Code41 introduces a new mechanical watch object that transcends visual dimensions. The mechanical watch/clock looks more like a credit card than a mechanical watch, and breaks some of the norms in watchmaking while keeping to others. Release details and our commentary in italics here.
New: Code41 Mecascape Sublimation 1
The new Code 41 Mecascape Submimation 1 will retail from USD 9360 / CHF 9’595.- / EUR 9’995.- / GBP 9’225.- (excluding VAT)
Commentary
We are the first to admit that we did not know of Code41 when we received the press release. But reading the release intrigued us. This seemed to be a very interesting company, producing very interesting watches. Founded by Claudio D’Amore in 2016, Code 41 is an independent Swiss watch brand based in Lausanne. From the literature we gather that their aim is to make the art of watchmaking accessible. The model they have elected to use is to use the community as a base, challenging and integrating the community in the process of creation, execution and delivery. They claim to have a community of some 55k members with a turnover of more than CHF 10M in 2021. The brand has 6 collection families – the Anomaly01, Anomaly02, Day41, X41, Anomaly Evolution, NB24 and Anomaly T4, and is powered by 2 movements which they claim are manufacture movements.
The novelty introduced as the Mecaspape is a unique watch in this traditional space. The watch looks like a credit card, and is only 8.1mm thick. The movement seems to be one which is unique and designed specifically for the Mecascape Sublimation1. It is a collaboration with the respected independent workshops of Cercle des Horlogers in Neuchâtel. The watch does remind us of the original MB&F HM2, with the elongated rectangular structure, but differ in major areas. First off, the targeted price of the Mecascape Sublimation 1 is nowhere near the retail or secondary market prices for the HM2.
The HM2 is of course delivered with a strap to be used on the wrist like a conventional wrist watch. But the Mecascape is intended to be used as a pocket watch, and carried in the pocket.
It also comes with a leather case which can also be used for credit cards.
In addition, the case has a kick-stand style device, which allows it to be set up on a table like a clock.
The indicators on the dial side is also different. Instead of a retrograde date with moon phase and time on its two sub-dials on the HM2, the Mecascape uses the space to display two separate dial systems indicating two timezones. The main time system is on the left, and shows local time arranged in a regulator style, with a small hour sub-dial coupled to a large minute sub-dial and a subsidiary seconds hand. While the right sub-dial system shows the hour hand of a second timezone or GMT as a single hour hand over a sub-dial marked in 24 hours. which laid out over an engraving of a world map. A power reserve indicator in a semi circular sector balances out the dial. The entire dial system is in a skeletonised lattice like framework, allowing a peek into the gear train. For example, the balance wheel is visible between the two dial sectors. A rather interesting layout. Unusual, to say the least.
Flip the watch over, and we see the full titanium back with a circular aperture to allow a peek into the movement. The entire case is made in titanium.
As we understand it, the presented images and specifications is final for the watch, but as Code41 is community based, you can vote for your choice of numerous colour options. Interesting and novel concept, but we think a rather attractive one as it involves the customer/collector in the creation process of the watches being made.
The marketing blurb is rather interesting, and we leave it intact for you to read it for yourself. We have also requested for a review loaner to be extended to us for us to investigate how this watch works, and its practicality.
Some background on Code41
Between March and October 2016 the CODE41 project created the first mechanical watch in collaboration with a community of 57,000 members. It is also the first time that a watch is manufactured in a totally transparent way, under a new and singular label in the industry – and one with great meaning – initiated by CODE41: TTO, short for Total Transparency on Origin. Phase 1 came to fruition on December 22nd, 2016, with a crowdfunding campaign that raised 543,150 CHF.
2017-2019: CODE41 sets up production, distribution, logistics, after sales service… shaking up the codes and weaving strong ties with its ever-growing community. Rule number one: total transparency. In October 2017, the dream becomes reality, the first watches are delivered. The following year, in March 2018, the X41 project sees the light of day: the first Manufacture CODE41 movement, design, case, architecture… everything is designed and developed to democratize Fine Watchmaking, for a selling price never before seen in the category: under 5,500 euros. In less than 3 hours, the counter shows more than 1’000’000 Euros, and almost 2’000’000 euros in 48 hours.
2019-2021 marks phase 3 of the project: CODE41 empowers its community, which has been multiplied by a factor of 30 (!). The idea is simple, inclusive, open to the world, and a powerful one whose time has come: to make it possible to part of the fabulous adventure of the creation of an exceptional watch and keep contributing to its history.
