It’s back to work time, time for resolutions. To stop smoking, to get back into sport, to stop buying things we don’t need, and many others. Resolutions that won’t last very long, of course. But when you go back to work, you’ll also see that the watch is back on your wrist (for those who put it aside during the summer and the holidays). So we have a great resolution for you: take care of your leather bracelet.
As you know, our watches are universal – so these words apply to all of you, men and women – and are dressed with a leather strap that brings elegance and comfort.
However, after some time, the strap can get dirty, especially because of micro-dust, contact with our skin and other handling.
In order to prolong the happiness of the first days, we are going to give you some advice on the maintenance of your bracelet.
A watch band can be put on and taken off the wrist. It is therefore essential not to bend the strap. Every sudden movement is an aggression for the strap, and it is by these repeated aggressions that the leather gets damaged. Remember that leather is a noble and fragile material, so treat it with consideration, gentleness and delicacy.
Water, alcohol (who has never had a drink spilled on them?), sweat and other liquids or simply damp elements are not really friends of leather. So let’s avoid the pool, the sea or simply sports. However, no one is safe from unforeseen events, in which case, leave your bracelet to dry in a dry place.
Leather is a living material, which evolves over time. Just like our skin, it needs to be nourished to prevent it from drying out and cracking. Our little tip? A dab of Saphir Universal Cream from time to time. Otherwise, another nourishing leather cream will do the trick.
One last piece of advice to prolong your shared happiness, don’t hesitate to vary your pleasures and alternate between different bracelets. We have a selection of bracelets that you can change quickly at home 😉
With all these tips, you should be able to preserve your bracelet for some time, and above all, if you have any doubts, don’t hesitate to ask us!
All the Beaubleu team wishes you wonderful hours for this new working year !
Who says watch, necessarily says movement. Our watches, like many watches, have an automatic movement. The good students already have the answer, it is indeed the Miyota 9015 movement. In a previous article, we talked about our choice in comparison with a famous Swiss movement. But when we came back to it, we noticed that we never really took the time to tell you more about our Miyota 9015 movement…
Many of you are wondering why we did not choose a Swiss partner. In order to explain our choice, let’s go back in time and put some things in their context.
At the end of the 19th century, after centuries of isolation, Japan opened to international trade. The Swiss watch industry took advantage of this to transfer their watchmaking skills and train the Japanese. Originally, this process was to allow them to diversify their commercial outlets and open new markets. However, the Japanese watchmakers, who quickly became experts, began to develop the local watch industry. Subsequently, the country, which was supposed to become a partner of choice for Switzerland, quickly became a strong competitor by developing factories (including Seiko, today a giant of the watch industry).
Citizen Watch, some of you recognize this name? Indeed, today the two giants of the Japanese watch industry are Seiko and Citizen Watch Miyota.
In 1959, the Citizen Watch factory was set up in the city of Miyota in Japan. 20 years later, sales operations began, notably with introducing the 2035 caliber, its iconic model.
Subsequently, various models arrived, and finally, in 2009 the Miyota 9015 automatic movement, revolutionary development of the 8215 caliber, was introduced to the market.
The story between our Beaubleu watches and the Miyota 9015 began at the birth of the circular hands house in 2017. With the launch of our first B01 collection, we placed this movement at the heart of our watches. At that time (not so long ago), it was the balance we were looking for in terms of quality and price. Today, it remains our first choice, and for other years to come.
If we now go beyond the previous criterion, it is also for its thinness that we have chosen it, allowing us to propose automatic watches with a thickness of less than 1 cm (perfect to put under a shirt or to wear with your white tee-shirt at the weekend).
We wanted to explain a little more about our Japanese movement’s (often unknown) history, the heart of our watches, and the one that drives our round hands. It’s now done, and for the most curious, go to the website of the manufacturer itself!
Think of the first time you were in front of a text about a watch. Wow, it was such a thing. Don’t worry, it happened to us too, even our Beaubleu designer lived this moment. To help you for your choice or just for your curiosity, we have done a list of the main word that you will find in our Beaubleu’s website pages. Enjoy the Beaubleu watch lexicon !
The balance is a component which regulate the mechanical movement of your watch. Working with the balance spring, it produces a regular movement called oscillation. This is why you hear a « tic-tac ».
Finally, the spring regulate the watch’s movement by returning the balance at its initial position to start a new oscillation. More the quality is good more the precision is important.
Main element of the case, it is located on the top of the caseband and carry the glass of the watch. Depending of the watch, it can turn and shows, in this case, the duration of an event.
The caliber is watchmaking vocabulary to show that we have some skills. However this term names the movement of the watch.
The case is the component which protect the watch’s mechanism against impacts, humidity and dust. It is composed of several elements.
The case is composed of 3 pieces. The caseband is placed between the bottom of the case and the bezel.
The crown is a button located at 3 on your watch. It allows you to manually wide the movement and to set the clock.
The cylinder is an essential piece for the movement of the mechanism. Without a cylinder you cannot have a movement. This piece is a cylindrical case which contain the spring. The cylinder accumulates the energy produced by the spring and deliver it to the different gears of the movement.
The dial is one of the main piece of the watch. Why? it is what you see first. It shows various indications such as the hours, the minutes and the seconds.
Located at the ends of the case, they are used to clip the strap to the watch.
