BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Only Watch is the bi-annual charity auction for bespoke watches and clocks, which is typically held at Christie’s Geneva at the end of the year. The point of these auctions is to raise money for research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which severely limits the lifespan and the quality of life for young boys. It’s also one of the most common forms of muscular dystrophy as well, so it needs special attention.
While it is fair to say that no watch companies should ever attempt to undertake research into that themselves, the research requires focusing on things even tinier than movement screws, they do contribute in other ways. Angelus, for example, is presenting its unique Chronodate Gold x Château Angelus.
Château Angelus is a world-renowned wine producer based nearby to Bordeaux, France. So, as you might expect from this region, they make Bordeaux wine, which is typically red and aged in oak but with a fruitier taste. Apparently, Bordeaux is a great wine when served quite young without lots of barrel ageing.
Angelus has paid tribute to the wine of Château Angelus in quite a unique way. They’ve used the lees from Château Angelus’ 2022 vintage as the dial. Lees can also be known as dregs, essentially, they’re the sediment left over in the bottom of a wine barrel and are usually made up of dead yeast cells among other things. I’ve seen weird things being used on watches before, but freeze-dried wine sediment is in the top 1% of weird things used to make dials.
With that said, the dried lees give a very extravagant appearance, with the dark red colour seeming moody; it offsets the 18k red gold case well. I tried a few of these at Watches & Wonders this year, and while I never reported to you on it I was extremely impressed with the legibility, wearability and technicality of the Chronodate. The case is large at 42.5mm and has a paltry 30m of water resistance (something I believe Angelus is looking to remedy), but I doubt the owner of this particular model will care.
I might be wrong, but I believe this is Angelus’ debut at Only Watch. The estimate is for between 50,000 and 60,000 CHF, but I bet it will go higher.
