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The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
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Watches and clocks go tick-tock. That goes without saying, right? Even babies associate the passage of time with that pair of one-syllable words.
The sound derives from the back-and-forth lock impulse of a pallet fork engaging with an escape wheel in near perpetuity. For better or worse, tick and tock are how the sounds of watchmaking are ingrained within us. You don't have to know how a watch or clock works, but you know what it is when you hear it.
Every mechanical watch makes a noise, but it's not always as simple as the ticking and tocking you expect. And for someone with a trained ear, it's possible to listen to a timekeeper and know exactly what kind of escapement is working away inside.
Welcome to the precision party – this is the mind-melting caliber 9012 inside Bernhard Lederer's award-winning, highly intricate Central Impulse Chronometer.
Forty-plus years ago, a young German watchmaker named Bernhard Lederer became obsessed with the soft clamor given off by an escapement. His desire to fully comprehend the noise that day ended up with him dedicating his life to watchmaking – and to this day, Lederer has a particular fascination with the advantages and disadvantages one escapement holds compared to another.
After a career in which he has, more often than not, worked behind the scenes for others, Lederer is now in his mid-sixties and prepared to demonstrate his one-of-a-kind horological ingenuity through his "Masters of Escapement" series, a collection of six watches to be released over the next few years and that intend to each demonstrate the ultimate example of a specific form of escapement.
Bernhard Lederer after winning the Innovation Prize for the Central Impulse Chronometer at the 2021 GPHG. Lederer has also been a longstanding member of the AHCI, joining the independents' only organization in 1985; for more on Lederer's extensive career and diverse background, click here. Image, GPHG
Lederer's first release in the "Masters of Escapement" collection was the Central Impulse Chronometer, which is based around George Daniels' independent double-wheel, dual-impulse escapement and which took home the Innovation Prize at the 2021 edition of the GPHG. The Central Impulse Chronometer is currently being produced in a pair of 25-piece runs, in either a rose or white gold case with 44mm × 12.2mm dimensions; it has a stated MSRP of CHF 128,000. Lederer says it took him six years of R&D to complete the Central Impulse Chronometer, but it's clearly something he's been thinking about and working toward his entire career.
I've caught up with him a few different times over the past few months to discuss his innovative (and intimidating) creation.
(If you need a quick technical primer, please check out the following links to refresh yourself on the following terms: escapement, natural escapement, detent escapement, and remontoire. I also highly recommend reading or revisiting HODINKEE's 2020 article, "The Modern Watch Escapement, And How It Got That Way.")
The natural escapement was ahead of its time. That's what everyone always says. A creation of the one and only Abraham-Louis Breguet in the early 19th century, the escapement's so-called "natural" ability was born from the use of two escape wheels (rather than one) that were placed in a single gear train and which delivered their impulse to the balance directly and without oil or lubrication.
Here we have a diagram showing the original natural escapement architecture, as envisioned by Abraham-Louis Breguet. Image, Wiki, Kjorford
With modern manufacturing and high-tech materials such as silicon, it should – emphasis, should – be possible to realize Abraham-Louis Breguet's original idea for a lubricant-free "natural" escapement without its inherent problems, namely the meshing issues that occur due to the small gaps in gear teeth. These seemingly minor open spaces tend to decrease the amount of pressure that's placed on the secondary escape wheel, eventually creating backlash. In the pursuit of precision timekeeping, it's tiny tolerances like this that make a difference.
A number of present-day watchmakers have claimed to solve the backlash issue – Kari Voutilainen, F.P. Journe, and Laurent Ferrier chief among them (check out this old-school HODINKEE article for a comparison of their individual approaches) – but the story doesn't end with them.
"The natural escapement is a system that will never come to work perfectly," Lederer says. "The reason is the physical [energy] loss."
A diagram illustrating Kari Voutilainen's take on a natural escapement. Note the driving wheels are not visible; Voutilainen takes the extra step of hiding the wheels under the dial.
