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Reservoir Debuts Chronograph and Retro Hi-Fi Display

Echoing power meters typical found on hi-fi amplifiers, the dial of the new Reservoir Sonomaster Chronograph displays not only an unusual bi-retrograde seconds/date display, but also the Franco-Swiss watchmaker’s debut chronograph.

The Reservoir Sonomaster Chronograph is the watchmaker’s first chronograph and the its first time display with hour and minute hands.

Reservoir teams with Swiss custom movement maker La Joux-Perret to create the new 43mm steel watch’s movement, new automatic caliber RSV-Bi120, a manufacture bi-retrograde chronograph with column wheel.

Well-known for its dashboard-inspired jump-hour watches, Reservoir veers from that digital-hour formula on the Sonomaster Chronograph with another first for the brand: a traditional two-hand hour and minutes display.

And underneath those two hands (and a red-tipped chronograph seconds hand) you’ll find the two other displays not found on other Reservoir watches: traditional 30-minute and 12-hour chronograph counters.

Still, it’s the unusually large fan-shaped indicators that set this watch apart from other retrograde models. The wearer will check the dial on the left to eye retrograde seconds with a scale marked 0-30. The thin hand flies back every half-minute. The date display on the right is marked 0-31, with a retrograde fly-back return at the end of the month.

Thin lines

While the Sonomaster Chronograph directly references the VU meters found throughout the broadcast industry, Reservoir notes that the form, a slim needle pivoting against a scale drawn in an arc or a straight line, is also reminiscent of horizontal speedometers found in American cars of the 1950s and 1960s.

Both types of meters included a so-called ‘red line’ that warned of high levels of decibels or watts or a dangerously high RPM on a dashboard.

On the Sonomaster Chronograph, Reservoir further references broadcast instruments with a brushed finish crown inspired by amplifier control buttons. The pusher shapes are inspired by bass and treble buttons.

Reservoir treats all the watch’s hands with SuperLuminova and also opening the caseback to reveal the automatic movement with column wheel.

Price: $6,100.

 

Specifications: Reservoir Sonomaster Chronograph

(Ref. RSV04.SN/136.BL (Black & Beige)

Case: 43mm stainless steel with brushed finish, domed anti-reflective sapphire crystal. Water-resistant to 50 meters, clear case-back,

Dial: Black & beige, hands with SuperLuminova, tachymeter bezel.

Movement: Caliber RSV-Bi120 manufacture bi-retrograde chronograph movement, automatic mechanical winding and column wheel (base LJP-L1C0), 60 hours power reserve, 28,800 vph frequency.

Displays: Chronograph (central second, 30-minute counter at 12, hour counter at 6), bi-retrograde date and seconds (120°), hour, minute hands.

Bracelet: Black leather strap with white stitching, steel butterfly clasp. Price: $6,100.

 

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Reservoir Introduces New Caliber and New Dial to Kanister

Reservoir adds a new proprietary movement and a new silver-colored dial to its retro-styled Kanister jumping hour collection. The new movement, RSV-240, is made in association with long-time partner Telos, a Swiss motor manufacturer specializing in the tailor-made manufacture of high-end mechanical movements.

The new Reservoir Kanister Silver

The new RSV-240 is a patented proprietary module of three complications (retrograde minute, jumping hour, 56-hour power reserve) with a manufacture automatic movement using a La Joux-Perret P-G100 base.

The new caliber updates the use of the Telos-made module (built on an ETA base) that Reservoir has long used to power its jumping hour watches. Reservoir introduces the new caliber in this Kanister Silver model and plans to add the movement to all its watches in the future.

You can see new Caliber RSV-240 through the sapphire case back of the Reservoir Kanister Silver

With a dial designed to echo the RPM display of a 356 Speedster from the 1950s, the 41.5mm Reservoir Kanister Silver features silver-colored dial and indicators that display retrograde minutes teamed with a jumping hour aperture at 6 o’clock. Along the lower section of the dial you’ll see the automotive-themed power reserve display.

Price: $4,400.

Specifications: Reservoir Kanister Silver

(Ref. RSV01.KN/433.SI)

Movement: 
Caliber RSV-240 mechanical with automatic winding 
composed of a proprietary patented module of 124 parts
 on a manufacture movement (LJP-G100 base)
. Power Reserve is 56 hours. Frequency: 28,800 vph.

