Maitres du Temps Chapter Three Midnight Blue
Intriguie aplenty with the Swiss brand's hidden complication timepiece, now in 18k white gold and a mysterious dial
When the exclusive Swiss watch brand Maitres du Temps debuted the Chapter Three timepiece a few years ago, it posed the question of how well this addition would fit within the company’s prior collection of eclectic watches.
With an emphasis on bold design that incorporates an element of extravagance, Maitres du Temps present their pieces knowingly at the high-end, markedly differentiating themselves with unique case designs offering a novelty unknown in many other brands. Running counter to this however, the Maitres du Temps Chapter Three features an entirely round-case, albeit containing a “hidden” complication.
An element connecting all Maitres du Temps watches is that at least one function on the case is displayed on spinning rollers. The Chapter Three features two rollers, which can be revealed or hidden upon activating one of the two pushers on the edge of the case. Revealing the windows which display the rollers, this affords a view of a second time zone and a day/night indicator, also for that second time zone.
When 'closed', the classically simple, machine guilloché engraved dial indicates the time with a subsidiary seconds dial, date dial, as well as a moon phase indicator window.
The most recent versions of the Chapter Three are the Midnight Blue models which come in 18k rose gold or white gold cases sized at 42mm wide. The deep blue dials are each matched to a deep blue alligator strap.
Inside each Chapter Three watch is a beautifully hand-finished mechanical movements produced by Maitres du Temps in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The calibre SHC03 is manually wound, comprising 319 parts and operating at 3Hz with a power reserve of 36 hours. A lot of power is required to move the indication cylinders, which begs the question of why the movement doesn’t also include a power reserve indicator.
