← Scottish Watches
Scottish Watches
Scottish Watches Podcast #770 : Watches and Wonders 2026 – Czapek Reveal Their New Watches with CEO Xavier
00:50:57
It’s that special time of year when Xavier, CEO of Czapek, is back to deliver all of the brand’s Watches and Wonders novelties. After a relentless run through 2025 with...
Loading summary
Transcript52 lines
- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the Scottish Watches Podcast. This is, I don't know, it's a tradition. I would call it a tradition. You get that guy that comes every maybe December, he brings joy to the world. He gives gifts to everybody. And what we do with Xavi from Chupec is every April he gives the gift of new watches. Just before Watches and wonders. We record a show, we put it together, we edit it to perfection, we bake it in the oven, we get it ready. And then when all embargoes left, when everybody is allowed to talk about these new releases, we bring this out to the watch. Collecting the watch, not just the industry, the community, everybody who loves timepieces. And it's my pleasure to welcome back for the umpteenth time for his annual visit, Xavi from Czupec. How are you doing, sir?
- [00:40]
B
I'm doing well, Ricky, thank you. It's always a pleasure to be with you. And it's always the rehearsal before the show that is going to be in 12 days.
- [00:52]
A
12 days. Well, by the time you hear this, it'll be a lot sooner. It's whenever the embargoes drop because we don't like breaking those things. We've been good boys for about a year. Mizzy El sometimes drops us in the shit. We tend to stick to embargoes when we can. And talking about rehearsals, yeah, we did a bit of a trial run there, A couple of gremlins technical wise. But it's all good in the hood now. We're ready to rock. And it has been a phenomenal 12 months. Well, slightly more than 12 months now. Last year was a decade of the revitalization of Czapek, a brand that is known throughout history. The gentleman at the helm, back in the day, known throughout history. We did a couple of things with that guy Patek you might have heard of. But last year we didn't know what to expect. Watches and Wonders came around and it was this fantastic watch that was released and we thought, well done. That's great. You've done something for your anniversary that wasn't the end of the story. Couple of months later we got a press release. There is something else happening then something else, then something else. Geneva watch days. We met up, we recorded. We did an impromptu Star wars lightsaber fight with some new lights that we got. That's how much fun we have. You were running a little bit late because you'd actually been swimming down in the lake and made your way back to have this fight. Then we met up in Dubai we got a hold of a new book that you'd released. Then fast forward again to just a couple of months ago. A couple of weeks ago, even in Scotland, in Glasgow, you came across an event and you showed us a documentary that I didn't even know existed. So the past year, revitalization of the brand, a decade under the helm, you just blew me out the water. Everybody was just like, what are these guys doing? How have they got so many new ideas? Because there was just something every single month. And again, watches and wonders. 2026, you have brought your A game. There is a lot to talk about today, so we'll quickly tell everybody to check the show notes. That's where all the information, the tech spec links, the high resolution imagery and everything that you'll want to have a look at will be listed. If you're listening to this in audio, you can go back and check that out. Links will be in your podcast player. If you're watching this on YouTube, links in the description, click. That takes you across there you can relive the next 55 or thereabouts minutes and look through all the images until your heart's content. But Xavier, how are things? What you've been up to?
- [02:57]
B
Well, Ricky for witches and wonder, what do you think? Do you did we came like Superman with another time jumper or we worked to make things from good to even better.
- [03:10]
A
It was a worry. It was a worry because you did so well last year. This isn't your anniversary year. You could have thought, ah, easy street. We'll take the foot off the gas. It'll be dead. Nobody cares. It's fine. Look what we did last year. And then you decide to release some phenomenal models all in the one go. But let's recap the last year. We'll put that to the side. You know, it's like any good story. We'll keep the good stuff until later on and we'll talk about the last 12 months. Well, probably the first thing we should do is maybe do a wrist check. What you got on the wrist today?
- [03:40]
B
Oh, I've got a very simple watch. It's an Antarctic S. The small Antarctic with a turquoise spider dial. This is a watch that is not for sale. It's the watch that is actually for. For the board members. It's the board member watch. It's the way we found to give to the board member a little compensation. Some people normally board members get sort of a fee or monies and we don't. We actually tell them we keep that in an account and when you've stayed enough years, then we give you that watch. So maybe you can see it says here my name and it's on the left, it's called Board Edition. So it's very special. It's the people who are sitting at the board of capec. It's a seven people board and they are shareholders. There's an independent board member joining us this year. This is something that is important because a good company has a good board. They don't necessarily appear, they are behind the scenes and the job of a CEO is a very lonely job. It's a difficult job and I'm happy to have them give me advices to support me, to challenge me sometimes to that's, that's part of the, I would say the normal process of a good company. So we try to be a good company. That's why the board is important. So that's today my, my board watch and it's the Antarctic S is an incredible watch. It's a, it's a smaller size, you know, 38 millimeter, fits perfectly on my wrist. So that's my, my favorite one. And what is about what, what about yours?