Laurent Ferrier's vision of a natural escapement has become one of the more well-known 21st-century examples. Ferrier's solution involved the creation of a special lever made of silicon and a dart/guard pin that is intended to help the gear teeth avoid backlash.
Historically, in a natural escapement, the gear train drives the escape wheel; then, on the same escape-wheel axis, there's an additional wheel that is in contact with the second escape wheel. Suddenly, a single gear train has to accelerate a total of four wheels instead of a single one like normal. And when the amount of wheels has doubled, the required energy quadruples to retain the same acceleration. In other words, a natural escapement requires 16 times the energy to achieve the same acceleration on four wheels that a single wheel would require.
"From where?" Lederer asks. "And without bringing too much 'use' to the axis, and to the whole system, will you add 16 times the energy? It becomes destructive."
The problem remains the same even when using lightweight silicon components. Whether one silicon wheel or four needs to be accelerated, it still requires 16 times the power working in cooperation between the wheels. You still need 16 times the energy.
"I believe the idea of the natural escapement is good, as long as you have weight zero," Lederer says. "If your escape wheel has no weight, you'll have perfect acceleration, and it works. But as soon as your wheel is made from a physical material that has a certain weight, it is at a disadvantage in comparison with a system where you only accelerate one single wheel."
The very first example of a natural escapement, completed at Breguet's Paris workshop in 1805. Known as "Watch Number 1135," it sold a few months after it was completed to the Duke of the Infantado for 4,000 Francs, a princely sum for the time. Image, Wiki, Kjorford
It does appear that Breguet was aware of his escapement's issues with inertia. If you look at certain natural escapement prototypes he created, you'll find escape wheels where the amount of impulse teeth have been decreased and then placed on the geared driving secondary escape wheel. Breguet was attempting to transmit the impulse to the balance as steadily as possible, by any means possible. The inertia of the escape and gear wheels combined with any amount of backlash in the gear teeth simply rendered Breguet's natural escapement too unstable for practical use.
George Daniels understood where Breguet had gone wrong, and unlike later 21st-century watchmakers, he deviated in his approach substantially.
The movement inside the George Daniels Space Traveller; the symmetrical architecture hints at the presence of Daniels' innovative "independent double wheel escapement."
Breguet (as well as Voutilainen, Journe, and Ferrier) all use a single gear train in order to drive the natural escapement; the first escape wheel directly drives a second escape wheel. What Daniels did back in the 1970s was introduce two escape wheels, each independently driven by two independent gear trains and two independent mainsprings.
The traditional detent escapement uses a very thin blade spring with a jewel mounted on it to hold the escape wheel in place; a jewel on the balance trips the spring as it passes, which releases the escape wheel, allowing it to advance. The escape wheel then gives impulse directly to the balance, and is locked again as the blade spring falls back into place.
"He said, 'No, we will not try to accelerate four wheels,'" Lederer tells me. "The challenge for him was to invent a system that synchronized the two escape wheels without connecting them through additional wheels."
Daniels' solution for synchronization pulled from another early escapement design – the detent.
As famously used in the George Daniels' Space Traveller pocket watches, and developed with a helping hand from his contemporary British watchmaker, the late Derek Pratt, the resulting escapement construction features separate but equal escape wheels, mainspring barrels, and gear trains, with a detent managing the impulses from the escape wheels to the balance.
In a vacuum, the detent is an incredible system. It requires zero lubrication – one of the primary goals of the natural escapement – and is fantastically efficient, given that the impulse is provided directly to the balance by the escape wheel(s). However, in its standard form, it's also dangerously susceptible to shocks. While a few contemporary watchmakers have ventured into using variants of the detent escapement in wristwatches (namely, Urban Jürgensen, Raúl Pagès, and Christophe Claret), it's most frequently associated with the marine chronometers of 18th-century English watchmakers John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw.
