Czapek & Cie unveils its second anniversary piece for 2025, marking a decade since the maison’s revival with a watch that pushes the boundaries of traditional dial-making into uncharted territory. The Antarctique Plique-à-Jour Polar Blue takes one of horology’s most recognisable contemporary sports watches and adorns it with an enamelling technique so demanding that only a handful of workshops worldwide still possess the skill to execute it properly. Limited to ten pieces, this is not simply an exercise in decorative excess but a calculated exploration of how ancient craft can coexist with modern integrated-case design.
Transparency as Architecture
The 18-carat white gold dial presents itself as a living window into the movement beneath, structured through the plique-à-jour technique, a Byzantine method dating to the sixth century that translates literally as “letting in the daylight”. Where conventional enamel work relies on a metal backing to support the vitreous material, plique-à-jour suspends translucent enamel within open cells, creating an effect comparable to miniature stained glass. The result is not decorative overlay but structural transparency.
What distinguishes this execution from historical precedent is its complete clarity. Traditional plique-à-jour enamel often carries a degree of opacity caused by air bubbles trapped during firing. Here, through collaboration between MD’Art (metal structure fabrication), Bagues-Masriera (enamel application and firing), and PBMC (progressive polishing and thickness adjustment), Czapek has achieved full transparency. Each cell required individual filling in precise proportions to establish the gradient of blue that shifts across the dial surface, followed by firing at approximately 900°C, a temperature at which the enamel fuses to the gold framework whilst maintaining its translucent properties.
The gradient itself moves from deeper polar blue at the periphery to lighter tones towards the centre, executed through careful formulation of ground glass mixed with metallic oxides. This chromatic transition demanded exacting control across multiple firing stages, with each pass through the kiln risking thermal shock that could fracture the entire structure. The finishing process involved progressive polishing conducted in stages to prevent fissures, with final operations including pad printing and dial foot attachment completed by MD’Art.
Steel sword-shaped hands treated with Super-LumiNova provide legibility against this luminous architecture, maintaining functionality whilst the dial itself performs its primary role: revealing the calibre beneath in unprecedented fashion.
The SXH7 Calibre: Mechanics in Full View
Inside sits the Czapek Calibre SXH7, a skeletonised automatic movement developed and assembled in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Derived from the SXH5, this iteration retains the micro-rotor architecture but introduces complete openworking across its bridges and plates. The rotor itself employs 100% recycled platinum mounted on ball bearings, positioned to maximise winding efficiency whilst minimising visual obstruction.
The movement measures 30mm in diameter (13¼ lines) with a height of 4.2mm, constructed from 152 components running in 25 jewels. It beats at 4Hz (28,800 vibrations per hour) and delivers 60 hours of power reserve from a single barrel producing 8.8 Nmm of torque. The Swiss lever escapement employs a variable-inertia balance fitted with four gold inertia blocks, offering adjustment capacity without requiring external timing weights.
Finishing addresses both aesthetic presentation and mechanical precision. The bridges receive sandblasted rhodium plating that establishes visual contrast against the skeletonised structure. Bevelling appears throughout, with straight-grained sides and hand chamfering applied to edges. The movement incorporates 18 internal angles, inward corners requiring individual attention with a burin to achieve clean meeting points. The main plate receives hand bevelling, a surface treatment that catches light variably depending on viewing angle. Diamond-cut sinkholes provide additional detail, their polished conical recesses serving both decorative and functional purposes by capturing lubricant near pivot points.
This openwork construction operates in direct dialogue with the plique-à-jour dial above it. Light passes through the transparent enamel, illuminating the three-dimensional mechanical landscape and rendering visible the balance wheel’s 4Hz oscillation, the barrel’s rotation, and the micro-rotor’s winding action.
Contemporary Framework
The Antarctique case measures 40.5mm in diameter with a height of 10.6mm, executed in stainless steel. The design language alternates between brushed and polished surfaces, with sharp lines balanced against fluid transitions that follow the wrist’s contour. A sapphire crystal glass-box configuration provides frontal protection, treated with anti-reflective coating. The caseback employs sapphire with inner-surface anti-reflective treatment, offering unobstructed viewing of the SXH7’s finishing.
Water resistance reaches 120 metres despite the complications of integrating a transparent dial with an openworked movement. The screwed-down crown contributes to this specification whilst maintaining the case’s visual continuity.
The integrated bracelet employs Czapek’s proprietary “Easy Release” system, permitting tool-free strap changes. A micro-adjustment device allows length modification of 2-4mm without removing the bracelet from the wrist. An additional rubber strap accompanies each piece.
The caseback carries the Czapek anniversary logo, identifying this watch as part of the four-piece series commemorating the decade since the maison’s 2015 revival.
Conclusion: Collaborative Precision
The Antarctique Plique-à-Jour functions as material evidence of how collaborative manufacturing enables independent houses to execute complications typically reserved for vertically integrated manufactures. Each dial emerged from continuous exchange between Czapek’s product development team and the specialist ateliers, with every stage requiring absolute precision given the fragility of the material. The complexity of the process ensures that despite the edition being limited to ten pieces, no two dials present identically due to natural variations in enamel flow and firing behaviour.
At 61,200 CHF before taxes, positioned between haute horlogerie complication and métiers d’art showcase, the watch addresses collectors seeking technical execution beyond conventional finishing. What Czapek has achieved here extends past simple decoration: the plique-à-jour dial transforms the Antarctique’s familiar architecture into a functional optical instrument that amplifies rather than conceals the movement it houses. In doing so, it demonstrates how a sixth-century enamelling technique can serve contemporary watchmaking not as historical reference but as active engineering component.
Czapek Antarctique Plique-à-Jour Polar Blue Technical Specifications
40.5mm steel case, Czapek’sin-house self-winding skeletonized movement with micro-rotor. Dial in 18K white gold with grand-feuenamel. Limited to 10 pieces. 61’200CHF
Functions
- Hours, minutes & small seconds
Movement
- Calibre SXH7: Czapek’sin house self-windingmechanicalskeletonizedmovement
- Diameter: 30 mm –13 lines¼
- Height: 4.2 mm
- Numberof parts: 152
- Jewels: 25
- Swisslever escapement, variable-inertiabalance fittedwithfour gold inertia-blocks
- Frequency: 4 Hz –28800 VpH
- Power windingsystem: micro-rotor witha recycledplatinummass
- Power-reserve: 60 hourson one single barrel
- Barrel torque: 8.8 Nmm
- Open ratchets, sandblasted rhodium-plated bridges, bevelling, straight-grained sides, hand-chamfered
- 18 internal (inward) angles
- Hand-bevelled main plate
Case
- 40.5mm steel case
- Height: 10.6 mm
- Sapphire crystal glass-box with anti-reflective treatment
- Sapphire case back with anti-reflective treatment on the inner side
- Water resistance: 120m
- Screwed-down crown
Dial
- 18K white gold dial witha gradient of grand feu blueenamel
- Luminescent sword-shapedhands in steel
Bracelet
- Integrated stainless steel bracelet with Czapek exclusive “Easy Release” system
- Micro-adjustment device allowing for a gain of between 2 and 4 mm in the length of the bracelet
- Additional rubber strap