- [05:22]
A
Well, I've changed something up here because I got my first Czupec a year ago. Obviously it was an Antarctic passage to Drake because I wanted something that was quintessential Czupec. And when I think of Czupec, the Antarctic wasn't the first. You've got many different iterations, Nepaskota, Berg, all the rest of it. But it's the one that appealed to me, it's the one that came out during the pandemic. We've talked about the history, how it came. There's even a documentary that explains all this kind of stuff that we might talk about later in this show. When I was deciding what do I do, what one do I go for? I decided I'm going to go for not the red tip on the second hand. I'm not going to go for the numerals at the 12 o' clock position. I'm going to keep it classy, which is something I don't usually do. I usually go crazy. But the flip side of that is for the last 12 months there or thereabouts, I've been wearing it on the crazy, the high quality bracelet that it comes with and I've changed over now to the rubber strap. I'm on a bit of a kick for rubber at the moment. So yes, the watch I'm wearing today and I will show you it now. Well, I'll show you the bracelet first because we're not using that. I'm going to put this to the side. One thing with the bracelet, it comes with this amazing tool that allows you to quickly change things over very securely. And it has got this little extension on both sides. If you press here and pull, it opens up on one side and then you press on the other and it opens up on the other. So it gives you that micro adjust. Really comfortable little bracelet. This tiny little clasp fits perfectly on the back. But yes, I have switched it over and it is on. This color matched rubber strap changes the entire look up. If you're thinking maybe like an ap, a diver offshore or some of the rubber numbers, it completely transforms the look of the watch. I think it looks great on it. Always get compliments when I wear this. It doesn't matter which strap it's on. And one of my favorite parts is obviously color match date disc. Taking it off the wrist and looking at the back there, you'll see lots of sweat. But if you look through the sweat, you'll actually see this fantastic movement. This is the DNA, the heritage. Everything that is Czapek is in here, including that little micro rotor, the different colors on the bridge work and the plates. The way that everything's arranged, especially over that left hand side with these little fingers coming out holding the wheels and the train. Yeah, it is just absolutely fantastic. One of my favorite pieces. The problem I have is I have to leave it in a safety deposit box box because you know what it's like in the uk. Bad things happen all the time. So for safety, this one lives far away from my house. But every time I go to the safety deposit box to change a watch to get a new one out, it's almost like getting a new timepiece. It is a kid going to a sweet shop or a toy shop picking up something to put on the wrist. So yeah, today I'm wearing my Antartique. It is a firm favorite in the collection. It's been here for just over 12 months.
- [08:05]
B
Beautiful. A lot of things come to mind when I look at, when I look at it, you know, I was looking at the movement and I remember that my initial briefing was I want horological eroticism. And the idea was to have dentelle embroidery. You can see the movement but you cannot see everything. And now I was looking at it and I said, this is a party of wheels. Wheels are playing together and all see them. It's like a nightclub with plenty of wheels having fun. And this is also the way this movement has evolved because we are now at the V50, so quite a few evolutions from the first V20 to live through. And it remains for us a big step in our evolution. And we're going to speak more about it for watches and wonder. But if we recall last year, I would say, yeah, the Tourbillon, which is our first tourbillon. Our first tourbillon. Homemade, handmade, house made tourbillon, flying tourbillon, fully designed from scratch by Daniel Martinez and then produced more than 50% of everything in house. And the rest with our usual suspects, you know, InnoTech, General Rosso, Rato, Calpa, all the guys who are making key components mps that help with us, work with us to make a watch being. Being perfect. I do precise that because a lot of people speak about house made watches or own tourbillon and own watches. You know, the thing is that if you want to have a great escapement, you go to Atucalpa. If you want to have a great barrel, you go to General Rosso to its competitor. There are two guys here. If you want to have very fine bridges until you get to know how to do them, you're happy to work with Innotech. But if you want a tourbillon cage that is incredible like the one of the Tourbillon, you probably need their help because they are the best to machine titanium in such a delicate way and then angle it perfectly. So yeah, you need to have a team of people with you. And this collaboration needs to go far beyond just the commercial relationship. It's a dream. And that's why I love making this documentary with Lew and Max, because I feel more like a director for a movie than a CEO in a company that I feel like we're all together trying to achieve a dream. And I think maybe that's the real way to look at a company which is to have good people together making something extraordinary that they would never achieve by themselves. But by pulling together the best of them, you get to the next level. And yeah, this documentary that you were commenting has been one of the big things that we have released last year because it's 10 years, because we started filming in 2015. So it's really 10 years of the struggles and the development and the successes and the evolution of Capex and the dream of Capex together, starting with $15,000 to today being a running independent autologous company. That is one of the references in the market. So it's an amazing journey.
