Pierre DeRoche Celebrates Its Love For Horological Complications
5 min read
As a child, did your grandparent teach you to remember the days in a month only by looking at the troughs and ridges at the back of your hands? Well, Carole Dubois, co-founder of Pierre DeRoche had this same story. The idea for the GrandCliff Annual Calendar was inspired by this simple answer to a complex question.
A New Declaration Of Love
In 1980, the firm unveiled what was most likely the first annual calendar in wristwatch form. This magnificent achievement was also the result of Dubois Dépraz's efforts. Forty years later, the Joux Valley complications experts and Pierre DeRoche have combined their expertise to examine this subtle horological complication with even more finesse.The GrandCliff series is wonderfully completed by the sobriety of the gentlemen's version and the delicacy of the ladies' version, reinforcing Pierre DeRoche's status as a horological complexity specialist.
The annual calendar is one of the quintessential sophistication of watchmaking, ranking among the so-called useful or practical complexities. It's also one that adds a bit of magic to everyday life, making it easier. Pierre DeRoche set out to restore the complication's full prestige by producing gentlemen's and ladies' versions of it simultaneously.
As a result, 16 years after the first GrandCliffs were released, the brand is expanding its line by two models. They keep the ideal poise and beauty of the series in a slightly slimmed-down diameter, true to GrandCliff's aesthetic rules. The Annual Calendar, in its distinctively feminine Milady variant, provides complication fans with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to declare their watchmaking affinities.
The Three Watchmaking Calendars
The calendar is a clever system that adds a calendar day reading to the time display on timepieces, with three levels of sophistication. Every month with fewer than 31 days requires five corrections per year on a simple calendar. The more refined annual calendar correctly displays the date 364 days out of 365, with just the 1st March requiring revision. Finally, the perpetual calendar, recognized as a watchmaking marvel, keeps track of the date throughout the year, even leap years.Pierre DeRoche chose to design its new GrandCliffs based on an annual calendar. The GrandCliff Annual Calendar and GrandCliff Milady Annual Calendar, both equipped with a Dubois Dépraz module, allow for rapid date correction via the crown and month correction via the corrector.
Pierre DeRoche offers a particularly generous date display by opting for a 32 mm mechanism, i.e. a large-diameter date disc, and makes readability one of the top features of its annual calendar.
The Elegance Of The Essential
The revised case of the GrandCliff AC is thinner and somewhat smaller in diameter (41 mm vs. 42.5 mm), adopting the line's aesthetic standards, its round shape, and the recognisable design of its horns to maintain the ideal poise and delicate elegance that have underpinned the collection's success.
The shaded black dial with velvety background beautifully shows the annual calendar complexity, with appliqué silver indexes. A large date window at 3 o'clock, as well as a month indicator at 7 o'clock via a coloured red disc beneath the dial. The Cordura-look leather strap, which is enhanced with grey stitching, completes the GrandCliff Annual Calendar's beauty as a classic and contemporary watch.
An Assertion Of Watchmaking Femininity
Pierre DeRoche wanted to offer watchmaking lovers a rare occasion to demonstrate their taste for mechanical subtleties while proudly asserting their femininity by creating the feminine version of its annual calendar.
The GrandCliff Milady Annual Calendar dares to bedeck itself in finery usually viewed as typically feminine, using the same Dubois Dépraz module as the masculine edition. The highly wrought silver-plated dial features a sunray embellishment at 3 o'clock, as well as a date window with black lettering on a white background and a diamond-set bezel.
A counter with heart-shaped cut-outs serves as the month indicator at 7 o'clock. The displays, as well as the seconds hand, are read via a burgundy-colored disc that matches the leather strap.
What a way to round off the 2005 collection!
