Credits: Article and images by Israel Ortega @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/alternative-aesthetic/
The year 2012 marked the beginning of a new era at Chronoswiss with the retirement from the public scene of Gerd-Rüdiger Lang and the acquisition of the brand by the Ebstein family — headed by Oliver Ebstein — who brought Chronoswiss to Lucerne, Switzerland, and strengthened it to continue its history as the great creator of regulators.
Since then, regulators have been the lifeblood of the company. Although the Chronoswiss range is varied and rich in art and mechanics, the offer is over 70 percent concentrated on regulator watches. Within the current Skeltec, Heritage, Artistic and Sirius collections, we do find timepieces with the standard three-hand layout in various executions. Still, the regulators sustain the offer, doing so through numerous references with complications that have taken the regulator style to new aesthetic and functional territories.
A second watch brand that has made regulators a core part of their identity is Louis Erard. The brand has made a huge impression in recent years with its sold-out collaborations with Vianney Halter and Alain Silberstein. Founded in 1929 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the company began as a watchmaking school, and later, in 1931, in addition to casing activities for third parties, began to manufacture and market its own watches.
The Louis Erard company maintained its specialization as a subcontractor for other houses throughout the 20th century while continuing with its own creations and innovations. Possibly the most important of its innovations relates to the development of its regulators, which occurred well into the 1980s when the brand experimented with the legendary mechanical caliber Peseux 7001, adding a power reserve indicator and a regulator-type display. Today, that modernized movement remains a brand exclusive, and we see it shining in the Excellence series of regulators. In 2003, under Alain Spinedi, Louis Erard began its new era, following a relaunch that put the regulator watch concept front and center under an accessible pricing scheme with a modern brand strategy.
Since then, the house has been known and recognized for its range of regulators. But it was in 2019 that Manuel Emch — then playing an external consultant role and today part of the board of directors — accelerated Louis Erard’s remarkable turn of reinvention through the creation of new Excellence regulators in partnership with artists and creators like Halter, Silberstein and Atelier oï. These new regulators — all part of limited editions of 178 pieces — have made the firm take off, imbuing the brand with a friendly, cheerful and accessible aura that has been recognized and praised by connoisseurs and watchmaking enthusiasts around the world.
Credits: Article and images by Israel Ortega @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/alternative-aesthetic/