Czapek Geneve launches today, in New York, a new piece in the Faubourg de Cracovie Collection. The new watch is a foray into the world of guilloche and raw materials. Czapek Faubourg de Cracovie Secret Alloy gained its name from its special material used for the dial. Metalem developed for Czapek the alloy 401 – a combination of gold (55%), platinum, palladium and silver. The result is a fabulously good looking watch face highlighted continuously by the multiple surfaces created by ‘guillochage’. 
Meeting the “Secret Alloy” in the metal
Some of you that follow Watch I love Magazine on Facebook and Instagram might have noticed a strange story on last Saturday’s evening. It was an intended bad, close up photo revealing the guilloche pattern on a small section of the Czapek Faubourg de Cracovie Secret Alloy dial.
We have met Xavier de Roquemaurel, CEO of Czapek & Cie during the SEW Prague event (the largest watch event in eastern Europe). He made time for Diana and me and welcomed us with a great surprize. The Faubourg de Cracovie Secret Alloy well hidden under his sleeve. Pun intended. So we spent a good part of the evening with the new piece. Unfortunately, I was not well equipped for such an encounter and all the pictures are done with my, now old but faithfull Samsung S9+. The light conditions were terrible too.
Unfortunately, for the European collectors, Czapek Faubourg de Cracovie Secret Alloy will be only available at the brand’s official retailers in the US including Oster Jewelers in Denver, Colorado and Cellini Jewelers in New York, until Baselworld 2020.
Please enjoy the integral press release below and the live photos (including the Faubourg de Cracovie Secret Alloy on a lady’s wrist) and video.
Czapek Faubourg de Cracovie Secret Alloy -Official Press Release
New York, October 2019 – Czapek unveils its brand new Faubourg de Cracovie ‘Secret Alloy’ model, a steel 5 Hertz chronograph with an unconventional ‘raw’ grey engine-turned dial.
Czapek continues its creative exploration of the countless possibilities offered by the art of ‘guillochage’ (engine-turning), collaborating one more time with its partner Metalem, in Le Locle, one of the top Swiss watch dial factories established in the Jura region since 1928.
This time the Geneva-based brand worked on the engine-turned dial of its Faubourg de Cracovie model, launched at Baselworld 2018, boasting a 5 Hertz column-wheel integrated chronograph. The Faubourg de Cracovie ‘Secret Alloy’ was born from the collaboration with Metalem craftsmen that showed the ‘raw’, non-coloured dials with the Czapek ‘Resonance’ pattern after hand-engraving them. “The rough tint of the dial without the electroplating coating looked so incredibly beautiful that we decided to make it a watch of our collection”, explains Xavier de Roquemaurel, CEO of Czapek & Cie.
The timepiece owes its name “Secret Alloy” to the alloy 401, a special alloy developed for Czapek and made of gold (55%), platinum, palladium and silver. This Gold alloy serves as the base for all Czapek handmade guilloché dials and, thanks to its composition including palladium and platinum, it is stronger than 18-carat gold. This allows Czapek to give to their engine-turned dials their unique and beautiful ‘bombé’, domed shape.
“In the spirit of sharing and transparency that is proper to the Czapek Company – continues Xavier – we decided to reveal with this watch our ‘secret’ alloy 401, which is undoubtedly one of the key elements of our exceptional guilloché dials”.
Like the other models in the Faubourg de Cracovie line, the Secret Alloy features a 41.5-millimetre steel case where the crown protectors serve as pushers. The case hosts the SXH3 Caliber, a COSC-certified automatic integrated chronograph movement delivering 65 hours power reserve from a single barrel that drives the balance wheel at 36,000 vph.
Produced in a limited edition of 18 pieces, the timepiece will be proposed with or without the date window (the standard version being without the date).
The Czapek Faubourg de Cracovie Secret Alloy will be presented for the first time at Watch Time New York (Gotham Hall, October 25-26) and it will be only available in the brand’s official retailers in the US including Oster Jewelers in Denver, Colorado and Cellini Jewelers in New York, until Baselworld 2020.