The detent escapement, as designed by Thomas Earnshaw. To learn more, check out The Modern Watch Escapement, And How It Got That Way. Illustration, Britten's Clocks And Watches And Their Repair
In the Space Traveller, the detent system (which Daniels referred to as the escapement pallet) frees one escape wheel, enabling it to provide an impulse to one of two impulse jewels on a roller, before locking itself on one of the lower locking jewels. As that happens, the detent has already turned and freed the opposite escape wheel from the opposite lower locking jewel. This escape wheel rotates without providing any impulse, and then locks against the upper, central locking jewel. When the balance spring returns its oscillation, this same escape wheel will then provide a direct impulse.
It's a constant shimmy between impulses and locks, impulses and locks. With each herky-jerky, Gumby-like movement, the detent is actively regulating each passing second to ensure that only one wheel is doing its job at any given time.
The George Daniels Space Traveller
"The main difference between the natural escapement and the Daniels independent double wheel escapement is simple: A natural escapement has four wheels, while the Daniels only has a single escape wheel that requires accelerating at any given moment," Lederer says. "Just like my Central Impulse Chronometer."
Lederer's escapement innovation has since proven in many ways, then, to be both an iteration and an improvement on the inventions of Breguet and Daniels.
In "The Modern Watch Escapement, And How It Got That Way," five attributes for the ideal escapement are identified.
First, it has to be self-starting. It then has to operate with minimal friction and ideally no oil or other lubricant. It should also provide its impulse as close to the equilibrium point as possible, in both directions. It should have a quality safety system, to ensure the escapement stays locked in place in case of an external impact. And finally, it should provide as little interference with the natural harmonic oscillation of the balance as possible.
A closer look at the independent double wheel escapement system inside the George Daniels Space Traveller.
The Independent Double Wheel Escapement, as envisioned by George Daniels, nearly checks off all five of those. Its sole point of failure has to do with the two-step unlocking sequence of the detent mechanism that could theoretically impact the amplitude of the balance due to the amount of energy being consumed with each successive beat. More importantly to the greater watch-wearing public, Daniels didn't believe this escapement architecture could be downsized from pocket watch dimensions to run just as effectively in a much smaller wristwatch.
And for a long time, he was right.
It wasn't until the late 2010s that – coincidentally – two different wristwatches emerged that would challenge this notion and introduce an evolution of Daniels' Independent Double Wheel escapement into a wristwatch. First, there was the Charles Frodsham Double Impulse Chronometer (more on it in a bit), coming out of the United Kingdom in 2018, and then there was Bernhard Lederer's Central Impulse Chronometer, first shown in 2020 and the impetus for today's article.
The Central Impulse Chronometer features a number of additional bells and whistles in its construction that illustrate just how intense and difficult Lederer's R&D process must have been. The sheer amount of back-up systems in place signal, to me, that the watch's extensive development period was fraught with trial and error. Lederer told me that he was able to speak with Daniels multiple times before the latter's unfortunate death in 2011, and their brief conversations helped him to continue working on what would eventually become the caliber 9012 and Central Impulse Chronometer.
The Central Impulse Chronometer. Image, Bernhard Lederer
The key distinction of Lederer's work is the introduction of a pair of remontoires within each of the individual two gear trains, placed in between the fourth and fifth wheels, which provide a constant and consistent flow of energy and torque to each escape wheel, helping achieve a steadier rate and ultimately greater precision. In this way, Lederer has borrowed construction ideas from John Harrison's 1759 H4 Marine Chronometer, which also incorporated a remontoire whose recharging interval was managed by an anchor with a specially created design.
Lederer says this is the first time that dueling constant-force remontoires have been associated with dual chronometric gear trains. In the Central Impulse Chronometer, they operate every 10 seconds, one after another, so that a remontoire is delivering energy every five seconds. Being a constant-force mechanism, the remontoire provides even torque distribution to the escape wheel, which then provides a direct impulse to the balance.
The dueling remontoires can be found opposite one another, in between the fourth and fifth wheels of each gear train, and inside the twin escape wheels.
