Rare Watch Watchscape: Petermann Bedat 1825 Souscription Series
The Petermann Bedat 1825 Souscription Series was offered to only 10 collectors, and thus a limited edition of 10. Price was CHF 88,000.
This review watch is the property of a private collector who has received the watch. This watch is a final client delivery piece, but it is the pre-cursor to the pre-production prototype we reviewed. And is offered to selected collectors to help fund the tooling for creating the series production. This concept of the Souscription was popularised by A.L. Breguet in his time, and continues as standard practice for many independents.
I highly recommend you peruse that review for the basics.
The most immediate difference is the colour scheme of the Souscription is different from the production watches. First, the case is made of high polished tantalum instead of gold. The case is still made for Petermann Bedat by Efteor, who also makes the case for the serial production watch. The weight on the hand is rather hefty, but the metal looks quite silvery and not as dark as it appears in many other tantalum watches.
Second, the dial is black grand feu enamel. The production watch is also grand feu enamel, but is only offered in green. While other colours may be offered in the future, black enamel will only appear in these 10 pieces. Black enamel is often considered to be the most difficult to produce. The dial also carry the same sector dial layout with two textures. A grain texture on the outer ring, and a high polished inner medallion. The dials and hands of both the Souscription and production watches are manufactured by Olivier Vaucher.
The indices are appliqué on both. On the Souscription these are baguette diamonds held by a u shaped gold frame, while in the regular series they are in gold.
Due to these differences, the price is CHF 88k vs CHF 75k in the series production watches.
What remains the same
The movement offered in the regular series is the same as for the Souscription series.
The case back still appears as a treat every time the watch is flipped over. The bridges are laid out very sensuously, with a beautiful symmetry on the half closest to the crown, before opening up to reveal the escape and balance. I can count numerous sharp angles, both inward as well as outward. The chamfers where the jewels sit are beautifully polished, as are those which receive the screws. The screw tops are not blued, and this is a stylistic choice, but they are black polished.
The photograph above is taken with a direct flash at 5500K. I used this more direct flash so that the light illuminates deep into the escapement, showing not only the entire escape wheel, but also the perlage below and the circular graining on the lower movement plate. The balance spring is also clearly visible. And the one below is taken with the flashes offset to one side, emphasising the perception of depth of the Côtes de Genève. This lighting also allows the warmth of the maillechort to appear, and is a more romantic representation.
The balance cock, with its swan neck fine regulation system for the balance remains spectacular. Especially set off against the maillechort bridges with beautiful, high gloss anglage. The escape cock is fitted with a black polished stainless steel cap.
In my review of the prototype, I mentioned that the anglage on the stainless steel bell carrying the canon pinion had a sharper upper edge than the lower edge. I mentioned that this is either a style choice, or a very minor flaw. On this production Souscription watch, this same trait is observed. This is thus, probably an aesthetic choice by Gaël and Florian. I do note that if both upper and lower inner angles are equally sharp, this would require more hand-work.
The mirror polishing applied to the upper surface remains very nicely done, and the curves of the “bell” hug the corresponding curves on the adjacent bridges perfectly, leaving an even gap. The anglage on the steel bell and the anglage on the maillechort bridge matching each other.
Overall the finissage is top level, rivalling any watch in the market, and far exceed most.
Concluding thoughts
Nothing quite prepares one when seeing this watch for the first time. When just drawn from its cozy box, it looks very ordinary. Plain even. But immediately on handling the watch, the heft and density is felt. Then a closer look reveals the rather special use of baguette diamonds on the dial as indices. The hands for the hours and minutes as well as the small subsidiary seconds are black polished by hand. And under some lighting conditions, the second hand, being quite slim, can appear to disappear into the darkness of the sub-dial. But at others, like shown in the photographs, it can catch light and show up very well.
On the wrist, the watch wears perfectly. The 38mm sits very well on my 180mm flat wrist, and though the heft can be felt, it becomes natural after a few minutes. The weight only becomes obvious when changing to a lighter watch, particularly noticeable if I don a titanium watch after taking this tantalum one off.
