Czapek & Cie presents the new Quai des Bergues “Sursum Corda” – a unique piece created to celebrate the 175 year anniversary of the company and to demonstrate the beauty of craftsmanship and spirit of resilience in difficult times.
Wikipedia: Sursum Corda (Latin: “Lift up your hearts” or literally, “Lifted hearts”) is the opening dialogue to the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer or Anaphora in the liturgies of the Christian Church, dating back at least to the third century and the Anaphora of the Apostolic Tradition. The dialogue is recorded in the earliest liturgies of the Christian Church, and is found in all ancient rites.
Press Release (edited for brevity) and commentary in italics.
How would you celebrate such an auspicious event whilst in the middle of a pandemic? Terrible times can though be defining moments. You reflect on who you are, what you are doing, and why?
Czapek & Cie believes in the power of beauty and craftsmanship. It also believes that accomplishing something unique gives encouragement in the quest of always striving to do better.
Enthusiastic customers also have a role to play, bringing creative energy and inspiration to bear in order to produce bespoke models. These were the elements behind the unique Sursum Corda.
The timepiece is based on the Quai des Bergues calibre and gold case – the company’s first collection. The Sursum Corda dial features the best of metiers d’art: a world map in cloisonné enamel enclosed within a brushed white gold ring, and an outer hour ring with beautiful hand engraved waves.
Laser blasting, cutting and soft sand blasting are employed to create a velvet effect. The base plate of the dial was cast by Precinox in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, and is made from a special white gold alloy in order to facilitate all these techniques. The cloisonné world map is made by Donze Cadrans. The continents are displayed in a blue/grey finish and softly blasted to feature the terrain. Each continent is then contained within thin (0.1 mm) walls of white gold, barriers against the five seas which are finished in turquoise. The ring encompassing the world bears the Latin inscription “Sursum Corda” – along with its English translation “Lift Up your Hearts”, and in the three main Swiss languages, French, German and Italian. Finally, hand-engraving of the outer ring was executed by master engraver Michele Rothen, following a design by Adrian Buchmann. The hand-engraving of the dial took more than 40 hours to complete. Other dial features – such as the small seconds sub-dial, inscriptions ring and hour ring, were manufactured by Metalem.
Although looking like a world timer, the watch is in fact powered by the Czapek manually wound proprietary SXH calibre, which features: hours, minutes and small seconds functions, along with an impressive 7-day power reserve.
The movement uses the same base as the SXH1 used in the launch edition of the Quai des Bergues. The one used in the Sursum Corda removes the power reserve indicator on the dial side. The one used in the Sursum Corda removes the power reserve indicator on the dial side, and re-designated SXH, as it is perhaps more basic than the one used in the Quai des Bergues Fleur de Lys No 33.
“I discovered the phrase “Sursum Corda” when I was in my twenties.
“It has stayed with me ever since as a motto, and has helped us through the challenges encountered whilst reviving Czapek. These two simple words stand for our values – courage and perseverance. Given the context of 2020, it illustrates the most important message we wanted to share with the watch collecting community. We are well aware that Czapek & Cie may have been asleep for many years, however, the spirit of the founder is alive today and reflected as a tribute to design and craftsmanship.”
Xavier de Roquemaurel, CEO, Czapek
