Breaking News: Singer Reimagined – A Star is Born

We were the first to bring you the breaking news that the new AgenGraphe chronograph will be used in a Fabergé watch. We managed to spend some quality time with Jean-Marc Wiederrecht at Baselworld 2017, who personally showed us and explained the magnificent chronograph. You can read more details of the Fabergé Visionnaire Chronograph and see live images here.

Once again, we are bringing you the hottest news. The most spectacular chronograph movement of the year, the AgenGraphe has a new hew home – Singer Reimagined, a newborn independent Haute Horlogerie brand.

 

 

SINGER TRACK1 – THE CHRONOGRAPH REIMAGINED

Who and what is Singer Reimagined?

Singer Reimagined is a company launched by Rob Dickinson and Marco Borraccino. They met in 2014, and the Track1 is the first product of the new company – Singer Reimagined. The former is the founder of Singer Vehicle Design and the latter is a well-known watch designer. Both have a great passion for cars, engineering and watches. They started to work together on a concept of a unique watch. During the concept and first sketches, they realised that such a watch needs a movement specially created to power it.

Marco Borraccino turned to Jean-Marc Wiederrecht from Agenhor. Jean-Marc had already been working for years on a new mind-blowing movement. The ideas of all three fit like a glove for the new watch intended to reimagine the world of horology.

 

 

SINGER TRACK1 – The chronograph reimagined

The first timepiece of the new brand is a central chronograph with sweeping seconds, jumping minutes, jumping hours and minutes and hours timekeeping with discs. It is using the newest horological innovation – the AgenGraphe movement.

The Singer Track 1 comes in a grade 5 Titanium case with brushed and polished surfaces, sapphire crystal on top and screwed in, with sapphire crystal, case back. The 43mm diameter assures an excellent wrist look. The slight oval case shape is inspired by the ‘60s and ‘70s watches.

The chronograph has the central place on the dial. It is capable of measuring 60 seconds, 60 minutes and 60 hours – exclusive to Singer Reimagined. The configuration of the hands is logical manner going from the long hand for the seconds, to the shortest for the hour totaliser. And together with the excellent contrast of the dial, gives a good readability. The minutes and hour totalisers share the same scale. The seconds’ scale has a special treatment – a separate outer scale with applied indices for every five seconds. The printed indexes allow a readout of 1/3 of a second.

 

 

As a bridge between the chrono and timekeeping dials, there is a bevelled edge which doubles as a tachymeter scale.

The timekeeping uses two high-tech PVD coated, hardened aluminium discs rotating clockwise. The hour disc has Arabic numeral indexes for each hour and baton indexes for every half an hour. The minutes’ disc uses Arabic numerals on every 5 minutes and baton indexes for every minute in between.  The time is read using the 6 o’clock small indicator. All the indexes, including the time indicator, are engraved and filled with luminescent material. The night view is spectacular. No need to say that the dial has excellent legibility in low light conditions.

 

 

The watch has impeccable finishes and an attractive look. The dial is balanced and warm, despite the black scales.

Who is Agenhor? What is AgenGraphe?

Agenhor is a Geneva-based family business which was founded in 1996 by Jean-Marc and Catherine Wiederrecht. This company is one of the in-shadow suppliers for some great names of the horological industry. The most notable and recent would be the Fabergé Visionnaire Chronograph which uses the AgenGraphe. Fabergé also collaborated with Agenhor for the winner of the 2015’s GPHG Best Ladies’ Complication – Lady Compliquée Peacock.

Other successful timepieces are the MB&F’s Horological Machines HM2 and HM3, Harry Winston Bi-Retrograde Perpetual Calendar, OPUS 9 and some of the spectacular Van Cleef & Arpels watches.

AgenGraphe is a horological breakthrough in the world of classic chronographs. It took ten years to develop and perfect it. The calibre is an automatic mechanical movement. First, the rotor is on top of the movement, under the dial. One might say that this is not new. Dior uses the rotor on top for the Dior VIII Grand Bal and Perrelet uses a double rotor. But it is not the same idea. The rotor is hidden under the dial. There is no clue that the watch is a full rotor automatic.

 

But the most important feature of this calibre is the chronograph module with enhanced legibility. The innovation being a transition from the classical chrono sub-dials, covered sometimes by the hours and minutes’ hands, to a central, unobstructed and focused chrono function is the next big step in horology.

A further radical change is the chrono’s jumping minutes and jumping hours. To avoid the forces affecting the movement’s amplitude, a constant rotation of snail cam is used. This charges the minutes and hours’ cam and the energy is stored, being released precisely when a feeler-spindle working with the snail cam falls. This is generating an instantaneous increment of a full minute or a full hour.

The snail cams are also used for resetting the chronograph. The reset button releases the chrono seconds’ brake. The minutes and hours stars’ jumpers and the click wheels are lifted. In this way, the reset is enabled. The feeler-spindles go back to the initial “0” position helped by the springs tensioned on the cams. This gently slip avoids the violent reset shocks of the heart-shaped cam systems. The classical reset is a major stress for the components of the chronograph and could have an influence on the entire watch’s precision.

 

 

The AgenGraphe has an innovative clutch system that combines the advantages of the known horizontal and vertical clutches. The coupling is made horizontally, benefiting the less required space, but the connection is done using friction between the wheel. To prevent slipping, the wheels are coated with Dianip. This diamond nickel composite increases the friction of the surfaces. This method avoids the teeth meshing of the classical horizontal clutch, until the coupling is secure. Additional, a long-toothed security wheel avoids deindexing.

The calibre has an impressive shock protection – a tulip-shaped spring. This helps the clutch to be coupled but remain “flexible” in the case of a shock. The tulip spring can move until it reaches the strongest part of the clutch lever. In this manner, the security wheels will always be effective, preventing deindexing.

 

 

To achieve an even greater precision, the AgenGraphe uses a 3Hz balance spring with a patented regulator – the AgenPit. Instead of using a spring stud, the coil is fixed into a groove with an adjustment screw. The screw us used to achieve the optimal spring length, being locked, for safety, by a clip.

In the Singer Reimagined timepiece, the timekeeping function is built as a periphery to the chronograph function. This arrangement is also seen in the Fabergé Visionnaire Chronograph.

The movement has 60 hours of power reserve, it is built using 477 components and has a diameter of 34.4mm.

 

 

Why is this important?

Singer Track 1 is the second watch presented on the market featuring the AgenGraphe. It comes from a new independent watch brand that favours direct-to-consumer selling. This facilitates the communication of the brand with its customers and a tight relationship. As an advantage will be the individualised services possible.

The price tag is CHF 39,800, excluding VAT and local taxes, which is a great price for such an independent horological feast.

More information can be obtained by contacting the Singer team directly at [email protected]