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Alain Silberstein

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Bell & Ross’s Carlos Rosillo and Bruno Belamich have teamed with watch design legend Alain Silberstein to create a trio of watches that combine Silberstein’s colorful shapes with a black ceramic version of Belamich’s aviation-inspired square Bell & Ross BR 03 design.

United as the fourth offering from Singapore-based Grail Watch, the two watchmakers have devised the Bell & Ross × Alain Silberstein Black Ceramic Trilogy, which consists of a BR 03 time-only model with date, a BR 03 diving watch and a BR 03 chronograph.

All three watches use the now more common, smaller version of the BR 03 case. While the original BR 01 measured 46mm × 46mm, most recent BR 03 collections measure 42mm × 42mm, the size of each model in the new Grail Watch collection.

Notably, none of the watches features a brand logo.

“We decided to simply use the ampersand that already features prominently in our brand name, because what better symbol for a collaboration between equals could you imagine?” says Belamich.

“With the chronograph, Carlos explained that the seconds hand was by far the largest one ever fitted to one of their watches, and we had to ensure the reset function worked perfectly each and every time so it would align exactly at zero,” Silberstein adds.

“With the diving watch, we had to make sure these huge oversized hands were as light as possible, so they wouldn’t affect the overall precision of the movement. And then to make a two-color ceramic bezel was a major challenge.”

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22, showing large hands.

Time & Date

The first watch in the trio, the Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Klub 22, is a time-only model on a matte black ceramic case and jet-black dial.

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Klub 22.

Silberstein’s massive hand design creates a playful dial while as a large blue arrow indicates minutes and an S-shaped yellow form indicates the seconds.

The dial is interrupted only by the subtle date indicator. The watch features an automatic movement caliber BR.CAL-302 with date function. Priced at $4,400, it will be made in 200 examples. 

The Dive Watch

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22, the second model in the trio, is a re-imagined dive model.

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22.

Here Silberstein applies his “Maxi’ hands, which include a blue circular hours hand and a large red arrow. While both hands are liberally coated with luminescent material, the minute hand is particularly visible due to its critical elapsed dive time function.

To that end, the designer created a specialized two-tone ceramic bezel with the final twenty minutes of the insert colored red and a full set of 20-minute markers with luminous indexes.

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03-92 Marine 22 diver model is depth rated to 300 meters, features a screw-down crown and is powered by caliber BR.CAL-302, the same automatic movement with date function used in the time only model. It will be made in a series of 100 examples. Price: $5,600.

The Chronograph

The third model in the series is the Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03 Krono 22, a chronograph with five of Silberstein’s famous Bauhaus-inspired hands.

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03 Krono 22.

The hours are indicated by red circle with a blue arrow showing the minutes. Here, a yellow S-shaped hand serves as the chronograph seconds indicator while a blue triangle serves as the indicator for the chronograph 30-minute counter and a yellow arrow displays continuous seconds.

Unlike the other two debuts, this model offers a crown that features Silberstein’s signature red triangle.

The Bell & Ross x Alain Silberstein BR 03 Krono 22 is powered by the caliber BR.CAL-301 automatic chronograph movement with date. Made in 100 examples, the watch is priced at $6,700.

Grail Watch is offering watches numbered 1 to 50 as a box set of all three timepieces, which will arrive in a Silberstein-designed collector’s box. Price for the set: $16,700. 

By Stu Gleich

In 2005 I became aware of Alain Silberstein, “Architecte Horloger.”

With Silberstein you need to throw everything you think you know about watches out the window. Alain Silberstein’s creations are revolutionary. More than mere watches, they push the boundaries and question the very laws of ergonomics and design.

Famed watch designer Alain Silberstein.

Perhaps the most famous Silberstein was the Krono, a chronograph that had a conventional dial layout from a positioning point of view with a Valjoux 7750 or Lemania 5100 movement inside, but with playful hands and dials that stretched design boundaries with geometrical shapes and bold primary colors.

The Silberstein Rondo Smileday, a highlight of my collection. The smile represents Friday, the first of three consecutive smile faces.

I just had to have one of his creations and purchased my Rondo Smileday (#243 out of a 500-piece production) directly from Alain Silberstein headquarters in France.

Even now it remains my most prized work of art/timekeeping/conversation piece on the wrist.

Like any watch, it also makes a statement about the person who wears it and is a real attention-getter. Just the other night while out with friends, one of the busmen came up to our table to compliment my Rondo Smileday and to take a closer look.

The rearview of the Rondo Smileday.

Each day of the week on the Smileday is represented by a specific face and emotion (the picture attached shows Friday, the first of three consecutive smile faces (Saturday and Sunday are Big Red Smiles). Monday not happy, Tuesday still not happy, Wednesday undecided, Thursday, we are almost there.

The blue, red and yellow primary colors, red triangle crown make this a watch like no other. As playful as a Swatch but with all the inherent qualities of a $3,500 fine timepiece, my Rondo is still keeping great time. It remains one of the most reliable timekeepers in my collection.

The Triptych

While Alain Silberstein – the brand ­– is no longer active, Silberstein the man continues to produce occasional collaborations with horological partners such as MB&F and Philippe Lebru.

The Louis Erard-Alain Silberstein Triptych.

Fast-forward to 2020 when I discovered that Louis Erard and Alain Silberstein joined forces to create Triptych – a set of three associated watches intended to be appreciated together.