Lederer prioritized low-inertia components throughout the movement (dubbed caliber 9012), reworked the geometry of the escapement, and crafted the escape wheels and detent mechanism out of hardened titanium to ensure the escapement would be as light as a feather while remaining fully functional. Compared to the Space Traveller architecture, Lederer also updated the connecting angle between the axis of the balance and the individual escape wheels, from 100 degrees to 120 degrees, for a smoother conversion of energy that intends to improve rate stability over time.
The crown at three o'clock winds the twin barrels simultaneously, as they are mechanically linked. I love the contrast of the two golden barrels situated directly below both the titanium crown wheels and slender German silver bridges. I also find it hard not to obsess over the razor-sharp qualities of the integrated triple click.
Each remontoire spring in caliber 9012 is tensioned and set at an extremely slight inclination of just 6.7 degrees, an angle that was determined would provide the most constant and consistent flow of energy and torque to the escape wheels.
The caliber 9012 has a unique domed sapphire crystal exhibition caseback that's been put in place using adhesive rather than standard screws, simply to provide the most comprehensive view of the movement possible from all angles.
Additionally, one of the results of the twin remontoires in combination with the low-inertia and lightweight escape wheels is that each direct impulse delivered to the balance is aligned seamlessly along the escape wheel's axis. In other words, each gear train provides half of the impulses to the balance wheel every second. Oh, and speaking of, the balance wheel itself is a customized variable inertia design that's been fully decked out with four regulating weights and four balancing weights.
Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
So far, we've described the central pallet that allows the individual escape wheels and gear trains to operate tangentially as a detent. Lederer, however, prefers to describe his own mechanism as the "metronome" of the caliber 9012; after all, it's what keeps the watch beating on time.
And not only is the "metronome" (also known as a pallet, a detent, or an anchor) pivotal to the success of an independent double wheel escapement, on the Central Impulse Chronometer, it's also where Lederer has made the most critical adjustments to the overall architecture of the escapement.
The Central Impulse Chronometer. Image, Bernhard Lederer
Lederer originally thought this whole experience would be relatively straightforward, and that all that would be required of him is to reproduce Daniel's construction on a smaller and more precise scale. While that apparently worked for a brief moment, Lederer eventually realized he was having consistent issues with low amplitude at the end of the watch's power reserve, as well as its overall susceptibility to external shocks.
"The liberation of one wheel can provoke the teeth of the active escape wheel to slip in front of the impulse-taking pallet – which is on the balance staff – and then you miss one, maybe two escape wheel teeth; it will impact precision," says Lederer. "For me, this was a real problem."
A different angle of the so-called "metronome" in action.
Charles Frodsham, who released its Double Impulse Chronometer in 2018 based on the same form of Double Wheel Escapement, decided to cut its watch's power reserve out completely once it's reached the lower-amplitude danger zone, something that will always occur approximately 36 hours after the watch was last fully wound. Frodsham's theory is that the watch can't experience low amplitude if the balance has been stopped entirely.
"From my point of view, this stops the watch from coming into the problem," Lederer says, "but it does not solve the problem itself."
He eventually solved the problem with geometry. Lederer amended the ruby pallet stone in the center of the "metronome" by adding in an additional concave surface, which he calls the "waiting pallet." Its purpose is to advance the moment of contact between the individual teeth of the escape wheel and the impulse pallet of the balance wheel.
Lederer's "metronome" escapement in all its glory. Diagram, Bernhard Lederer
Lederer's "metronome" incorporates two different types of pallets. First, there's the pair of impulse-taking pallets, each connected to one of the two escape wheels. The "waiting pallet" is the central pallet on the "metronome" that works with both escape wheels; here is where the escape wheel that provides the impulse waits for the pallet to be unlocked, in order to transmit its energy to the balance. The slightly curved surface on the waiting pallet prevents the escape wheel from falling into a recoil while allowing it to immediately resume its correct rotation.
