Paul Collection: The New Single-Hand Dress Watch from Gustave & Cie

Posted by lifata on March 12th, 2024

All their collections feature a single central hand which simultaneously indicates the hours and minutes. This specificity brings a more relaxed vision of time, less stressful.

They have long accustomed us to quartz watches, but here is the return of mechanical replica watches and more specifically automatic watches. The young brand is today unveiling a new 24-hour collection: the Paul.

Much more sober than its big sister, the Jules collection, it stands out for its elegance and poetry.

In addition to a solitary needle, Gustave & Cie, as always, pays homage to an illustrious Frenchman. In this case it is a poem, that of Paul Eluard “The night is never complete”. Paul Eluard was a 20th century poet, he was one of the prominent members of the surrealist movement.

We are not here to testify to the genius of this author but for this watch so let's dive straight into the details.

This collection is available in 4 variations:

• La Paul Rose gold and Midnight blue dial
• La Paul Rose gold and linen white dial
• La Paul Silver and Midnight Blue dial
• La Paul Silver and Linen White dial

The case of this watch has been carefully crafted like a pebble, allowing it to fit the wrist perfectly with assured comfort thanks to its rounded horns. Made from 316L steel, it offers beautiful play of light and remarkable quality with Silver PVD and Rose Gold PVD plating. This rounded case has a diameter of 39mm and a thickness of 12.1mm including the curved anti-reflective sapphire crystal. The lug width is 20mm, a universal size for this brand to make all of their bracelets compatible with this new collection.

The case back screwed with 4 screws is perforated with a sapphire crystal in its center which offers a beautiful view of the movement in action. These screws are, however, only aesthetic, as the watch is only water resistant to 5 ATM.

The crown is present for the first time at 3 o'clock, it features some interesting details such as the house logo, but above all a knurling on 24 notches representing the 24 hours of the day. A small detail that goes unnoticed but which offers a nice grip and very easy time setting.

The time to look at this dial has come. The Paul collection features an enameled dial available in 2 colors: linen white and midnight blue. A railway is present on the periphery of the dial with the 24 hours of the day.

The words MIDI and MINUIT in full allow us to mark the two key moments of a day but also to divide the day and the night into two semi-circles. Indeed, the day will be represented on the upper part of the dial and the night, on the lower part.

Further in the center, polished steel indexes are applied, matching the color of your case (silver PVD or rose gold PVD). The latter are inspired by Breguet numerals but it is in reality a reference to the calligraphy of Paul Eluard, the man who inspired Gustave et Cie for this new watch.

The detail that will unite them all, this famous single needle. Watchmaking companies always focus on the design of their hands, this is a point of capital importance. Usually there are three of these hands, so when we only have one, it must be all the more elegant and refined.

Gustave & Cie has not opted for an easy solution and reveals a slightly curved needle entirely polished by hand. Meticulous work that proudly hovers over this enameled dial. Reading the time remains particularly easy but we will address this point later.

The movement present in this watch is a GMT. A choice that may seem surprising but necessary for a 24-hour format watch. Indeed, getting your hands on a real, affordable 24-hour caliber is not easy, so the young French brand has chosen a GMT caliber in order to only use the GMT hand.

This compromise allows you to choose a high-quality movement, in this case a Miyota 9075. This Japanese automatic movement is renowned for its reliability and robustness. It offers a power reserve of 42 hours, which remains very correct and has a frequency of 4 hertz or 28,800 vibrations per hour.

The little appreciable detail is this engraving which adorns the mass. All the original mentions have been erased in order to have a larger printing surface and to include a few passages from the poem “The night is never complete”, a poem that inspired the design of this new collection .

Reading the time is relatively easy although a little adaptation time is necessary for those accustomed to traditional fake watches. Indeed, the position of the needle will not be in the same location.

To illustrate this point, on a classic watch, midnight will be marked by an hour hand at 12 o'clock, here it will be at 6 o'clock, hence the little help needed to read the time at a single glance!

However, it is easy to read the time and it will not take more time than usual, the hand indicates the hour and minutes simultaneously. Effectively, each index represents 10 minutes and a longer index represents the half hour of the hour in question.

In short, this is an atypical way of telling time and an entirely different approach to seeing time!

This time Gustave & Cie marks the occasion with a much-desired novelty: the easily adjustable folding clasp. It was not offered in the Jules collection because this watch with its nautical look was surely less suitable for it, but this Paul collection must have been the perfect opportunity to offer this folding clasp.