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DeWitt vs DeWitt
Which DeWitt Concept Watch are you?
This article is dedicated to visionaries, people who believe in unconventional watchmaking, where fantasy has no boundaries. These people are the ones who see in high-end engineering not just a means to reach an achievement, but mostly obtain an end result. We have already covered, on Horbiter – Watches & Luxury, the high-end manufacturer DeWitt (HERE), a young maison, but already a custodian of the authentic Swiss traditional watchmaking. In that issue, some of its most avant-garde collections were introduced.
I promised I would have described the features and the idea behind its most representative Concept watch, the flagship model in De Witt's collection: the WX-1. I was lying! Because I’m going to talk to you about two of their most important Concept watches: the DeWitt Concept Watch WX-1 and the DeWitt Concept Watch X-Watch. They are two time machines in which the Brain, specifically Jerome De Witt, released all his creative energy, and the Arms, the engineers and master watchmakers who work for him, turned it to reality.
They are both outstanding but they are very different when compared to each other: in the DeWitt Concept Watch WX-1, the hour visualization seems to be a part of its mechanics, suggesting that you can see the hour if you want. The protagonist is the hidden powerful engine, which completely wraps your left wrist (and mine is not that small). The DeWitt Concept Watch X-Watch is the other way around: the hour visualization reigns, and mechanics seem to be more functional. What is the DeWitt Concept Watch WX-1? It is a time machine that is big as it is light-weight (and comfortable on the wrist): it weighs just 191 grams! Because at DeWitt, they decided to combine Titanium in its noblest form (Grade 5 Titanium) to Lithium-Aluminum to make the case frame with pink gold inserts and black PVD treatment: lightness, structural resistance, scratch-resistant and…luxury!
What beats inside the DeWitt Concept Watch WX-1's case? A manual wind caliber completely invented and handmade in-house, produced in reinforced lithium-Aluminum, which integrates a vertical flying tourbillon for a total of 458 parts. If you need to wind it up, just take it off your wrist and activate the big crown placed in one of those big circular holes (the other one encloses the tourbillon) after having pulled it out by moving the tiny triangular button; when fully wound the movement grants a spectacular 21 days of power reserve.
So I did not keep my promise, but I started this article with the DeWitt Concept Watch WX-1's description, because this is the very first Concept watch realized by DeWitt. The DeWitt Concept Watch X-Watch, instead, is named after the X bonnet that protects its case; a feature so unique it could be a wrist machine used by a superhero, if we take into account all the comments we received on our Instagram page (HERE). Four buttons activate the smooth opening of the X bonnet:
From this point forward the 49mm wide case is free to rotate, but what is amazing is that it encloses one single automatic movement, made of 544 parts, which supports a double retrograde hour and minute visualization, a chronograph and a tourbillon, a device, this last one, which I think is the one DeWitt cares most about, as it is widely used in the majority of its timepieces.
Please take a look at the dial now, it supports an “applique” the shape of an hourglass: the upper part displays the Power Reserve which lasts 67 to 72 hours, certified by a patented automatic winding system. The lower part contains the tourbillon which supports the small seconds hand. Both sides of the dial are made guilloche and support the retrograde hour and minutes visualization. If you turn the case 180 degrees, here is Mr. Hyde:
Here you may find a skeletonized chronograph which displays a three-arm minute visualization at 6 o'clock, and the patented, gold finished, peripheral rotor. Believe me, it is not that easy to summarize such an impressive set of features in just one article, and it seems that I am somewhat superficial when I think of the people who have made such a masterpiece. After the rotation has completed, for instance, the small seconds counter moves from 6 to 12 o’clock on the dial, but, nothing has been left to a coincidence: a small disc covers the tourbillon and leaves the view open just to the seconds hand. I will stop now…an encyclopedia is needed to list all the details of these two masterpieces. One should be so lucky to own one of this beauties and spend the whole day uncovering all the smallest details one by one, because in every Concept watch made by DeWitt even the tiniest screw has been carefully conceived and designed.
(Photo credit: Horbiter's proprietary photo shooting)
Gaetano C. @Horbiter – Watches & Luxury