Action Sequences of the CIC Escapement, Part 1: The ellipse engages with the fork of the escapement "metronome." The left wheel that will transmit the inertia is currently resting on the curved "waiting pallet" in the center of the "metronome." This curved surface ensures that the escape wheel will not recoil and that it can immediately move in the correct direction. Diagram, Bernhard Lederer
When a tooth is resting on the "waiting pallet," the gradual back-and-forth motion of the escapement "metronome" is so slight that the impulse teeth are able to slide along the lifting surface to convey an indirect impulse to the balance via the "metronome," with small oscillation amplitudes.
Action Sequences of the CIC Escapement, Part 2: With small oscillation amplitudes, the rotation of the escapement "metronome" is so small that the impulse-giving tooth is able to slide along with the lifting surface to convey an indirect impulse to the balance via the "metronome." This is how an indirect impulse begins. Diagram, Bernhard Lederer
When a tooth reaches the end of the waiting pallet, the rest of the escapement design ensures that the impulse-taking pallet will remain in front of the escape wheel teeth. From the moment the tooth that was sliding along the indirect-impulse surface is released, it's ensured that the impulse-taking pallet is safely in front of the impulse-giving tooth.
By shortening the contact surface of the waiting pallet and adding the indirect impulse surface, the impulse-generating escape wheel starts moving before it's finally released. This significantly shortens the distance that the escape wheel must travel before reaching the impulse pallet. In a traditional construction the escape wheel first has to overcome the recoil and then hurry after the impulse-taking pallet.
Action Sequences of the CIC Escapement, Part 3: When the impulse-giving tooth reaches the end of the lifting surface, the entire "metronome" construction ensures the impulse-taking pallet is positioned in front of the impulse-giving tooth. By shortening the contact surface of the waiting pallet and adding the indirect impulse surface, the impulse-generating escape wheel has already to move before being fully released, shortening the distance the escape wheel must travel before reaching the impulse pallet and representing the end of the indirect impulse. Lederer says that this specific execution is currently patent pending. Diagram, Bernhard Lederer
Even at low amplitudes, when a tooth could unlock early, the additional impulse surface forces the "metronome" to the side, in turn pushing the pallet in front of the teeth and issuing an indirect impulse to the balance. In this instance, it's operating like a Swiss lever escapement. Lederer says that "the waiting pallet is like an indirect Swiss lever impulse, pushing the 'metronome'; and the 'metronome,' having a fork and the balance staff, is now the lever."
It's difficult to measure precisely, but this should happen when the amplitude of the caliber 9012 is either directly at or below 80 degrees, and when the teeth are touching the surface of the impulse pallet. This additional push ensures that even at low amplitudes, the impulse jewel is positioned in front of the impulse-giving escape wheel tooth, which might otherwise miss it.
Action Sequences of the CIC Escapement, Part 4: At an amplitude of 80 degrees and above, the entire "metronome" transforms into an operational direct impulse escapement. If you look closely at the above diagram, you'll see that the impulse-giving tooth is in contact with the impulse-taking pallet to transmit its energy directly. Diagrams, Bernhard Lederer
Action Sequences of the CIC Escapement, Part 5: This is the end of the direct impulse.
However, as soon as the watch has an amplitude greater than 80 degrees, the "metronome" is quickly pushed to the side and the connected teeth begin to move. At this point, the "metronome" is on the opposite side and the two parts are no longer touching each other; the teeth are unable to reach the lifting surface, as the rotational speed of the "metronome" is higher than the acceleration of the wheel.
This is how Lederer's version of the double wheel escapement is able to offer a combination of both direct and indirect impulses.
Another significant (patent-pending) achievement that Lederer packed inside the Central Impulse Chronometer is the escapement's self-starting capability. If the watch is completely out of juice, the ellipse remains in a neutral position, which means so does the rest of the escapement "metronome." The concave shape of Lederer's waiting pallet design, with its additional lateral impulse surface, means that there is only one escape wheel resting against the impulse surface, ultimately generating an oscillation to the balance as soon as the escape wheel receives energy. Diagram, Bernhard Lederer
It's this ability, in combination with the updated 120-degree angle of the balance, that allows the transition of energy from the escape wheel(s) to remain smooth and purposeful and help to create an ideal isochronic state for the Central Impulse Chronometer.