2022 : Birth of the Mecascape. THE project, original, unique, unprecedented… 12 years after the embryonic idea for Claudio D’Amore’s concept, and after 5 years of technical and aesthetic development, this new watch object finally sees the light of day, inaugurating a new class of “time objects.”
2023 – Going faster and further: CODE41 begins to raise funds that will also enable it to explore new territories. While the brand currently delivers to more than 130 countries worldwide, the CODE41 community is, today, still overwhelmingly European (over 80%).
Release details
Birth of the first “Mecascape”
Named “Sublimation 1”, it is a new mechanical watch object that transcends the usual dimensions and reveals a new architectural vision of time, space, volume and light.
Neither wristwatch, nor pocket watch, nor clock… Mecascape goes to the core of the passage of time, and symbolizes the birth of a new watch class.
A contraction of “mechanical” and “landscape”, it is the creation of a new category of time objects, that of Clockwork Landscapes: ‘Mecascapes’.
To shake up staid codes! Break free! Explore new pathways! Let in creativity! Push innovation! Get off the beaten track! To not repeat, but to invent, think in a different, ingenious way! Under the deceptive appearance of simplicity, the Mecascape opens a new category of mechanical “time objects”.
Contrary to what one might assume, the Mecascape is neither the enlargement of a watch (!), nor the flattening of a clock (!). In addition to precision and ingenuity, it is first and foremost a space that opens up a new form of creative freedom in watchmaking, a new, different, singular and heretofore undiscovered space for expression.
This new mechanical object named ‘Mecascape’, the contraction of “mechanical” and “landscape”, is about balance and harmony between the elements. It is a different way of working and apprehending the object – because it is appreciated in a more instinctive way, as a whole, with a completely visible mechanism, placed on a flat surface with a global aesthetic whose complexity builds exponentially.
One has to break down space, its dimensions, and redefine proportions. “Flatness” as a matter of course, a new ideal of mechanical beauty, an elegance that expresses purity at its most absolute. Spatial volumes are loosened, ‘de-contracted’, becoming more generous than those afforded in a watch or a clock, which in turns requires a skillful capacity to adapt.
Everything is a question of levels of perception, of reliefs, of shadows and light. Across its expanse, the time object is transcended and takes on a new magic. Cut from Grade 5 titanium (the highest quality titanium in watchmaking), the Mecascape reveals a new architectural fusion of space, time and light.
Only its concept gives the illusion of simplicity.
To know the past to better reinterpret it; to respect its heritage as a Swiss brand to better push the limits, and finally invent something truly different. To master the codes until one is completely free of them to transform design into emotion and mechanics into pure beauty. The Mecascape belongs to both worlds. It speaks of movement and precision as fluently as it does of form and space.
Its myriad different shapes, hemispherical, concave, spherical, the sequence of satin and polished finishes, allows a continuous play between light and shadow. The uniqueness of the whole lies in the fact that CODE41 has achieved exactly the opposite of what is usually practiced in the world of watches and watchmaking in general: the brand has, through the multitude of components, sought to bring out the spatial volumes whilst stretching and refining the object as a whole.
Its relaxed, deconstructed space offers an original vision of the timekeeping mechanics that plays with spatial volumes while preserving harmony and natural balance. Its singularity, the innovation of its flat movement, and its function have been technically rethought in a completely new way.
Freeing itself from shapes, scales, proportions… the Mecascape is thus the fruit of a new kind of creative endeavor, where mechanics are entirely in the service of design – of which time is only one element. With the creation of the Mecascape, CODE41 imagines a new form of mechanical object, which expresses and transcends the usual spatial volumes.
The result of a creative vision and a passion for a different kind of watchmaking, CODE41 and its founder Claudio D’Amore have created a new “time object,” opening a new category – Mecascapes – that is unprecedented in the traditional watchmaking landscape.
An approach both different and new
In creating this first Mecascape, the approach is essentially emotional. The watch-object takes on a new form and expresses itself with more volume, more space than in a watch or a clock where the mechanics are ultra-condensed.
With the Mecascape, the dream is gradually becoming reality and today, Claudio D’Amore, founder and CEO of the Swiss brand CODE41, sees his years of creativity first as a designer for the most important watch brands, then as founder of CODE41 – result in a magnificent object that combines everything he hoped to express: a different kind of watchmaking, both in its spirit and in its approach.
12 years after the embryonic idea of the concept came to him, in 2009, when you hear Claudio D’Amore talk about its development, you feel that he has found the osmosis he is looking for, between his faith in the purity of lines, his passion for contemporary design, his taste for architecture, coupled with a sensitive, pure intuition, nourished by his Italian roots. Everything in this Mecascape allows us to understand CODE41’s vision: a singular watchmaking that is free from traditional codes.
