Before the concert
Ludwig Oechslin and his mother adore classical music. While I’m typing away at these lines and uploading Bea’s photos to the ochs und junior blog, Mariss Jansons is conducting Haydn and Shostakovich at Lucerne’s KKL Concert and Congress Centre. The two Oechslins are sitting right at the back of the highest tier, a new ochs und junior settimana junior on Mrs. Oechslin’s wrist.
I chatted to Ludwig in her living room here in Lucerne earlier this afternoon. He was decked out in his Festival Lucerne finery, but what was that in his jacket pocket? A prototype, as ever! Something not unlike what we’re already wearing – he uses us as guinea pigs for his new projects – namely, the due ore, described in this blog not long ago.
Ludwig creates complex functions using simple elements – witness the anno cinquanta’s annual calendar and other yet-to-be-revealed wonders 😉 … It all starts with the idea, followed by the most direct way of implementing it.
His solutions never cease to amaze!
When Ludwig calls his friend Moritz Elsässer in Boston, he would normally have to calculate the time difference between Switzerland and the USA’s Eastern Time Zone. Now he uses his new watch concept, the due ore.
His ideas are always associated with a tangible benefit of practical relevance to the way he lives his life…
… to his activities as watch conceptualiser, designer, music lover…
… the way he likes it, raw and patinated…
… perhaps with a patinated brass dial…
… or, as we’ll be doing with our dual time zone due ore, with a luminescent orange dot at 12 o’clock – combined with the luminescent hands, this guarantees perfect legibility at night. The second time zone becomes the local time zone by rotating the disc underneath the dial forwards or backwards by the required number of hours. This is achieved using the ETA calibre’s quick date change feature. The local time can then be read at a glance. Ingeniously simple!
The due ore will be available in silver and stainless steel. The two-part dial will be in heat-patinated white gold. Because the dual time zone function needs nothing other than the supplementary dial disc bearing the digits 1 to 12, we’ll be powering the watch with the straight-ahead, reliable ETA 2824 calibre Ludwig likes to use for his prototypes.
Ludwig’s ideas and developments, the romanticism of the silver and white gold, the rarity value (we’ll only be making a small number of the due ore every year)… Peter Cantieni will be manufacturing the cases, and maybe the dials as well if Ludwig doesn’t. Paul Gerber and his team will be building the watches, which will be flat and 39mm in diameter. The elegant dual time zone watch is Oechslin through-and-through! As I write, the interval has just finished and the second half of the programme is underway… and Mrs. Oechslin will be stealing an admiring glance at her settimana junior every now and then…