Here's a shocker for you – the Swiss watch industry uses the term chronometer as a marketing tool. A certificate of a timekeeper's precision is a nice thing to have, to be clear, but it's not anywhere close to the end-all, be-all in precision timekeeping.
I knew all that. What I didn't realize was just how deep a marketing hole the Swiss had dug for themselves. And neither did Bernhard Lederer, it seems.
When he first began showing prototypes of the Central Impulse Chronometer, he received significant blowback for calling it a "chronometer" without providing any external certification of accuracy, such as from COSC, METAS, or elsewhere.
This ain't yo' mama's definition of a chronometer – but it might be your great-great-grandma's.
In Switzerland, of course, chronometer is a protected description – only watches that have received one of those fancy sheets of paper can go around describing themselves as such. (The term "chronometer" is not nearly as protected elsewhere in the world.) Lederer, being German, didn't know that. He was calling his watch a chronometer because it was one – it featured a chronometer-type escapement.
Remember the detent escapement I mentioned earlier? Another term for it is a chronometer escapement. Think about it this way – when marine chronometers were the absolute final word in precision timekeeping, they generally used a detent escapement and didn't necessarily undergo timing trials or receive any specific certification at the time. But because Marine Chronometers were so widely acclaimed, the "Chronometer" name enjoyed plenty of good publicity for its precision, so when the Swiss watch industry wanted to come up with a standard of precision, they pushed to pass a law that protected the chronometer terminology to exclusively indicate timekeepers with a chronometer certificate – even if they used a Swiss lever escapement rather than a chronometer/detent escapement.
The "chronometer" escapement that gives the Central Impulse Chronometer its name.
Of course, Lederer now has his watches certified as a "chronometer" at COSC, or at the Besançon Observatory by special request. He's now able to claim both definitions on his Central Impulse Chronometer.
One of the most eye-catching aspects of the Central Impulse Chronometer is that there are two separate and visible seconds hands on the dial, each spinning in an opposite direction.
This happens, of course, because each gear train has its own second hands, mounted on an independent fourth wheel, with its own third wheel, its own second wheel, and its own escape wheel – all perfectly synchronized.
The twin seconds hands are synchronized in their rotation yet naturally spin in opposite directions – the seconds hand on the lower sub-dial turns clockwise, while its upstairs neighbor rotates counterclockwise. Thanks to the large open apertures in each seconds sub-dials, you can clearly see the gradual rotation of the fourth wheel in each gear train, powering the movement of the seconds hand. Image, Bernhard Lederer
The dial side provides a direct view inside caliber 9012. A pair of cutouts laid in almost a figure-eight formation show a portion of the twin gear trains, highlighting the escape wheels and the unique Reuleaux triangles that help recharge the remontoire every 10 seconds.
Altogether, the open elements on the two-layer dial and the off-kilter pair of spinning seconds hands helps bring out a cool bit of kinetic action to the Central Impulse Chronometer that should help any serious watch lover to recognize Lederer's work from across the room.
There are plenty of debates about whether or not a tourbillon is a complication – spoiler alert – but where's all the conversation about constant force mechanisms? They're incredibly complex, even if they don't fit the "technical definition" of a complication. Just consider John Harrison's H4 Marine Chronometer – it was equipped with a remontoire (and a detent escapement) during its long months at sea, always remaining entirely capable of jaw-dropping precision. I'm talking about precision within 0.6 seconds per day, all the way back in the mid-18th century. Yeah.
"The ne plus ultra for escapements is the remontoire," says Lederer. "Whatever the base construction, a watch's precision depends on the regularity of the amplitude of your balance wheel. If you can keep it constant at 200 degrees, fine. If you keep it constant on 100, all is perfect. If you keep it constant on 300, it does not matter what the amplitude is, it's only important if it is more or less the same."
