Generally speaking, a project is guided in its progression from drawing table to production by issues of technical feasibility. I’ve always admired watchmakers who “do things backwards” by focusing first and foremost on the goal they wish to attain, before envisaging the solutions required to achieve it. This manner of approaching the development of a new product often leads to using innovative techniques, technologies or innovative materials which thus acquire genuine legitimacy.
These days, general belief and teaching view time as a linear continuum. Nonetheless, certain longstanding technical constraints have established the circular read-off of time by means of rotating hands. In 1959, Louis Cottier filed a patent for a watch using cylinders to display hours and minutes in linear fashion. Unfortunately, the project got no further than the prototype stage – that is until Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner decided to pay tribute to Mr. Cottier by taking up the idea. In order to be able to produce and commercialise such a product, the entire concept had to be entirely redesigned, improved and its reliability guaranteed.
Three years of development followed by a year of testing were devoted to taking up this challenge. Two cylinders respectively display the hours and minutes. One of the major difficulties encountered in using such a display system consists in ensuring the regular motion of the cylinders. To achieve this, a triple cam (in beryllium) was created in order to transmit the energy of the movement (on a horizontal plane) to the two cylinders (on a vertical plane). A toothed segment at the end of the pivoting rack, made of silicon for enhanced lightness and rigidity, serves this intermediary function. When the minute cylinder reaches the 60-minute marker, an ultra-thin spring pulls it back to its original position in a retrograding motion, and in so doing drives the hour cylinder one step forward (jumping hour-type mechanism).
The transmission of the seconds hand is conventional (a vertical pivot), while the traditional hand is replaced by a disc providing a digital reading of the seconds. All the even seconds numbers appear simultaneously through an aperture, while a central spiral shape provides a double linear read-off. Made using a photolithographic process, this (poised) disc weighs just 0.09 grams! The King Cobra is thus powered by a movement specifically developed for this model. This new self-winding calibre is fitted with an innovative feature serving to reduce the effect of violent impacts on the rotor. A propeller blade coupled with the latter serves as a pneumatic brake which has been christened a “rotor fly brake” and is visible through a window in the side of the watch.
As Martin Frei freely admits, the design of the King Cobra was inspired by a 1950s Volvo – an entirely consistent choice in that the vehicles from this decade were often equipped with linear speedometers. Moreover, for the very first time, the youthful brand is abandoning the satellite hour display system that has earned it such an impressive reputation, while successfully resolving the tricky issue of evolving yet preserving the brand’s powerful identity. Only 25 watches in white gold and titanium and 25 others in black gold and titanium will be produced in all. Never before has it been so tempting to allow a King Cobra to wrap itself firmly around your wrist, secure in the knowledge that the potential consequences of this particular “snake bite” will be exclusively positive…
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