Since the beginning of the 21st century, independent watchmakers have sprung up in the market and made a huge impact on the landscape of the fine watchmaking industry by creating tradition-shattering ways and cutting-edge technologies to display time differently. Among the renowned names like HYT, MB&F, Fiona Krüger and De Bethune which opened up collectors’ eyes, Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps (MCT)was founded by Denis Giguet in 2007 in the historic heart of the Swiss watchmaking industry,combining daring designs with technical breakthroughs and artistry to reflect a contemporary vision of horology.
As one of the few young vertically-integrated companies, MCT produces all essential components in-house, including their mechanical movements. Each watch is made by hand and a single watchmaker is assigned to follow the entire fabrication procedure to ensure the ultimate quality and traceability, according to the brand.
“We always try to control MCT’s development over the years without rushing anything,” Pierre Jacques, CEO of the company told Hong Kong Jewellery. “Indeed, innovation has always been the DNA of the brand.”
Few timepieces in the history of watchmaking can boast distinguished designs and high level of complexity, together with visibility and legibility better than Sequential One, the brand’s very first collection. Its signature time display combines instantaneous with sequential indicators. The time is told via a combination of oversized hour numerals resting on four modules, made up of five triangular prisms each, which rotate in an anticlockwise direction to reveal each new hour, and a jumping sapphire crystal minute track carrying a 270-degree sector that would rotate to indicate the active hour, while serving as a marker for a single hand from the centre to indicate minutes.
Equipped with an hour digit that occupies a larger proportion of the watch face than regular designs, the three-dimensional dial tells the time intuitively. The hand-winding MCT-S1.0 calibre powering Sequential One is far more than complicated. It is composed of 471 parts, including 81 rubies. Each hour prism module is assembled from 50 parts.
The year of 2017 marks MCT’s 10th anniversary. Pierre Jacques reviewed the brand’s first decade: “We have been at it for 10 years; still showing a high level of creativity, design, with our calibres that work well and reliably and with interesting complications that customers can enjoy.” To celebrate this milestone, the brand made its debut participation in Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) and the Baselworld 2017 unveiling new creations at the two premier events for the global watch industry.
S110 Evo Vantablack was the one MCT launched at SIHH 2017. Stemmed from an encounter between sculptor-cum-artist Anish Kapoor and MCT, the piece is claimed the first watch to feature the blackest material ever produced by humankind. A synthetic material, Vantablack is composed of carbon nanotubes measuring one millionth of a millimetre thick each and capable of absorbing 99.965 percent of the light they receive.
Created a lot of buzz at SIHH with warm reception, the 10-piece limited series use Vantablack on the back dial and on one end of the minute hand, shaped like a small moon, unfolding exotic properties.
As Jacques reveals that one of MCT’s mottos is ‘think different’, the brand works with watchmakers, designers and artists, and always tries to keep an eye on new possibilities and make their clients more excited.
Watch collectors did get more excited when they saw the brand’s new collection Dōdekal One which creates a new way to develop MCT’s horological language at Baselworld 2017. Inspired from 1970s electronic watches and powered by a new movement Calibre D1, Dōdekal One utilises a complex set of cams and carriages to display the hours in the form of numeral segments in the dial centre. The hour transition is effected by the transitional motion of the segments over 2.5 seconds, offering an original and magical sight. Refined from the brand’s initial 45 mm cushion-shaped case, Dōdekal One debuts a 43 mm case.
By displaying mechanical time digitally, MCT once again proved that there are no limits to performance and mechanical creativity in the field of watchmaking. As many of their customers said, Dōdekal One is one of the most innovative watches of 2017, said Jacques.
Under the limited production mode, MCT produces around 100 pieces a year, in collaboration with selective distributors and retailers worldwide. To meet the strong market demand, Pierre Jacques says they plan to reach 150 pieces a year in 2018. As normally it takes about four to six months for production and delivery, “the way to manage the strong demand is to ask our customers to be patient in order to get their favoured watches”. As forupcoming projects, he reveals that they are working on a new artistic collaboration and developing new movements. (Photo courtesy: MCT)
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