Maîtres du Temps Chapter Two TCR
The original Chapter Two with its tonneau case was heralded as the most legible triple date timepiece available. Now in a new rounded case it offers supreme clarity, with a clean and tidy dial and its day and month roller indications tucked in neatly top and bottom.
The Chapter Two was and is a groundbreaking timepiece. The roller indications allow full reading of both the day of the week and the month and they along with the big date on the dial are designed to change instantaneously. This, of course requires an incredible amount of power – energy which is stored up throughout the day and therein lies the complexity of this unique watch which contains a specific movement created for this purpose. CEO and founder of Maîtres du Temps, Steven Holtzman chooses the best of what the industry has to offer to create his timepieces, and among the Master Watchmakers responsible for the Chapter Two are Daniel Roth and Peter Speake-Marin.
As a small boy in Nice Daniel Roth passed the summers watching his Grandfather as he repaired and re-assembled watches for his clients. Once old enough, Daniel Roth attended a watch making class in Nice and three years later, emerged with qualifications in hand but in a town of few opportunities for an ambitious young watchmaker. And so Daniel Roth set out to advance his education and develop his abilities, gaining experience by working in a number of small watchmakers studios in and around the Swiss watch making region of La Vallée de Joux before landing a cherished position with the famous Audemars Piguet manufacture. Widely acclaimed as one of the industry’s greatest Master Watchmakers, this is the man who was hired by the Chaumet brothers and who went on to play a pivotal role in the restoration of the Breguet name. This is the man who created the unique “Double Ellipse” elongated case but who witnessed his brand and family name leave his control when Bulgari assumed ownership of his company. Determined from that moment on to never again be answerable to or in the hands of anyone other than himself, he began watch making under the name Jean Daniel Nicolas to produce a limited number of bespoke timepieces each year. His achievements are such that collectors throughout the world still seek him out.
Peter Speake-Marin may be a younger man, but his accomplishments contradict his relatively youthful age. He too is a Master Watchmaker determined to remain independent, without the constraints of a design department nor the security of a salary. Speake-Marin timepieces may say Switzerland on the dial, but the man behind the brand is an Englishman. A student of London’s Hackney School of Watch making under the direction of Peter Roberts, Mr. Speake-Marin went on to study at WOSTEP, but design influences and references to London landmarks – Eros, Piccadilly and a certain indefinable British-ness are testament to both his heritage and his spent restoring watches in London.
Maîtres du Temps is a creative melting pot of horological talent. Everything that is produced under this revered marque is the result of combined ingenuity and an amalgamation of the brilliance of those involved in its creation – each piece is highly covetable. That the Chapter Two now appears in a round case is a natural progression, and just as with its predecessor, the Chapter One, its rounded shape features flowing lines which define the outline and heighten the appearance of its unique rollers.