- [11:41]
A
Well, the good thing about the documentary is the fact you decided you had the forethought to involve a team behind the scenes to document from day one forward, which we're not talking about something that was put together five minutes ago where you rewrote history in your favor. We've got the genuine footage. You haven't re established your pretend founding date like some people in Switzerland might do. You've not created all this bullshit. The smoke in the mirrors that you sometimes find with other brands in the Swiss industry. Everything is documented, it is ratified, it is cataloged, and it is in a chronological order. And I got to see this. We're going to jump forward slightly to an event that was happening in Glasgow with James Port and son just a few weeks back. This something we talked about last year in Dubai, and it came to be. It was a bit of a struggle to get off the ground, but we got there in the end, thanks to James Port and son. Simon, the whiskey blender dude, that is obviously Sandy Hyslop. He came along and he did a pairing, a matching of Czapek watches with different blends of whisky. That was a brilliant night. And then we followed up the next morning, or the next afternoon, I would say, where we met up in Glasgow. It was very quiet and we went for a brunch and we just had the best of times. We sat there, we laughed, we giggled, we almost missed your taxi to the airport. We almost kept a hold of you in Scotland, but we let you go and it was just a great experience. And I got to see this documentary for the first time. I didn't really know it existed. I'm sure you told me, but my memory is so bad. And because you didn't give me a copy, it didn't mean much to me. But we sat there in James Porter in their Emporium in the Argyle Arcade, and we watched it start to finish. And I learned so much about a brand that I thought I knew a lot about. We've known each other, we've been friends for many, many years. We've recorded many podcasts over those years, but there was so much depth, knowledge, intrigue. There was ups, there was downs, There was things about your health where we nearly lost you I didn't know about. These are things that you've never explained about and you've left them to this documentary. So if anyone hasn't seen it yet, there might be an opportunity, if you're coming to Watches and Wonders, to see it. And then in the future, who knows, it may end up in an online platform. But give us the Synopsis. The highlights give us the real of how this docum came to be and what's inside it.
- [13:54]
B
So it's about people, because that's the key, you know, that's what we strive for. And it's about loving watches. And, you know, I was referring to when we were chatting before to tomorrow, because tomorrow is one of the last days of snowboarding of the year. It's going to be too warm and the snow is melting. But tomorrow is a day off because it's Holly Friday. And so I'm going to go snowboarding. And I started when I was 14, so more than 40 years ago, and I loved it, but it was impossible to get a snowboard. So I started making them in the garage of my dad. And so I was making them one after the other, breaking them because it was made in wood, learning to do it the right way. And at one point, one of my schoolmates asked me, can you do one for me? They look at him like, what? They said, yeah, I'll give you the money to buy the merchandise, the material to do it, and et cetera. I said, oh, that's cool. Okay, let's do that. And then we define together the way to paint it, decoration, everything, the size according to him, etc. And I love the process. I fell in love with the process. And so when I did a business school in my studies and people are asking me, what would you love to do? I said, I'd love to be an entrepreneur. I really love to do a product for someone according to what he dreams of, because the whole process was amazing. Then I had a job in normal companies that were large groups, and you cited some before. And I think I was really disappointed by the way people were,
- [15:38]
A
in the
- [15:38]
B
name of marketing, rewriting stories. And I thought that would be so cool to be transparent. That would be so cool to tell. And we tried it since the beginning, and I remember showing to some Chinese in Hong Kong video where you could hear the guy speaking in French with his very strong accent of the Jura, what he was doing. And I was like, it's a shame there's no music behind. It's very crude. It's more like a porn movie than anything else. And the guys were loving it. I said, that's the thing. They want the truth. They want to know how it's happening for true. They don't want to have something made up. And my job is to make that every day is an adventure. That is so cool that I don't have to rewrite it at the end of the day, I just have to leave it and make something. Dream of making something even greater the day after. And that's it. That's the job of a CEO. That's as simple as that. And so what we tried to do was to respect that transparency in the book and in the documentary.
- [16:42]
A
Saav, you forgot the book. Yes, the book. One second. This book.
- [16:47]
B
Yes, this book. We Collect Rare People. That's the title.
- [16:51]
A
The problem you've got is when you say we collect rare people, that sounds like the next documentary series on Netflix with the monsters where, you know, the serial killers and the kidnappers, stuff like, you gotta be careful when you transfer things into English.
- [17:04]
B
Well, I have to say that when we built it, I was looking Drive to survive for the F1 series, and I said, okay, that's super cool. Let's go even further in that direction. So that's our take on this. It's not man of the hour. It's not Drive to Survive. It's called An Unexpected Renaissance, and it's a very true story with images of the. You look at me 10 years ago, I was looking younger, a little bit slimmer, too. So shame on me. I'll fight. One day. I will lose my extra kilos, I promise. I take a promise in front of you now.
