Carlo Ferrara Regolatore Concept: steel, ceramic and good taste

The Italian watchmaking company Carlo Ferrara is about to start marketing a special edition version of their trademark Regolatore (also sometimes referred as the Regulator) automatic watch limited to only 99 units.

With its skeletonized dial revealing parts of the movement responsible for the famous “dance of time” clockwork, the new timepiece looks even more mesmerizing than the original model that featured a normal, “solid” face.

The watch’s main point of interest is the way its hands are turning. As you can gather from the images, the tips of its hour and minute hands are moving in ovals rather than circles, going down and up on their way from I to XII and from 1 to 60 respectively.

This kind of design takes the concept of a regulator watch to a completely new level, since the “classic” design starts looking somewhat boring.

The Carlo Ferrara Regolatore Concept wrist watch is powered by the CF-120 automatic self-winding movement, which is possibly based on a modified ETA 2892-A2 high-grade caliber (its siblings also power the famous Omega Seamaster diving watch as well as the upcoming Breitling Navitimer 125th Anniversary chronograph that was presented last month in Switzerland.)

There is a good chance that the Regolatore Concept will be an accurate timekeeping instrument, even if the Italian company didn’t spend extra time and money to adjust the movement be COSC certified.

The small date windows looks somehow lost in the mesh of Arabic numerals and, to be franc, I have some questions regarding the choice of the typeface for the indicator, but those are minor issues that I could live with if I had a chance to get this timepiece.

Unfortunately, the company doesn’t say anything specific as to the production version’s price and geographical (as well as, err, temporal) availability.

A stainless steel version of the watch with normal dial and the CF100 movement (I suppose that the CF120 is just a skeletonized version of the CF100) retails for about $8,000, so one can safely assume that this particular model may be offered at a price of around $10,000, maybe $12,000 US dollars.

Well, taking into account the fact that the original Carlo Ferrara Regolatore Classic took about six years to crawl from the drawing board to an authorized dealer near you, the deviations in EUR/USD exchange rate may make the watch cost as low as $5,000 and as high $25,000 when it is finally ready.

Only time will tell.

Photos: Carlo Ferrara

Carlo Ferrara Regolatore Concept watch’s specification :

Price range: N/A
Movement: CF-120, automatic with central second hand and “dancing” hour and minute hands
Complications: Date
Power reserve: N/A
Case material: PVD-coated stainless steel with ceramic bezel, also available in titanium
Case diameter: 39 mm
Case height: N/A
Dial: Black, skeletonized
Water resistance: 10 atm (100 meters)
Strap: Silicon
Crystal: Sapphire