The new RESERVOIR collection takes its inspiration from measuring instruments widely used in the world of sound or Hi-Fi.
The two retrograde hands of the new RESERVOIR Sonomaster Chronograph faithfully reproduce the hands of power measurements or VU meters from analog stereo amplifiers.
This strong milestone for RESERVOIR celebrates the human quest to create pure sound, a musical exploration full of audacity and intensity.
This bi-retrograde (date and seconds at 120°) watch inaugurates the first chronograph model from RESERVOIR (central second, 30-minute counter at 12, hour counter at 6). The watch is powered by the new watchmaking caliber RSV-Bi120: a manufacture bi-retrograde chronograph movement, automatic mechanical winding, and column wheel.
RESERVOIR’s preferred and distinctive means of display offers a plethora of practical advantages, along with that frisson of visual delight as it flies back to zero after completing its arc. It is the most “analogue” of techniques, almost a poster child for traditionalists who prefer such meters to digital read-outs.
The Inspiration
Taking its inspiration from measuring instruments, RESERVOIR watches reflect the functionality and aesthetic appeal of counters, manometers, gauges from universes like automobile, aeronautics and marine.
RESERVOIR watches echo an era in which these precision instruments, easy to read and accurate to act, were at the service of mankind. A time when the pulse quickened, and adrenaline coursed through the driver’s or pilot’s veins as he embarked upon voyages that demanded courage and high performance.
RESERVOIR timepieces take on the ultra-functional style of instrument meters, creating a radical way to read time. The retrograde minute and the jumping hour act as substitutes for the more usual three hands on Swiss watches.
RESERVOIR watches are innovative for the radical way the time is displayed, which is achieved by drawing on two watchmaking complications combined with the power reserve. The retrograde minute at 240° recalls the R.P.M. counters, the manometers, and the depth gauges. The jumping hour recalls the mileage meters, and the power reserve display echoes the fuel and oil gauges.
The RESERVOIR collections bear witness to unique watchmaking know-how by satisfying the strictest professional requirements. It is in Switzerland, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, that the TELOS master watchmakers develop the three complication module, the beating heart of the RSV-240 caliber, before these are assembled.
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Available from Reservoir-watch.com, 5,750€, $6,100, 22,400 dirhams.