When every Goutte d’Eau found a buyer at Watches and Wonders 2024, Czapek CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel began imagining water in other forms: dew, snow, ice.
Czapek today introduces the Promenade Diamond Drops, a gem-set sequel to the Goutte d’Eau, its dial reinterpreted in diamonds and sapphires with the snow-setting technique.
The whole dial is snow-set with 679 diamonds and sapphires, many so small they are set stone by stone into individually sized wells. The ripple pattern of the original Goutte d’Eau still reads through, in blue against white. Diamonds also cover the bezel, flange and crown, and the case is 38mm white gold.
“This invited us to play not only with design, colour and materials but also the craft of gem-setting, asking ourselves how we could express the original idea in new ways,” says Xavier de Roquemaurel, CEO of Czapek & Cie. The gem-setter AB Products set each stone by hand, sized to its own tiny well.
The result covers almost the whole dial in stone, with barely a trace of the white gold beneath.
The Basics
Brand: Czapek
Model: Promenade Diamond Drops
Diameter: 38mm
Thickness: 10.8mm
Case material: 18k white gold; bezel, flange and crown set with 173 diamonds (≈1.63 carats)
Dial: 18k white gold, snow-set with 679 diamonds and sapphires (≈3.08 carats: 360 diamonds, 1.5 cts; 319 sapphires in shades of blue, 1.58 cts), reinterpreting the Goutte d’Eau ripple from the off-centred small seconds; set by AB Products; blued hands
Water resistance: 5 atm
Strap: Sapphire-blue calf leather
Limited edition: Made to order, up to 10 pieces
The Movement
Calibre: SXH5.1, in-house, automatic
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds at 4:30
Winding: Automatic, micro-rotor in recycled platinum
Power reserve: 60 hours
Frequency: 4Hz (28,800 vph)
Jewels: 26
Images courtesy of Czapek.