For a few days, for general health, we are encouraged to stay at home. But no worries, life is still going on and more than ever the Beaubleu adventure so. As you may know, our new Union Collection has highlighted some innovations such as the second’s hand, the lume, and the blued steel hands. And we will talk about these last ones.
The
blued steel hands in the Union collection.
You can see
them on some models like the Olympe and the Intrepide, they are easily
recognizable with their blue shades. We have chosen them to twirl on our dial because they give poetry – as we are always looking for – contrast – you can find it in every detail of our watches – and readability – their blued shade stays discrete to be more focused on the reading of time.
Today, more used for the aesthetics of our watches, the blued steel hands used to have specific usefulness.
The blued steel hands and its traditional technic
Let’s go back a few decades ago, we can say the Before War period. The steel hands were flame blued to reduce the sensitivity of the metal against the corrosion. But what process do we use? It is quite simple – depending on your knowledge and experience of course – the blued color is obtained thanks to a temperature rise process. First, we heat red the steel and then we steep it to increase its resistance. Then, we heat it again at a specific temperature. If it is not heated enough, we will have yellow shade, if the temperature is too high, we’ll obtain a purple shade.
Here we are, you know all about our blued steel hands and the contrasts they give to our timekeeper while conserving the best reading of time possible. Each variation given by these hands extends the discovery of your watch and these surprises unfold by the everyday light. For us – and for you too – each detail counts, then it seemed important to us, and useful, to tell you these “small” information about our circular hands.
Even if the
actual period in France is not the best ever, we will keep writing every week
about our watch and our universe.
We wish you
wonderful hours,
Take care
and stay safe.
The
Beaubleu Team
You couldn’t miss it, our babies are out, and we did not expect this frenzy about the new collection! The excitement aside, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk to you about the story of the Union Collection. This part is the first step about the design process of the house before the launching (very expected) of the pre-orders.
The coherency
A few
months ago, someone asked me: “so how is going to be the new collection?”. I knew
people were expecting a lot from this new creation, and I asked myself: How to
offer more surprise and keeping at the same time the Beaubleu’s identity? Who will
go these watches to? How to integrate the community’s expectations? Such
a hard work…
However, before putting down my first thoughts, I strolled in Paris… From the antique stores to the design gallery and the 11th district restaurants, I was looking for a main thread for the entire collection. It was the moment to find the coherency.
I imagined this watch like an interior. From a room to another, the aspect stays because of the combination of warm and cold materials. The warmth of a wood table with a velvet sofa joined by a marble table, all these contrasts play with our senses, for our greatest pleasure.
As often, we have the same vision as our ambassadors. The envy of giving colors was evidence. So, what colors? How to keep the vibrating and warm side of the interior design? I started to buy velvet and satin to find deeper colors, that tell stories.
What to do with the inspiration?
Once the main thread is found, it is complicated to not draw the first ideas, and keeping adding new materials, and images. We test our first inspirations, to see if, with time, we are not bored. This process is long and hard, but we cannot miss it, because if there is one thing that we don’t want, it is that became bored. No, no and No !
After, I
compiled the finale inspirations, and I mixed them: a velvet with a polished
steel, a green with a Soulage painting or a grained paper. And without any
drawings, the models started to appear (almost) by themselves.
Then, the
inpiration step is ending, but will stay on our Studio’s wall until the end of
the production.
This step was celebrated with the team, of course, and the next day, the serious thngs were back with the step of creation.
Next week,
same day, same hour, we meet for the second step of creation. We will talk
about drawings and composition.
We wish you
wonderful hours,
Nicolas
Pham, Beaubleu’s designer
What a better exercise than making the evaluation of this passing year. The vision of time for Beaubleu depends on different elements. “A flash year” will say some of you, the others will be more like “long and tumultuous”. Anyway, it was an intensive year, full of emotions, challenges and news for our House renamed the Circular Hands House by some of you, and we are very proud.
