The Italian watchmaking company is about to start marketing a special edition version of their signature Carlo Ferrara Regolatore automatic wristwatch. Limited to only 99 units, the timekeeper features a nice take on a centuries-old concept of a “regulator” watch: still featuring the same idea of two “off-centered” indicators, the Regolatore has the hour and minute hands traveling around oval-shaped tracks that are placed within a circular scale shaped by a central seconds pointer.
With its skeletonized dial revealing parts of the movement responsible for the famous “dance of time” clockwork, the new timepiece looks even more mesmerizing (or, depending on how you look at these things, at least highly entertaining) than the original model that featured a normal, “solid” face.
Of course, skeletonization in this particular case is limited to just the hour and minute sub-dials, but it still done quite nicely showing you only those parts that indeed must be accented to stress the main idea behind the timepiece’s unique design.
The gadget’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 diver 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.
Regretfully, 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.
Well, only time will tell.
See also: Tonneau-shaped CVSTOS Challenge Tourbillon Yachting Club
Photos: Carlo Ferrara
Carlo Ferrara Regolatore Concept specification
Movement: Caliber CF-120, Swiss Made
Winding: Automatic
Functions: Central second hand and “dancing” hour and minute hands, date
Case material: PVD-coated stainless steel with ceramic bezel, also available in titanium
Size: 39.00 mm
Case height: 13.00 mm
Dial: Black, skeletonized
Water resistance: 10 atm (100 meters)
Strap: Silicon
Crystal: Sapphire, antireflective
Back: Sapphire
Yep, this is me. Just had my beard trimmed.
I am a founding father of this weblog since 2008.
Bought my first mechanical watch in 1986 and it took me ten more years to realize that I have a problem: at some point in time watches became my passion. Well, it could be worse.