The caliber 9012 inside the Central Impulse Chronometer has an absurd amount of visible depth and dimensionality. Although it looks far more complex, the movement consists of only 208 components in total. Image, Bernhard Lederer
But finding a home for a remontoire in a movement can be tricky. You want it to be as close as possible to the escape wheel to ensure that the event torque transmission is able to make its way to the escapement in short order. So Lederer ended up placing the remontoire springs in between the fourth and fifth wheels of both gear trains and programmed them to alternate every 10 seconds, allowing for a dispersal of energy that occurs every five seconds in total. A Wankel disc, in conjunction with a Reuleaux triangle, is used to release and wind each remontoire.
These remontoires are positioned there for a reason – and the reason is precision.
Assembly of the caliber 9012 takes place at Lederer's workshop in the small Swiss town of Saint-Blaise, near Neuchâtel. Image, Bernhard Lederer
Lederer is downright obsessed with precision. So naturally, he had to make sure his dueling seconds hands remained aligned on the dial. But because this is a chronometer escapement, the seconds hands can't actually match each other tit-for-tat, second-for-second. They have to alternate beats every other second.
He could live with that. What he couldn't handle was what might happen if one mainspring ran out of energy while the other retained a little extra juice – the two seconds hands would by then be completely and totally desynchronized. It would be utter chaos.
"I had to change the construction of the movement to ensure that they would not misalign, and that they would stay as they should. I made a little mechanism and placed it inside the remontoire that drives the hour and minute hands; it should always run out of energy first since it has that extra responsibility. If it runs out of energy, a little spring will step out and block the balance. The moment when this specific remontoire can no longer be rewound, the watch stops running; the watch works as long as this remontoire is able to do its job."
The hand-decoration and finissage of the caliber 9012 is handled entirely by Lederer and his team in Saint-Blaise. A few finishes to note include the open-worked bridges, the proprietary wheel spokes, hand-beveling/anglage, graining (on the mainplate and barrels), engraving, satin, and extensive polishing.
In that way, you can view the pair of remontoires in the caliber 9012 as an incredibly complicated and intricate insurance policy that ensures the Central Impulse Chronometer remains focused on precision no matter what.
Witschi devices are the watch world's go-to for tracking a timepiece's performance in beat error, rate accuracy, amplitude, and more. Every watchmaker has one, and many collectors do, as well. They're wonderful devices – as long as your watch uses a Swiss lever escapement, that is.
Bernhard Lederer's Central Impulse Chronometer is currently being produced in a pair of 25-piece runs, in either a rose or white gold bezel-less case that measures 44mm × 12.2mm. Image, Bernhard Lederer
Lederer, for instance, is unable to use a Witschi timing device on the Central Impulse Chronometer due to the diversity of sounds that are emitted from the watch. There's the constant, once-every-five-seconds growl of the remontoires letting loose and rewinding, as well as the sound of the "metronome" engaging with the twin escape wheels consistently. It puts out a funky tune. And a Witschi just can't handle it.
So in order to officially test out the caliber 9012, Lederer had to pay a visit to Germany's University of Heilbronn, where a unique high-precision laser instrument was eventually used to determine and certify the movement frequency by tracking exactly how quickly the spokes of the balance wheel interrupted the beam. (For what it's worth, the Central Impulse Chronometer runs at 3 Hz – a touch faster than the Daniels' Space Traveller.)
Last we heard, the first production examples of the Central Impulse Chronometer are set to arrive with collectors and retailers this summer. Image, Bernhard Lederer
I was curious what the watch sounded like. So I asked Lederer to describe it for me. Does it tick? Does it tock?
"You cannot describe it. You have to hear it. It makes a tick-tock, like other watches, but if you hear a Swiss lever and hear the Central Impulse side-by-side, then yes, you'll hear a difference. To describe the difference is beyond my capacity."
Bernhard Lederer's Central Impulse Chronometer is being produced in a pair of 25-piece runs to start, in either a rose or white gold case; the stated MSRP is CHF 128,000.
You can learn more about Bernhard Lederer and the Central Impulse Chronometer right here.
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Enter the World of Hodinkee
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Enter the World of Hodinkee
All the watches you need to know about, delivered to your inbox daily.