Carl F. Bucherer is an interesting brand which makes excellent watches that a lot of people are unaware of. Their introduction of the Heritage line helped thanks to their Tourbillon Double Peripheral, and their big display at Baselworld this year which incorporates a sizeable animated movement sculpture is impressive. But, the real recognition comes from their watchmaking prowess, and to demonstrate this, they have a new watch coming which combines two complications.
The Heritage BiCompax Annual includes, you guessed it, a bi-compax chronograph and an annual calendar. The bi-compax in the name means that instead of the standard three subdials layout that we have gotten used to, the information the chronograph records is displayed on just two subdials. Other manufacturers have done this in their unlimited production runs, the most notable being the automatic variants of Omega’s Speedmaster Moonwatch. This one from Carl F. Bucherer doesn’t seem to include an hours display under the minutes, so that would make this a 30-minute chronograph as that’s all it’ll time.
For the annual calendar complication, it gets a bit interesting. As a reminder, an annual calendar is a calendar on a watch which adjusts for the number of days in a month, but not for the leap years like a perpetual calendar does. Usually, this is displayed via a complicated array of subdials and hands combined with windows and whatnot, but not with the Heritage. Here, that information is mostly not available. It only displays the date via a big date and the month which has been somewhat crammed in at half-past four, where a date usually resides. There’s no day of the week indicator, it’s not exactly necessary for an annual calendar, as long as the watch still adjusts.
Inside each watch is the calibre CFB 1972, an automatic winding movement with 47 jewels and a 42-hour power reserve. The new watch comes in two variants, either full stainless steel with a silver dial or two-tone steel and rose gold with a champagne dial. The case remains the same 41mm x 14.05mm for both, and they are limited to just 888 examples of each. The steel version gains a rubber strap while the two tone has a cognac leather strap. The prices are $7200 for steel or $10,200 for two tone.
Visit Carl F. Bucherer here.