Case: 41.5 mm polished titanium, anti-reflective sapphire crystal, screw-down crown, water-resistant to 50 meters, sapphire caseback,

Dial: Silver colored, indicators showing retrograde minute, jumping hour, power reserve.

Bracelet: Black leather strap, black stitching, additional taupe leather strap with quick-release spring bars.

Price: $4,400

 

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Reservoir Celebrates Graphic Novel Series

Reservoir commemorates the long-running Blake & Mortimer graphic novel series, by Belgian comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs, with a jumping hour watch depicting the stars of the adventure series on the dial.

 

The inaugural title of Blake & Mortimer, titled “The Secret of the Swordfish,” debuted seventy-five years ago in the Belgian comic Tintin. Reservoir founder and CEO Francois Moreau enjoyed reading the adventures of the two detectives in his youth.

The Reservoir Blake and Mortimer “By Jove!!!” watch.

 

Reservoir honors the series with a commemorative watch that pictures Mortimer on the dial pointing to the minutes, replacing the watch’s retrograde minute hand. Next to him Blake joins Mortimer as the pair gazes upward, while Mortimer’s favorite expression, ‘By Jove!!!’ appears above both. Where standard Reservoir dials indicate the power reserve at the bottom of the dial, this edition displays only the jumping hour indication.

In relief on the dial Reservoir has nicely utilized the Blake & Mortimer color scheme as well as same font used in the graphic novel to indicate the digits for the minutes and the hour.

Mortimer’s hand is propelled by the same customized ETA-based jumping hour caliber found throughout the brand’s collections.

The 41.5mm brushed steel watch, finished with a black leather strap with quick-relief spring bars and a folding clasp, features a caseback engraved with a design of the Swordfish from the first Blake & Mortimer graphic novel and the words “So British since 1946”.

Reservoir will deliver the Blake and Mortimer “By Jove!!!” watch by November 19, which is the same date for the release of a new Blake & Mortimer adventure called “the Last Swordfish.” On this date, Reservoir will also open up orders for a limited series of drawings featuring the ‘mysterious flying machine’ found in the novels.

Price: $2,990

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Dive in France Wearing a Reservoir Hydrosphere Bronze

If diving with the eye-catching Reservoir Limited-Edition Hydrosphere Bronze on your wrist isn’t enough of an inducement to buying the technically unique dive watch, perhaps you’ll be enticed by an invitation to dive wearing it alongside renowned diver and photographer Greg Lecoeur.

The Reservoir Hydrosphere Greg Lecoeur Limited Edition.

The new inducement means each buyer of the Hydrosphere Greg Lecoeur Limited Edition will be offered a half-day of diving with Lecoeur in the Port-Cros national park in Hyères, France, during a session in September (not including insurance, accommodation and transportation).

Lecoeur is also a supporter of coral protection, and funds from the sale of each special edition Hydrosphere Bronze will be donated to the replanting of a coral through the Coral Gardeners Association.

Reservoir and Lecoeur have teamed to design and produce the fifty-piece limited edition of the bronze-cased watch. Lecoeur chose a blue sunray dial for the limited edition, and each watch will be delivered with a package of photographs from one of his exploration notebooks, all placed into in a handy waterproof carrying case.

The new fifty-piece limited edition series also features a Greg Lecoeur engraving on the back and his name on the dial.  

Reservoir’s Hydrosphere stands alone as the only single-hand functional dive watch we’ve seen. And while we’ve seen bronze encase more than a few nautically themed watches in recent years, the Hydrosphere’s unusual retrograde minute display and jumping hour module set it apart from traditional dive models while still upholding a diver’s need for highly legible dive timing, unidirectional bezel, helium valve and strong water resistance (here rated to 250 meters).  Price: $4,850.

 

Specifications: Reservoir Hydrosphere Greg Lecoeur Edition (limited edition of fifty pieces)

Case: 45mm bronze with satin finish, unidirectional ceramic rotating bezel with double scale for reading the time at different diving depths before and after the retrograde minute hand’s return, helium valve, stainless steel screwed back, screw-down crown, water resistant to 250 meters.

Dial: Blue with sundial finish, white index, magnifier on the jumping-hour window.
Movement: Automatic with patented proprietary 124-piece module on ETA 2824-2 caliber, with retrograde minutes, jumping hour, power reserve of 37 hours, power reserve indicator.

Strap: Black rubber screwed onto the body, additional blue NATO strap provided, mounted on bronze stirrups.

Price: $4,850.

    

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