- [17:39]
A
But there were many things in documentary that I learned about. Nearly losing you obviously was one of the big things. It wasn't a highlight, it was a lowlight. And I didn't know this because you didn't harp on about it. I didn't even have a clue that this thing had happened. And it was kind of mentioned. Everybody was very somber in the moment. And then we moved on. We weren't dwelling on it, and then we learned about the progression, the building. But you also didn't hide any of the negativity, because nothing is perfect. There's always going to be some bumps on the road. And you talked about them. You talked about challenges when you were creating things. And when you're a pioneer, you're the person that's forging the way ahead. You're clearing the path. And there can be stumbling blocks. The people that follow behind, they're the ones that get the easy travel. But you are moving things out, the way, the rocks, everything, to get to where you are. And then last year, the whole year was just phenomenal. We talked about watches and wonders where you had a release that we thought, right, okay, that's it, we're done. Then there was another release in the summer. Then there was Geneva Watch days. Then there was Dubai watch week. And it just kept rolling and rolling and rolling in the book as well. When we got that in Dubai and you ran away to the corner with a pen and you scribbled out a little message for myself, and then you got another book and you wrote a completely different message for Dave. It's just the fun aspect. Everything about what you do with Czapek. We've talked about the lightsaber fight that we had at Geneva. Watch days where you were running late, you were down at the lake swimming, you ran up, your hair was all wet, you ran in, and we had these new inflatable lights with colors in them, and we. We had the Star Wars Fight Gav record. It's just fun. It's always fun. And that's what we love about chatting with you. It never gets boring because it's always a new story to tell.
- [19:13]
B
And, you know, if we look at what you said at the beginning, speaking about the documentary, I think one of the things that surprised me is that it's a what if, you know, taking things from the other angle, what if your weaknesses would become your strengths? This is what I try, what we try to apply in Czapek. It's to look at the things from that different angle. It's to try to see that if you're not good at that someone, you can find someone to be good at it and to help you doing it. Or maybe you will leave some space for someone to grow. You don't have to be a Superman. Everybody knows you have your weaknesses. Don't hide them, Play with them, recognize, apologize for them because you're not perfect, and then move forward. That's the beauty of it, you know, to be capable, to look at it and say, hey, here we could have done better. Let's do it now. That's the excitement, you know, to strive every day for excellence. I was saying great to say perfection, but that's for God's perfection. That's not for us. So excellence is more achievable, not more. It's more achievable.
- [20:24]
A
Last year, excellence came in droves from start to finish. So maybe we can do a quick recap moving from a year ago, watches and wonders 25, where, as I said, a new watch came out, and I thought, well done, guys. That's it. We've done the year. And then it continued and continued. So there was a crazy tourbillon that came out a year ago. Let's recap from there, follow through the year, catch up with what we've done this year, and then we'll get straight into the crazy new novelties for 2026.
- [20:50]
B
You spoke about it. There was this incredible robot that is inspired from the author, the first man who coined the word robot, giving it a concept behind. The word had been written in England and there was no real meaning about it. So he coined it about like a machine that can do the labor of men. And that was the idea behind. And the book is called Universal Robot and it's written by. Not by Francois Chapek, but by another Chapek carrel. Chapek and Karel. Chapek has the same name as Francois. We couldn't find the connection between the two. It's possibly the same family in between. There has been the World War II. That has destroyed a lot of archives. So it's not easy to find back who was related to who. But we wanted to pay tribute to that man because we love mechanics and robots are also about mechanics. So we said, okay, let's put back on the map the guy who invented it 100 years later by doing a watch that is dedicated to the robots, using the face of a robot to actually identify the position of the chronograph.
- [22:08]
A
So what is your favorite robot then? You're a sci fi buff. If you had to name your favorite robot in the entirety of movie comic book history, who would it be? Have I stumped you? Have I finally, after nearly half a decade, we've got you. Yeah, you think about it. I'll tell you who my favorite robot is. My favorite robot is Johnny Five from Short Circuit.
- [22:31]
B
Okay, that's a good one. That's a good one. There is always the question of the robot who are rebelling about the humans. I've got my take on that. I think human beings will never stop. Surprise you? I think robot will live very close to us. I think the border will be very thin in between.
- [22:51]
A
My second favorite robot is from a movie with Megan Fox that came out a couple of years ago where she's a. We'll not talk about that because her wife will hear this.
- [22:58]
B
Yeah, no, we have to keep. Because we lose the audience if we don't speak about the watches. So we can keep the watches.
- [23:04]
A
I like how you got out of that one without answering it properly. Xav, you know how to play the game, right? Okay, back to the robot watch. You could tell what was happening through the eyes.
- [23:13]
B
Yeah, exactly. So when you start the robot, get the yellow eyes of mortal engines. That was my inspiration there. With a half man, half robot. Person that was becoming dangerous, but still friendly somehow. And then when you stop, it becomes. The eyes become red, and then when you reset, the eyes become blue. So you get these three positions, and that's for the chrono. And when you move the start, the rattrapante, you have a little window showing a blue square to indicate. So these are indicators. But we were playing with the concept of the chronograph and the robot in a way that was quite unique, I admit.
