Early last year we saw Sylvain Pinaud’s Origine in Geneva, one of the watch highlights of the year. In that post we mentioned his debut timepiece, the Monopoussir Chronograph, which was formally launched at Baselworld 2019.

Now, he has partnered with Massena LAB for a special edition of this piece – the Chronograph Monopoussoir Sylvain Pinaud x Massena LAB is a limited edition of ten pieces, with changes not just to the case, but well, quite a few aspects as you can see, with the overall effect far more classically dressy.

The genesis of this watch didn’t happen post Pinaud’s GPHG 2022 ‘Horological Revelation’ prize but a number of years before, when Massena saw the chronograph and enquired about the possibility of ordering a slightly modified (different case) one.

The (sub) world of watch enthusiasts and collectors who acquire multiple pieces from independent watchmakers is small, and many of them are friends. It is not unknown for ‘group buys’ to happen, for people to commission a special piece for a group, or for them to influence each other’s purchases. In fact I’d say that these are a a particularly important source of clients for smaller (and indeed micro) brands.

And so it was with this – a query about a single one-off customisation became something of interest to more than just Massena, and we come to this new iteration, which looks a bit more like it is related to the Origine.

The original Chronograph (see above) is in a 42mm grade 5 titanium case (but also available in 18k gold) with a far more modern ‘industrial’ case and lug construction. The new collaboration version is also in a 42mm titanium case, with polished lugs and grained finishing on the lugs. As you can see, its lines are much softer and more classical than the original piece.

The functions are, as the name indicates, hours, minutes, seconds, and a monopusher chronograph. The upper half of the dial is filled with a hand-frosted plate with hand-bevelled edges. The hours and minutes are on a sub dial at 12 o’clock. It has a frosted inner sector, with bevelled edge and circular graining of the hours and minutes track. The chronograph’s 45-minute counter is at 3 o’clock and the small seconds, at 9 o’clock. The indices/ markers are white for the time sub dial and black for the chronograph counter. The hands relating to the chronograph function, in the form of the central hand and on the counter, are blued steel, whereas the time-keeping hands are stainless steel. The silver dials, by Comblémine SA are grained and hand-bevelled.

The manually-wound movement has an integrated column wheel chronograph, with a horizontal clutch. It beats at 18,000 VPH and has a power reserve of 45 hours. The wheels are circled and bevelled, the steel components are black polished and bevelled. Visible on both sides, the movement finishing is done by Pinaud.

With a limitation of ten pieces in total, production will be limited to three pieces each year, with deliveries taking place over three years. The cost is POA.

[Image credit: Sylvain Pinaud/ Massena LAB]

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Categories: chronograph, Limited Editions, Sylvain Pinaud, Watch Profile, watches

Tags: monopusher