To acquire a Mecascape is to enter a different, unique and intimate universe. It means adhering to an original vision of ultra-contemporary and independent watchmaking. It is to let yourself be guided by a state of mind that explores new territories of technical and aesthetic expression, evoking new emotions.
Claudio D’Amore, founder and CEO of CODE41 comments: “My idea for the Mecascape goes back to 2009, more than 12 years ago. Today, after having founded CODE41, given birth to 6 collections, and dedicated 5 years of focused development to the project, the time has come, the maturity and the means too, to give birth to the first Mecascape. I knew, with the team, from the outset that we were working on something really special. An ambitious and daring project in every sense of the word. Translating my vision into a unique and original watch object was a real collective challenge, and we are all very proud of the result. Working with time from all angles (and that’s the right word here) has rarely been so rewarding.”
Foundational principles
Conceived and designed according to the mathematical language of the Golden Ratio 1.618 and the Fibonacci sequence, this first Mecascape is visually naturally balanced, harmonious, racy, contemporary, both aesthetic and geometric, thanks to the harmony and natural beauty of its divine proportions that derive from the algorithms on which CODE41 has based its design.
With an architecture that is striking for its graphic strength and originality, its components, shape, movement and exterior resonate with each other in a spirit of great apparent simplicity. Slim, with a thickness of only 7mm, the mechanical object can be easily slipped into a jacket pocket, so that it can be kept with you.
Its horizontal shape, like a small timeless mechanical sculpture in its purity of intention and execution, allows it to be placed on a piece of furniture or a desk, thus offering the possibility of contemplating it and appreciating time in a different way, while remaining very contemporary.
If the complex mechanical magic, with the balance, the barrel, the escapement and all the gears is very clearly visible, each one ensuring its function at first glance, reading the time remains extremely clear and easy.
The main hour counter, minute counter, seconds counter, second time zone with the representation of a world map in the heart of the GMT disc to enrich its aesthetics, and power reserve indicator – the whole combines balance and optimum legibility. Two small knurled crowns on each side, subtly integrated into the profile, allow the time to be set and the Mecascape to be wound mechanically in a simple and pleasant gesture, with a small push button on the side for setting the date.
While the entire “landscape” of the Mecascape is protected by an anti-reflective sapphire crystal, its solid Grade 5 titanium case back protects it from possible twisting of the case middle and ensures a solid structure, suitable for everyday life. With a small opening – like a porthole – also in sapphire crystal, which also allows you to admire part of the plate and some of the movement’s gears, the solid back also allows the Mecascape to be placed vertically on a piece of furniture or a desk, thanks to its metal support provided for this purpose – or even to be placed on a table and laid down naturally.
Finally, as a result of CODE41’s collaboration with the Cercle des Horlogers, an independent Swiss watchmaking workshop located in the Canton of Neuchâtel (halfway between Neuchâtel and La Chaux-de-Fonds), the Mecascape – which was born under the impetus of Claudio D’Amore – has generated a number of extraordinary technical challenges that had to be met, starting with its unprecedented dimensions, the complex calibration of the machines and its structural integrity.
Variations and accessories
With a creative aesthetic that exudes a strength that speaks to lovers of high-end, singular and exclusive objects, the first Mecascape is destined to be declined in a multitude of color variations, concentrated mainly on the display elements, thus emphasizing its structure, functions, lines and curves, offering beautiful contrasts to the timepiece as a whole.
The Mecascape comes with two accessories: a metal stand that allows the Mecascape to be positioned vertically on a piece of furniture or a desk, for example, and a travel case made of high-quality Italian leather lined with microfiber, which will allow its owner to carry it safely, combined with a small cut-out to elegantly store a bank card or business card.
Code 41 Mecascape Sublimation 1 technical specifications
Functions: Hours – minutes – date – second time zone (GMT function),
Power reserve indication
Material: Grade 5 Titanium
Movement: Mechanical manual winding Manufacture movement, 100% Swiss made
Frequency: 28,800 vph
Components: 237, including 39 rubies
Power reserve: 8 days
Crystal: Sapphire with 1800 Vickers antireflective coating
Case back: Closed, Grade 5 Titanium
Dimensions: 108mm x 71mm
Thickness: 8mm (7,9mm metal part and 8,1mm with the sapphire crystal)
Pre-ordering will open on 2 November 2022