- [23:57]
A
Where did the idea come from to do a robot watch?
- [24:00]
B
Really, from being a fan of science fiction. Really? That you love science fiction. The robot comes from a capek. You make watches in a company called Capek. You think, okay, we have to do a Czapek robot watch, you know, paying tribute to that. So. Oh, that's nice. That's nice. The Terminator is here with us. That's a nice one. You're strong at robots, too.
- [24:28]
A
I like robots. Yeah. And this is always a reminder that you've got to be careful with AI. AI has its uses, but it could also take over the world. So, yeah, we do love robots. There's a lot of sci fi. He's lost his head.
- [24:42]
B
Yeah.
- [24:42]
A
Oops a daisy. Yeah, no, we love sci fi here at Scottish Watches Tours, myself, Dave, the whole team, Gav. He's another absolute crazy fanatic when it comes to science fiction comic books. It's all about having fun with a hobby. And the watch hobby is the most fun ever because you get to incorporate everything. But the robot watch, that was one of the standouts of the year. I'm just going to use this as a prop now. That was one of the standouts of the year. But where did things move from there?
- [25:05]
B
We moved to the time jumper. To answer your question, I would not speak about one robot. I would speak about a book from Asimov. I think the robot from Asimov is really, for me, the moment where you dive the most. So I invite every reader of science fiction to reread or to read for the first time the robots, because that's a series of short novels that are just fantastic. And that's probably my reference. If you ask me, there is not one. But all these were, for me references of the fascination and stupidity that you could have at the same time in robots. So you have to be clear. And the robot from Trapec is a mechanical robot. This one we can keep on the wrist without danger. Now let's move to the time jumper. It is. Do you know what is fascinating is the fact that we don't know how far will it go. We live in a moment that is wonderful and dangerous and it's exciting for that reason and for me, it's beautiful. We're so lucky to be there. The birth of the Time Jumper was really from. How can we celebrate the 10 years without having a watch that kind of encompasses everything? And we looked back and we thought, you know, what if? I love the what if questions. You know, this concept of the sliding doors where if that night you didn't went out, maybe you would not have met your beautiful wife and you would be all alone today. Sad, without having the joy of being married. And that's the same for a lot of things in our lives. A decision we take that seems to be very little, and that changes everything. And one of these decisions was to actually take the watch 3430 made by Capek when we were in October 2015, no, 2013, at the very beginning, with Sebastien and Harry, when he started working, we created that library of pocket watches from Czapek and we selected one. I pushed on that one because I felt it was very much, very trappic because there was harmony and chaos at the same time. There was some things that were not used but not usually seen. The numbers were too long. The hands were coming from four different sets of hands. So it was a mix and match. But suddenly with a special taste. The movement was brilliant. There was a symmetry that was working very well. So that was our inspiration. And I thought, what if instead of that watch, we had taken a Half Hunter as a reference? What watch could we have imagined as a first watch for Czapek? And that was the Time Jumper. So there was a reference to the old times. And that's the guilloche that you can see. There is a cover because it's a Time Jumper. So it had to have a cover as a pocket watch. There is a hole in the COVID and you can see the time through the holes as it. It is in a Half Hunter. And then the time was a Time Jumper because we also had that idea of jumping in time and the whole concept was looking like a new foe. So it was very much linked on the side to science fiction and very much paying tribute to where we come from. This is possibly one of our recipes to be a little bit extreme on both sides, you know, in the innovation, in the invention, in the creativity, but never, never forgetting where we started, where we are, what we love. At the beginning, we love metier dark. What we want is to reinvent ways to express them. So the Guilloche is a guilloche on a curve that is actually done by a new machine for guilloche that is called a 3D machine for Guilloche. So it's been invented by Metalem to answer the need of. Of redoing guilloches on curved and not flat dials, but on curved surface. And that's another of the difficulties that we run into doing that watch. So that's why the watch is going to come out very soon, to reach its future owners, but it's still going to be in a month or two because we are getting together, resolving all the problems to make a beautiful watch. That is fantastic.
- [29:29]
A
Well, that one surprised both myself and Dave because we discussed it and when we were at Dubai Watch Week, we got to see things up close and personal. And it wasn't 3D prints, it wasn't prototypes like that. It was genuine watches where we could play around with the movement. And we weren't the first people to play with it. So lots of journalists, media folk, influencers had battered the hell out of this thing. And it was phenomenal. And it was almost like multiple personalities of a watch in the one case. So, yeah, when it's all closed up and a half, Hunter basically means that there's a cover that opens up. It's a protection device from the olden days and you open it up and you can see inside. Usually it was covered, so you couldn't actually tell the time when it was closed. But this time around you can, because there is that aperture on the top where you can look through and you can tell the time. But then you open it and it's a new world inside. It's looking inside something from Star Trek the Next Generation, where they go to a futuristic planet and you've got all the skyscrapers and all the stuff that moves around with the infrastructure of a city, and you can see these massive wheels rotating around. But yeah, you're right. If you look at the top of it, it's a ufo. The way that I looked at it was. It was almost like a. The quality of the work. And you're saying this was done by machine? It looks like it's been done by hand. Is that good?
