Amid the global conversation on AI, for Geneva Watch Days 2025 Czapek and Cie bring forth the Antarctique Rattrapante ‘R.U.R.’, featuring a hand-polished and laser-engraved titanium robot head on the dial at 12 o’clock. It is not merely for aesthetics - the figurehead also features a playful animation corresponding to the chronograph function with its colour-changing eyes, micro-painted by hand using neon tones of three colours. When the chronograph is activated, the eyes of the robot turn yellow, upon stopping they turn red, and on resetting turn blue. The robot head is set on top of the chronograph column wheel, which translates each click of the column wheel directly into a changed eye colour.
Better still, the timepiece features a split-second chronograph integrated with a mon-pusher at 10:30. The chronograph's minutes subdial is at 4:30, along with small seconds at 7:30. There is a rattrapante indicator at 6 o’clock, and the mechanism of the chronograph is displayed with an open-worked grey-metallised dial.
“When we launched the Antarctique Rattrapante in 2021, one of our shareholders immediately suggested incorporating a robot into the movement, as a way of celebrating the beauty of the mechanism,” says Xavier de Roquemaurel, CEO, Czapek & Cie. “Since the pursuit of mechanical and aesthetic beauty is central to our philosophy of watchmaking at Czapek and we are always thinking about different ways of approaching it, we loved the idea of a robot – a playful mix of aesthetics and mechanics – but the real impetus for the robot idea came from further away…”
The term R.U.R comes from the play Rossum’s Universal Robots, written by Karel Čapek, who is credited with the creation of the word ‘robot’. That his name and the name of the brand is similar was a happy coincidence, and gave rise to the idea of incorporating a robot in the design.
Encased in a 42.5 mm stainless-steel case, the timepiece features new details distinguishing it from other models in the Antarctique Rattrapante line. There is white chronograph hand, and a blue aluminium rattrapante hand with a white tip. The hours/ chronograph seconds, and indexes on the subdials are marked by ‘XX’ symbols representing the robot’s language invented for this model, taking inspiration from the Predator franchise’s Yautja alphabet. Sword shaped hours and minutes hands with Super-LumiNova treatment display time.
Aesthetically, the dial features mirror-polished screws, column wheels, hand-bevelled levers, and bridges contrasting with the matte sandblasted finish of the mainplate. On the reverse, visible through the sapphire crystal caseback, an oscillating weight made of 5N recycled rose gold, featuring Czapek logo, is complemented by matte bead-blasted bridges outlined by hand-polished chamfers and other finishes, including circular satin-polished wheels and black-polished screws. The rotor winds a single barrel that provides the 4Hz movement with 60 hours of running autonomy.
Powering the watch is Czapek’s Calibre SXH6 created in collaboration with Jean-François Mojon of Chronode, offering 60 hours of power reserve, visible through a sapphire caseback.
This timepiece also features a hidden module in its mechanism – an isolator – that helps in reducing the chronometric disturbances that may occur during use of the split-second function. With the use of a lever, the isolator enables the split-seconds mechanism to completely decouple the two chronograph seconds wheels without generating friction in the rest of the mechanism.
The watch is finished with an integrated stainless steel bracelet featuring mirror-polished C-links with an exclusive ‘Easy Release’ mechanism. The watch also comes with a complementary rubber strap, and an additional calf leather strap can be made on request. The watch is a limited edition of 77 pieces and retails for Rs 63,83,000 (approx.) before taxes.
Images: Courtesy Brand
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