models were beautifully made and elegant, however, they had a tendency to appeal to men in the 50 – 60 age group with a relatively conservative outlook on life.
After Oliver Ebstein acquired Chronoswiss in 2012 and Maik Panziera became Head of Design the following year (2013), the brand revisited its products. The fluted bezel, onion-shaped crown, vertically brushed caseband and robust strap fixings, elements found on virtually all of the brand’s previous models, were retained. However, the arrival of three-dimensional dial architecture and vividly-hued hand-guilloché dials signalled a new era for the Swiss marque.
Suddenly, Chronoswiss was no longer a niche brand targeting fiftysomethings, it was a firm making watches that appealed to a broader audience, particularly those who were younger or blessed with a youthful mindset. After the watch company adopted this new persona, it revisited its branding, employing a new strapline ‘Modern Mechanical’. With just two words, it said it all. The strapline renounced the brand’s traditional character in favour of a contemporary image. Moreover, it made a public declaration that Chronoswiss didn’t produce quartz or smart watches but was a specialist in mechanical timepieces.
In the last few years, Chronoswiss has won hearts with various case treatments, textured dials, some created using a traditional rose-engine lathe, and multi-layered dial architecture. However, despite dazzling the public and the watch press with its creativity in recent years, the Maison has never lost its ability to surprise.
Now, it is has surprised me with a new watch, not just because of its eye-popping dial tones, but because of its name. The Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Open Gear Pink Panther is presented in a 41mm steel case dressed in black DLC and features a pink hand-guilloché dial. It is an eye-catching and very courageous release on the brand’s part. Indeed, this model will certainly polarise opinion, however, this commercial bravery is what makes me, and many horophiles like me, love independent watch brands.
But returning to the name. What’s in a name you may ask? In this instance, Chronoswiss has played the nostalgia card. My early memories of growing up in the 1970s include spending Saturday evenings in front of the television with my dinner on a plate, positioned on my lap. Salmon paste sandwiches on Hovis brown bread, Hula Hoops on each fingertip and a Blue Riband biscuit for afters, all washed down with a sugar-rich fizzy drink. I was ready for my weekly instalment of the Pink Panther on BBC television, not the films starring Peter Sellers, no, the cartoons with the cool cat emerging from an amazing car. I can still remember singing along to Henry Mancini’s soundtrack.
The Chronoswiss Flying Regulator Open Gear Pink Panther is a stunning watch, sharing similar dial topography to other similarly equipped Chronoswiss models. Personally, I love it. Most pertinently, by using the Pink Panther name, the Swiss brand has chosen to target individuals of my generation who are susceptible to a bit of nostalgia.
The brand’s press release
A modern mechanical regulator watch in a black 41-millimetre DLC-coated case with a sparkling pink CVD-coated dial, Chronoswiss Open Gear Pink Panther is not only a colourful timely statement; it is also a celebration of handmade guilloché. The pattern laid down with the aid of a century-old rose machine features a high amplitude – the distance from the centre towards the perimeter – and short length; thus the light reflects vividly while giving you the illusion of a sparkling chessboard.
Says Chronoswiss designer and guilloché master Maik Panziera: “Pink can be childish and Barbie-like, and that is a hue I dislike. But the Pink Panther dial is kind of noble, and it connotes values of ancient wealth.” The colour pink leaves nobody untouched, but most of us are wrong about its origin. The link with girly games is actually a new phenomenon dating to after the Second World War when the United States went all bubblegum and Marilyn Monroe, combined with the first really successful era of mass marketing. Before then it was common to dress baby girls in blue and baby boys in pink. And if you go back to the mid-18th century this extra-spectral colour was connected with masculinity, strength and class. And in recent times it has been a harbinger of nonconformist cultural progression. Just think of the pop art in the 1960s and 1970s, the Pink Panther cartoons commencing on the airwaves in 1969, the pink Mohawk haircuts from British punk bands and their rowdy crowds in the late 1970s or 1990s computer art.
And just like pink, due to its connection with nakedness and erotic undertones, the Open Gear invites you to a suggestive horological peep show through the aperture on the upper part of the hybrid dial. What you see is what you get: These wheels are actually explanatory since they reveal how the decentralised hour hand is geared.
In 1988 Chronoswiss was the first brand to take the regulator to the wrist. And ever since it has undergone a modern mechanical evolution, the most significant aspect is the hybrid dial, which doubles up as a module board for the regulator. The hour hand makes its slow dance inside a funnelled subdial and skeletonised train wheel bridges are held in place by hand-polished screws – in all the watch display is a multilevel construction of 42 parts. The Pink Panther has also been updated to what Chronoswiss considers to be contemporary standard: a 10-bar watertightness and a double antireflective coating of the sapphire crystal. The timepiece is held in place by a hand-stitched strap with an outer layer of black rubber and an inner, extremely comfortable leather lining.
The main protagonist of the automatic, stop-second calibre C.299, is the skeletonised rotor. Not only is it decorated with Côtes de Genève and a colimaçon (spiral) pattern – it also carries a pink CVD coating in the same hue as the dial. These colimaçon spirals are also applied to the bridges and plates of the movement.
Maik Panziera explains: “A lot of people like mainstream watches. We are not for them. Our nonconformist timepieces are made in small series – normally 50 or 35. With the Open Gear Pink Panther, I set out to make a modern mechanical black watch with a pink dial. And I have never seen this pink in watchmaking – we really have achieved a cool, timeless version of a colour with an interesting history.
Further reading