- [30:43]
B
It's a guilloche machine. So it's a hand guilloche, but it's a new machine in the sense that you cannot guilloche with that like that. You need to have a rose engine to guide. So you have this guidance, but the guidance is always doing either a straight line or a curve and then add the cam to create the effect of waves or different designs, but always working with a flat surface. So the dial is flat and you engrave on it here. What was achieved by Metalem was to actually modify the original machine to be capable to engrave on the curve and therefore recreate guilloche on a cover of a pocket watch that is in the end a wristwatch if you want.
- [31:38]
A
But the fact that it's not cast, forged or stamped means that the way that light catches reflect, it's organic. So you do have to. You can look at videos, you can renders or you can come to watches and wonders in the public days and you can have a look at what we're talking about, because there's going to be a good chance you can see it there. But let's talk about the movement technology, because that wasn't very simple to put together.
- [31:58]
B
No, no. And that was. So for us, the Tourbillon was our first in house. Tourbillon, Flying Tourbillon, where we produced more than 50% of all the components. Here we upgrade and we actually reached 75% of the components that are made in house. And. And the complication of having. Because it's a real new complication that is patented now of having 24 hours on two disks that are rotating like this and having the reset at 23:59, jumping and bringing back the two disks at 00. That was very complex to achieve. And that's why it's being patented now, because it was not easy and it's quite a unique step forward. And for us it's a learning process also. That is very good because this is not the first patent. We're now writing the third one. So it's a process that help us grow and help us become or help us continue the journey through autologie to the most faraway planets or systems or galaxies.
- [33:14]
A
Well, with something this complicated, what problems did you find along the way devising the new movements?
- [33:20]
B
The big problem was the strength of the spring, because you calculate them and you define the size of the spring according to your calculation. But in the end, if the spring is too strong, then you stop the watch when you have to have to activate a jump. If the spring is too weak, then you don't have a clear reset. It's not adjusting. So you want to reset that just this clack that is perfect, that is fitting exactly there's. And to do that, so we had to change the spring and then we had to modify by hand the cam until finding the exact perfect geometry. That is quite a Strange geometry somehow closer to the geometry of the inner wheel of a rattrapante of a split second, which has also these curves to help the reset. And that was very probably the most challenging part because you create on the computer, but then you have to invest probably 50% more time to adjust prototype, come back to conception, redo a prototype of that component, retest it, etc. So it's a loop to get to having the perfect watch for your watch lovers.
- [34:39]
A
So how were the different releases accepted by the watch loving community? Because we could say that the collector community, but its lovers of watches. The Czapek story, it's been going for decades. Well, it's over a decade though, Congratulations. More than a decade of Czapek. But your collectors, they were probably used to the classic looks. They were used to maybe, I don't know, the Antarctic coming out in 2020, when it was devised, these were all different. So your collectors, your existing fan base, how did they receive the watches so?
- [35:10]
B
Very well. And actually it reminded me a little bit of the, the first wave of the COVID period, where you don't know and you just know that you have to be bold and to believe in what you're doing. And so the piece was very well accepted. We have sold 98 of the 100 steel pieces, so there are only two left. And we have sold 2018, I think of the 20 to 30 gold that we'll do. We'll adjust the quantity finally because we want to have some space for the next two versions of the time jumper that will come. One in Geneva watch days and the other probably toward the end of the year with two different metals. So the next one will be a big surprise. It's like a new watch starting from the first one. I was looking at the 3D print of it today and the reaction of the case maker, Aurelien Boucher, with whom we work a lot, said to me, said, it's funny, it looks like the first one we would have done, we should have started with this one before doing the most complicated one is so perfectly balanced. Well, sometimes it's like this, you know, it's like children in a family. The first one comes the second one and then you finally see the evolution and they're all different and all coming from the same origin and you can tell the differences and the similarities.
- [36:39]
A
Well, I think we've dwelled on the past long enough. A decade is a long time. Last year was phenomenal. Seeing the iterations, the modifications, the new mixed with the old, the contemporary and the classic. But that leads us up to what we talked about just a few weeks ago, meeting up in Scotland for the first time over here. Hopefully, we'll be across many more times, perhaps when the weather is nicer, because we can take you on a bit of a tour. But then we're up to watch the wonderful 2020. So it's the whole point that we're here today, specifically today, to talk about the new releases for this year. So tell us, what have you got up your sleeve?
