Czapek Promenade L’Écume des Jours: 18-Piece Literary Edition

Czapek & Cie Promenade L'Écume des Jours: 18 pieces in steel, blue enamel, jade and titanium water lily hand. Calibre SXH5.1. Available worldwide.

The Details That Matter

• Laser-cut from titanium for minimal rotational resistance, the water lily seconds hand sits at 4:30 over a laser-worked jade disc, with a ring of hand-painted piano keys circling the flange.
• Limited to 18 pieces in stainless steel, with each delivery including a copy of Boris Vian’s 1947 novel L’Écume des Jours.
• Powered by Calibre SXH5.1, an in-house automatic with a recycled 950-platinum micro-rotor and a 60-hour power reserve across 127 components.
• The 38mm case is water-resistant to 50 metres and opens to a domed sapphire crystal and a clear sapphire caseback, both anti-reflective.

Announced from Geneva in September 2026, the Czapek Promenade L’Écume des Jours draws its imagery directly from Boris Vian’s surrealist novel of 1947. A craftsman at MD’Art laser-lowers the recesses that receive the mother-of-pearl ring; the piano-key flange is hand-painted in black. The jade disc beneath the seconds display is fixed by hand and then laser-worked to form the seconds track itself.

Chloé Desbiolles, a designer at Czapek, proposed organising the dial around the novel’s two central motifs: the pianocktail and the water lily. The titanium hand was chosen specifically because its low mass allows free rotation without placing undue load on the escapement. According to the brand, this is the first time the Promenade collection has drawn directly from literature.

Movement and Materials

Calibre SXH5.1 measures 30mm in diameter and 4.2mm in height, comprising 127 components and 26 jewels distributed across seven skeletonised bridges. Those bridges reference François Czapek’s nineteenth-century pocket watch architecture, finished with open-worked ratchets, sandblasted black bridges, bevelled angles and straight-grained sides.

The micro-rotor is fabricated from recycled 950 platinum. It acts on a single barrel delivering 8Nmm of torque, for a 60-hour power reserve at 4Hz (28,800vph). The variable-inertia balance carries four gold inertia-blocks.

Heritage and Lineage

“I have always been an avid reader of Boris Vian,” says Xavier de Roquemaurel, CEO of Czapek & Cie. “His fantasy and imagination, but also his rebellious and surrealist spirit, ran through my youth and impressed upon me the idea that anything was possible. We are only the reflection of what we love.”

Czapek engaged the Cohérie Boris Vian, the body that oversees the writer’s estate, and found a creative alignment that extended into the launch itself. The watch will be presented to the international press at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, where Vian’s apartment is located, with the session guided by Nicole Bertolt, custodian of his legacy.

Availability and Edition Details

All 18 pieces ship with a copy of L’Écume des Jours inside a dedicated box. The watch is available through Czapek authorised retailers worldwide, the Geneva boutique, and czapek.com. Collectors in the Gulf may enquire via the brand’s international retail network or directly through the official site.

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