Louis Erard and Alain Silberstein together created La Semaine, Le Régulateur II, and Le Chrono Monopoussoir, produced in runs of 178 pieces each, with seventy-eight of each reserved for a three-watch collector’s set ($12,395). This left 100 examples of each watch available for individual purchases. Prices started at $3,900. Each watch is water resistant to 100 meters and comes secured on a nylon strap.

La Semaine, from the Triptych.

All 178 pieces sold within three days in early June 2021. The watches are not numbered, instead on the back of each case is engraved “1 of 178”.

My opportunity

While I missed out on the chance to buy one immediately, I was able to place my name on a waiting list at louiserard.com in case a watch became available (due to cancellation or return). I wondered at the odds and how many people might be on that list.

Lo and behold, in rather short order, after having my thrown my hat into the ring, I was informed by email that my lucky day had arrived.

Le Régulateur II, from the Triptych.

Was I going to be the one who would secure a Louis Erard-Alain Silberstein Triptych watch? Would I be the first to respond? Why yes I would!

The Monopusher 

When my adventure began, I originally had my eye on the La Semaine, but in retrospect, I am very pleased to be receiving the Le Chrono Monopoussoir.

Le Chrono Monopoussoir, which will soon find a home on my wrist.

A return to the historic Krono, but with a singular twist: the chronograph is a monopusher with only a single counter. It’s a clean and concise expression of a stopwatch that perfectly complements the Silberstein style.

With just one push the chronograph hand is activated, another push pauses it, and a third push resets the chronograph to zero. Simple and elegant. It’s impossible to mix up the order in which to push the multiple buttons endemic to traditional chronographs.

Le Chrono Monopoussoir features centrally mounted hour, minute and chronograph seconds hands with a 30-minute chronograph counter at the 12 o’clock position. Silberstein also uses the Triptych to debut a new hour hand design, a red circle with a triangle pointer.

The watch’s titanium case is 40mm-wide with a lug-to-lug height of 47mm, and at 13.8mm-thick, it is the most substantial of the three. Louis Erard went for such an unmistakable case here, as it stylishly enhances Silberstein’s distinctiveness while also pulling off a cool sports watch that is like nothing else out there.

Some of the Triptych watches are already being sold online for double their cost. I for one don’t believe that such a fine watch should be leveraged for pure profit, but rather held and enjoyed for the work of art it is.

My own Le Chrono Monopoussoir is now in transit from Switzerland and I anticipate its arrival soon. To say that this particular watch hunt has given me a real thrill is no lie.

 

When Louis Erard debuted this watch late last year, we knew its days were numbered. This week the independent Swiss watchmaker announced that only a handful of models remain in the limited edition collection featuring a design by famed architect and watchmaker Alain Silberstein.

Available in two limited editions of 178 watches, the watch not only was Silberstein’s first-ever regulator, but it was also the first time Louis Erard had ever turned over its atelier to a guest designer. While the watchmaker did collaborate with watch designer Eric Giroud earlier in 2019 with a redesign of the Louis Erard Excellence Regulator, the collaboration with Silberstein gave the designer carte blanche.

As it turns out, Silberstein hadn’t designed a regulator in his four decades of making colorful, modernistic watches, so the function appealed to him on several levels. Fortunately, this also perfectly tied into the focus function of many existing Louis Erard offerings, primarily within its Excellence collection.

As a display seen historically on clocks used in watchmaking ateliers to set the hands of pocket watches, the regulator focuses the eye on a larger minute hand. Technically, by separating the indications of the hours, minutes and seconds, chronometric precision can improve.

As Alain Silberstein relates in Louis Erard’s promotion of this collaboration, the regulator transports him “far away to the clocks on buildings which historically told the time with just one hand, or to train station clocks.”

The 40mm steel watch is powered by an ETA 7001 manual-wind movement with Louis Erard’s own regulator module.

Two colors

Silberstein created one design with two color combinations for Louis Erard. He started with a large arrow for the central minute hand, which is yellow on the black-dialed version of the watch and deep blue on the white version.

The remainder of the dial shows us pure Silberstein: the geometric simplicity of rectangles, triangles and circles. Bauhaus movement, which in 2019 celebrated 100 years since its birth, inspired Silberstein’s use of primary colors.

The 40mm steel watch, powered by an ETA 7001 manual-wind movement with Louis Erard’s own regulator module, is a bargain at its CHF 2,800 price tag (approximately  $3,000).

 

SPECIFICATIONS

Louis Erard Excellence Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein

Movement: Manual winding regulator with power reserve, ETA Peseux 7001 movement with Louis Erard RE9 complication, 21,600 VpH (3Hz), 42 hours of power reserve. Côtes de Genève decoration, blue screws and Louis Erard engraving. Functions: hours, minutes and seconds. Hour hand on counter at 12 o’clock, central minute hand, seconds hand on counter at 6 o’clock, power reserve hand at 9 o’clock.

Case: 40mm steel or stainless steel + black PVD, 3 parts, sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides, case back with screws, top grade movement visible through the transparent case back, water-resistant up to a pressure of 50 meters, specially-decorated case back crystal with “Alain Silberstein X Louis Erard 1 of 178.”

Dial: Black and white matte or opaline (matte silver). Signature hands designed by Alain Silberstein. Red lacquered hour hand, yellow or blue lacquered minute hand, blue or yellow lacquered seconds hand, white or grey lacquered power reserve hand.

Strap: Black calf leather with signature stitching in red or brown calf leather with signature stitching in blue, pin buckle in stainless steel or stainless steel + black PVD.

Price: CHF 2,800. Developed in collaboration with Alain Silberstein in two limited editions of 178 pieces.