- [37:11]
B
So off the sleeve is a story of Antarctic, but with a different metal, because what we decided to do was actually to play with titanium all the way. So we decided to do titanium versions of our favorite models and have a unifying color for them. So you see that first, the touch and the feel of the titanium is incredible. It's a warm metal you wear. Feels so strange because it's so light. And at the same time, the touch is very unique. And then the color is a tone of blue that was absolutely extraordinary. And we discovered it by trying it on the Tourbillon. Let me show you on the Tourbillon what it looks like. And you see it shut. It's incredible. And so he said, okay, with this blue, it's fitted for titanium. Let's not launch it. Let's keep it aside. And then we'll do a whole story of titanium. So you have the Tourbillon titanium with the cosmic blue. We called it the cosmic blue, always with this guilloche. It's a guilloche with a vortex trompe l' oeil effect, an optical illusion that seems to be curved. It's not curved because it was not yet reinvented by Metalem, but it's a hand guilloche that is on a flat disc. And then you have the cosmic blue dark sector, which is our classic Antarctica, but with this sector dial, where the void actually marks the minutes or the seconds, the five minutes. And then the last one was with the Revelation, where you also have this signature ring on the outer side to show the minutes and the inside, with the skeletonized version with 18 inward angles. So we were actually working on reworking on how many inward angles or internal angles we could do on that watch. And the surprise is that now it exists in a smaller size. And this is one of my favorite. This is the Antarctic S, the smaller Antarctic, and in a smaller size. It looks amazing because. Because you nearly only see the skeleton, you forget about the watch. You get the bracelet that holds very well. So that's the revelation in a small Size that's quite unique. Let me start the watch to give it a bit of energy and beat.
- [40:03]
A
Well, while you're winding the watch up, let me explain to the people that are listening, that are not watching the video, that are not looking at the show notes at this moment. Maybe you're driving, maybe you're at the gym, maybe you're doing the chores, you're walking the dog. I'm going to try my best to explain what Zavi has just showcased to the world here. So this color of blue, it's deep. It is really, really nice. Blue is my favorite color. Not just because I'm patriotic. And obviously we've got the saltire here in Scotland. Blue just always has been my color. I've always loved it. And this is one of the deepest candy colors because we're dealing with a metallic. We're dealing with the way that light rays enter in. They reflect, they refract, they move around, then they bounce back out through the sapphire and into the back of your retina. The color is phenomenal. It looks as if it has been generated on a computer. It is that good. Imagine a metallic blue, a foil blue, something like that. Or looking through the ocean down to the seabed, and there was a mirror that reflected the color of the sky back up the way. That is how good this is. And the webcam that Xavier is using is not 8k, it's not 4k, it's HD. And even through that, it looks phenomenal, Phenomenal. I've seen the images as well, and I am blown away with that. Keeping the color scheme moving across to the Antarctic. And the sector arrangement, it's not the way that most people might think of a sector dial, where you've got them divided into pie shapes of a certain degree from maybe the 12 to the 3, the 3 to the 6 to the 9, and then back to the 12. This is almost like, again, we're thinking Tron, we're thinking science fiction, where they had the light discs and you've got a slight sliver, a track. If you zoomed into a CD and you see the lands and the pits, that's what this looks like. It is small arcs cut out to perfection through the dial. Again with the same color scheme, keeping the theme live across 20, 26, and then cutting away, burning away, using a laser to just evaporate parts of the dial to see through to the inner structure. To see that wonderful, that cityscape that is underneath the sapphire, that is the one that is completely opened up. And in there, you can See the wheels, you can see the bridges. You can see all the complication, all the parts linked together and in that smaller size. And he's trying to. Yes, he's trying to wave it in my eyes a little bit like a magician or a hypnotist trying to take control. It's Peter Powers. Yeah. These are stunning. These colors are amazing. I wish you'd drop them last year because last year was the last year, was the year that I got my first antarctique, my first czupec. And they are absolutely stunning. Nothing wrong with the thing that's on the wrist today. I do a lot love it, but if I had the choice again, 100%, I would have gone for these ones. So anything else up your sleeve or is that it? Is that the piece de resistance for just now?
- [42:48]
B
Piece de resistance because we launched along the year, you know, new pieces. We launched a beautiful story about mother of pearl with a watch that was with light blue that is colored with the hair of a horse. And we called it Ice Cloud. And then we launched a Promenade Midnight Pearl with Aventurine and Mother of Pearl. That was in February. Sold out already. So the way we do is to release along the year and not release everything in one go because it's too many, and try to have a story that unifies everything. And that's important because I think you said it very right. It's a deep blue that is like a foil metallic blue. That's what is interesting about it because it's the intensity and it's the luminous aspect of it. And it brings us back to the early 90s. But then the colors were too shiny, were too fluoro. This is not fluoro. This is tuned down to deep blue, but with the light behind that you want to have. So, yeah, it's a bit like your backdrop. Not as strong maybe, but a little bit in that spirit to get something very attractive to the eyes. And then, yeah, you know, titanium was not a metal that we were using a lot. So we felt it was the right moment to get our hands on it. And now we machine that now in house, which is also good. It's a challenge for us. And so it's, as always, step by step. This is the way we like to go. And that's also our story. You step, sometimes you fall, sometimes you jump, sometimes you run. And that's life.