The index is the benchmarks for the hours. They have replaced the Roman and Arabic numbers through the history.
When a quartz watch needs batteries, the mechanical watch does need them. Indeed, it is composed of a mechanical movement which can be a manual winding or an automatic one. For your Beaubleu watch, we have chosen an automatic movement. It winds itself with the movement you make during the day. It is possible because of a rotor which turn around its axis. However, it is necessary to wind the watch manually regularly.
he watch’s movement is the set of pieces and mechanisms which make it work. This different movements are also called calibers.
The watch’s clasp is an important detail and it exists in different forms: the folding buckle, the butterfly buckle and the pin buckle. The last one is the one we used for Beaubleu’s watches. It is composed of a buckle and a metal rod, like your belt buckle. This type of claps is used for our leather straps but you will never find it on a metal strap. The good thing with this kind of buckle is that you can adjust ore precisely the size of the strap.
The spring is the watch’s source of energy. It is a small steel tape which is rolled inside the cylinder.
As you know, today the watches are not only used to indicate the time. These other functions are called watchmaking complications and some of them are very wanted by the watch amateurs. Here some of them: the perpetual calendar, the chronograph or the time zones.
The Beaubleu watch lexicon is finished. Of course, we did not list the entire watchmaking vocabulary. We want that you continue to read us and like it! However, with this basis, we will be able to have some benchmarks. If you have any questions, we are here to reply, and it will be with pleasure and passion!
You all know our black straps from Florence which match perfectly our watches. Maybe you know them too well… Then we have decided to create a finished patina aspect straps collection mixing our favorite ingredients: elegance, poetry and Parisian craftsmanship. This collection is composed of four shades inspired by our preferred Parisian locations.
Before telling you our knowhow technic for the finished patina aspect of our straps, we have to go back to the basis. What is the patina? At the beginning, the patina was a wear mark on leather shoes. For Beaubleu, we prefer to say that it is the mark of the time. Scratches become the physic manifestation of the lived stories. This natural patina takes time and give a real personality to the leather. However, there is quite a big problem: the time. We need months and often years to obtain a good natural patina. This is how comes the manmade patina. It makes the same effect but faster, in a few hours only. Nevertheless, this technic need experience and a unique knowhow.
The finished patina aspect straps are entirely made in France. In natural calf leather, they are produced in Besancon and bring back to Paris, in our workshop. Each piece is unique because of the handmade patina technic used. First, we select the best silk hair paintbrush. After we apply two layers of leather paint to establish the color basis. Each bracelet can react differently with the color contact. The craftsman has then to adapt himself. Of course, this adaptation capacity depends on his experience.After a break of a few hours, the time for the leather paint to dry, we start the most meticulous step of the process which need patience and attention. We have to apply the darker color while lightly brushing the strap. This gesture will highlight the volume and the color depth. After some more hours resting, the result is here. The finale touch consists in applying a last protecting layer for the leather and the shade. Here we are, the finished patina aspect Beaubleu is ready to join your watch.
Congratulations, you are now a proud owner of a Beaubleu watch, so you are probably wondering how to keep your mechanism as beautiful as possible and in tip-top form? (more…)
From the craftsmanship to the custom-made creation, we would like to introduce you to our latest discovery and new inspiration:the Atelier Penso. He shared with us his vision of time and beloved work.
After a café in the XIXth district of Paris, you sneak behind a wall leading to a typically Parisian cobblestone street. Then, you arrive in front of a green workshop door which welcomes you with the noble smell of leather and antique oil machinery.
Wearing a black t-shirt with rolled-up sleeves, sneakers, silver rings, symbolic tattoos and the look of a cheeky Parisian, it is not the ex-professional fencer or even the Ivy League grad who welcomes you, but the craftsman Adrien Penso, owner of the Atelier Penso. “What’s up”, he smirks, coming to you from the bottom of his workshop. He holds out his clean wrist before you, his unshakeable hands covered with oil and dust.
The creative leather smith, Penso chooses, cuts, threads and assembles the high-quality leather, which makes the Atelier Penso’s bags. We are in the pure craftsmanship.
From intuition to design, through the final initials engraving, Penso is very meticulous. “With leather-like this, the bag has to be perfect” Penso says before grabbing a huge leather piece under the cutting table.
Timeless and uncluttered, the design of his creations always come along with various customizations. Like its carrier, the bag is going to live, wrinkle and tan, to present the marks of time, as Penso says “Time exists because we are alive”.
Working with craftsmen is not about thinking of the ultimate result, but it is thinking of all the small gestures which forge an exceptional piece. Finally, what is craftsmanship? Before being a discipline, it is an applied philosophy where the imagination becomes reality. Take a piece of leather or a block of steel and it becomes your Ariadne’s thread.
Regardless the process, every object is different, unique and atypical. It is the result of a sudden madness, an inattention, and a state of mood. Every craftsman wants to reveal his/her passion. For Beaubleu, as for L’atelier Penso, it’s the story of ” travail bien-aimé” (beloved work). When you create refined pieces, you wish to communicate a character and a harshness. These scratches and scars will soak and begin to make the product, withstanding the test of time.
Finally, Beaubleu and the Atelier Penso share this common vision of the time and the work.
FLUCTUAT NEC MERGITUR
“Beaten by streams, but never sinks”
