Just a day before the reveal, Czapek & Cie. teased watch lovers with an Instagram post featuring a mother-of-pearl shell with round cut outs, captioning it ‘Not your average shimmer’. The brand has now unveiled two new timepieces - Antarctique S Ice Cloud and the Promenade Midnight Pearl - featuring mother-of-pearl dials, both created using distinctive dial making techniques by GT Cadrans, a specialist dial manufacturer. 

Following the silhouette of the brand’s iconic Antactique, the new iteration is a 38.5mm stainless steel piece with a mother-of-pearl dial that showcases clouds drifting in a pale sky, crafted though a rare nacre brouillée technique. 

Each of the 10 pieces of this limited edition iteration have a dial that is unique. To get a perfect dial, the artisan first polishes white mother-of-pearl, which is then worked upon to make it extremely thin (0.2mm). Then comes a varnishing process with blue-tinted varnish, done on the underside of the mother-of-pearl using horsehair brush. It is the challenges during varnishing that make the dial more exceptional. The artisan has to apply just the right amount of varnish—neither too thick nor too thin. This is further enhanced with unique patterns and cloud-like structures made by hand. After completion, the dial is fired in an oven at over 100°C for hours to permanently set the varnish.

Powered by the brand’s in-house Calibre SXH5 with a power reserve of about 60 hours, the time only watch is offered with an integrated steel bracelet. 

The dial of Promenade Midnight Pearl is even more fascinating. The watch features the brand’s patented sandwich dial construction featuring aventurine glass over Tahitian mother-of-pearl. This type of depth and mastery in a sandwich construction can only be done by two specialists at GT Cadrans. 

Tahitian mother-of-pearl for the dial is chosen for its grey colour and naturally occurring violet and green iridescence. Again, a 0.2 mm thin cut out is overlaid with 0.2 mm blue aventurine glass for a star-lit sparkle. From cutting to appliques, the dial is meticulously done by hand. The most challenging was to make a groove at 4:30 for a small dial as it's difficult to cut the thin aventurine layer without compromising the underlying nacre. 

This is a 38-piece limited edition, encased in a 38mm stainless steel case and is driven by the Calibre SXH5.1 with 60-hours of power reserve.