- [44:37]
A
It certainly is. And if people are looking to maybe come across the watch, we try and tell people, if you have the opportunity, go to an event, there is nothing better. Than trying a watch on, if you can do it. And with czupec that is sometimes feasible. Sometimes you're able to see the watches on display. That is the second best option. The third best option is obviously watching the videos that we put out because we try our best to describe things in audio. Then you can see the visual imagery to go along with it. And the color of these. I cannot wait to get them in hand. I think we'll be recording a lot of live videos when we're across at Watches and Wonders, getting that out as quickly as we can to Instagram, to YouTube, to our website through the podcast, obviously in various different formats. Other events that maybe people can check out this year. Where are you going to be traveling? Are you going to be doing as many air miles as you did last year?
- [45:24]
B
Year? No, no, no, no, that was by record. No, no, no, that was. I'm going to go to Poland in May to do the last event of the 10 years anniversary. It's something that I owe to my friends from Plushinski in particular the son Matthias, who has been with us since the beginning. And we've got a special connection there, so it's a good thing. And then June will be most likely. Asia, we don't know. We live, as I said, in a wonderful world, a fantastic time, I always say with a laugh and a smile, because things are special in that moment and there is so much uncertainty. And at the same time I realized that it reminded me of the beginning of the COVID we didn't knew. And you know, in the end what is true is fortune favor the brave. So don't be still, go for it. Move forward. Believe in the fact that doing a great thing is always paid back. So that's what we aim to and that's what we love to do in our discrete world. In the giraffe of Switzerland, you're never discreet.
- [46:41]
A
And well, you're discreet because you're telling us what's happening just now. You've hinted to things in the future and we just don't know. We can never tell, we can never predict. There is no globe sitting here. There's no crystal ball where we can tell what Xavi has up his other sleeve. You're just going to have to tune in throughout the year to find out what else is going to be happening. But we are moments away from Watches and Wonders. We're a week away as we record this. We've got all the editing to do. Gav's going to be doing the video. I'll be Doing the podcast, we'll get the show notes together through Mizzy L and Simona. The wife is now involved in things and she's helping out with the design processes. So it is a cohesive team, a little bit like Czapek. There are all these players in the background that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
- [47:22]
B
I want to say one last thing, because people don't imagine that the way the event in Scotland was invented was during Dubai Watch Week by having fun. Because we were joking about Fawlty Towers, which is a common program that we loved for its unique sense of humor and joking about it. We imagined having a lot of love, this pairing of waiters and whiskeys. And so I think this is also a way for people to understand Apek. It's like it's a journey where everybody's invited. And you, Ricky, and with Dave, you jumped into that train and joined us. And everybody's bringing his flame, everybody's bringing his good spirit. Everybody's invited, actually to participate. And that's what probably is quite unique about Topek, and that's also the reason of our success. So thank you very much for that. Thank you for joining us on that journey and making it happen and for bringing crazy ideas and great loafs together.
- [48:29]
A
And when you did come to Scotland, we had just had a problem in Glasgow at one of the oldest railway stations within the uk and you decided to take the piss, like we take the piss. And you said, oh, I thought it was quite toasty warm at the train station because it had caught fire and hundreds of years of history and heritage had crumbled away. So thanks, Xavier, for that and you'll appreciate going through the show notes, clicking across, checking out obviously what the guys at Czupek have been up to over the last year, the last decade, and what they're up to just now. For watching Wonders 2026, the new releases, the previous releases, you can find out more about them. The history, the story, the technical specification and how to get your hands, all your wrist, wrist inside the bracelet and the straps of a Czupek. Anything you want to finish up on or should we let you crack on?
- [49:15]
B
No, no, no. I think we covered it all. You know, the whole idea is to rework and do even better every day. And that's what these watches are here to testify, because it's a new version that is even better than the one before.
- [49:32]
A
Definitely. Well, myself and all the robots that I have amassed here and assembled with me, my little army that I didn't even realize I had. Within the studio, we all want to say congratulations for 11 years of Czapek revitalised brand and we will catch up with you across at Watches Wonders. And you can catch up with us and all our content over the next X amount of weeks as we try and divulge and give out all the stuff that's been happening in Geneva. Obviously you can get us on Instagram ottottishwatches, our website scottishwatches.co.uk, or on YouTube or everywhere, anywhere Watch content is found, we are generally there. So just search for us and obviously we will be seeing you in real life life in no time at all, Xavi. So thank you for joining us and we'll catch you again soon.
- [50:13]
B
Thanks, Ricky. Thanks everyone. See you soon. Bye. Sam.