YPCAI means You Probably Couldn’t Afford It. It’s an occasional series which looks at high end watches priced not for the man in the street, but the man in the private island villa or ocean going yacht complete with helipad. And at just a shade under $500,000 for the rose gold version and $507,000 for the white gold version, this watch is comfortably within that bracket.
That said, as one would expect, it is a spectacular new watch from Christoph Claret. It features a Christophe Claret speciality, – a minute repeater and four cathedral gongs that are musically accurate and play the same chimes as Big Ben. It also features the brand’s Charles X-style bridges.
Three part case
The case of the Soprano is in three parts: upper and lower (bezel and caseback) sections in gold and a central titanium caseband. Titanium was selected for its superior sound transmission qualities. Where gold tends to deaden sound, titanium effectively transmits sound from the interior of the case to the exterior. The sound qualities of titanium are so good that the metal is often used for saddle bridges in high-quality guitars.
No dial
In order to to minimise barriers to sound − and to maximise the visual appreciation of the finely finished movement and the operation of the striking mechanism − the Soprano has no dial which allows the melody to pour forth and at the same time showcases the tourbillon, repeater operation, mainspring barrel, winding mechanism and Charles X bridges.
The Soprano is typical of Christophe Claret’s manufacture through its challenging combination of innovation and tradition. The brand declares the watch as a “a timepiece of contrasts”, combining traditional haute horlogerie with state-of-the-art manufacturing and the history of the English Parliament with a French King.
Westminster Cathedral gongs
The Soprano features the Westminster Quarters four-gong minute repeater. To provide an even fuller and richer sound than standard repeaters, the timepiece features four cathedral gongs, each circling the perimeter of the movement twice (a normal gong goes around only once).
To achieve Soprano’s distinctive richness and clarity of sound, Claret worked closely with a piano tuner to arrive at a computer program called Analyser 2000. This records and analyses the notes for pitch, duration and volume. Even the length of the silent pauses between notes has been scrupulously considered. This enables the Soprano to consistently create harmonious and musically accurate melodies with strong crystal clear notes.
Each cathedral gong circles the movement twice so that one coil lies just above the other. When coils are so close together, they can touch other and create a disconcerting buzz. Christophe Claret invented a system that effectively avoids this problem, which was awarded a patent.
Tourbillon escapement
Chosen for its kinetic beauty and its superior chronometric performance Claret employs the tourbillon as standard escapement for all of his manufacture movements.
Crystal glass caseback
Naturally the timepiece has a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass and display caseback. The 60-second tourbillon carriage of the Soprano is on full view through the open dial at 6 o’ clock.
There is also a transparent mainspring barrel below 12 o’clock that allows both the barrel to be seen turning while being wound and the approximate power reserve can be calculated by the state-of-wind of the visible mainspring.
As there are only 8 pieces of either version, they will no doubt have been discreetly sold in advance to an elite clientele who snapped them up long before they came on the market. You probably couldn’t afford it, and even if you could, you probably couldn’t acquire it.