The Beaubleu’s circular hands like to travel
As some of
you already know it, we started this adventure in an Art gallery in the 10th
district of Paris. We were surrounded by a community of passionate persons very
interested by our pieces. We took care of preserving this relationship by
staying on internet and giving the opportunity to everyone to choose his own
numbered piece, but also to try the watches during private presentations.
Moreover, we
couldn’t be prouder than when we heard discussions and comments about the new
watch “of my boyfriend”, “of my birthday” or “my last purchase”: the Beaubleu
watch.
One word,
two syllables which has been known by the big department stores because of you.
New opportunities came to us, being sold by renowned distributors. The success
of our collaboration with Le Printemps has been fast from the first day.
Even if
Beaubleu is ink in the main French cities, the watches travel around the world.
They have been captured in Japan, US, Canada or Mexico.
At every
hand’s location, a new way is drawn for Beaubleu and give us the possibility to
grow up gradually because of strong and long-lasting relationships.
The
Beaubleu Club
When you
received your watch, we enter the Beaubleu Club, offering you a privileged relationship
with our team. The confidence permitted us to share with you our last creations
(before anyone else) – from the patina aspect straps made in our Parisian
workshop to the new collection. You have been very passionate and enthusiast in
the common House’s elaboration. The wall of our studio is now full of your
messages, congratulations and encouragement (Instagram, emails, even letters)
giving us the force to always surprise you with our creations.
Beaubleu’s news for 2020
New goals,
new creations. You might know it, the first limited edition collection had a
great success and since a few months, I am working on drawing and designing the
next pieces with the new House’s aspirations. A collection which delete the
frontier between watch for men and watch for women. A collection in the
continuity of Beaubleu’s strength with the adding of elegant details for always
more poetry and innovation.
The
important challenge for this new year is also continuing to make new
relationship while keeping privileged ones with our Ambassadors. This is why
Beaubleu will be presenting the new collection in February.
Then it is
with pleasure and enthusiasm that the entire Beaubleu team join me to wish you
wonderful hours for 2020.
Nicoals
Pham-Decoudert
Designer
and cofounder
Always looking for the creativity and the essential, we met Paul Jaquet, architect and founder of HAME. We had a discussion about the multidisciplinary, the creation and the time.
First time we met Paul Jaquet
Everything has started with an email sent by Paul Jaquet to have a private presentation. We met him at our office where he can observe and try our watch collection. We talked a lot and we finished talking about fascinating subjects such as the architecture, the car industry and and the craftsmanship. However, we did not have enough time, so we decided to meet again. This time we will go somewhere completely different, his architecture studio called Hame.
Paul Jaquet : between creativity and essential
The next Friday (it was in January), we were strolling in the 10th district streets, enjoying some sun. When we arrived in front of a 19th century building, Paul appeared at the entrance and invited us to pass by a small hidden door. And here, surprise! We found THE dreamed place: a real last century workshop tank under a skylight and surrounded by plants.
« No more excuse to not work well” says Paul while showing the workshop where we can smell the odour of fresh printed plans. Blue jacket, black T-shirt, a blue jean lightly patinated, leather shoes, a Moleskine notebook and his Beaubleu watch (the Lumineux), Paul, passionate architect, welcomes us.
As a lot of us, Paul started in the biggest French companies. From an architecture price to another, the Hame agency was created. But why the architecture? For the same reason that we have created Beaubleu: to offer a new look on the civilizations while crossing the fields. What more exciting than “speaking and thinking the sociology, the culture and the philosophy in the creation”? When we look at the different works, we like to see that each project is animated by a research on the essential (no minimalism here) “of what make sense in a place”, a quest of accuracy. A sketch captures our attention: a series of lines shows a house front, we guess, but impossible to know exactly the step of construction. Paul sees us thinking of this sketch and tells us “this is the question of our life, how to finish a creation (architectural or not), August Peret used to say “the architecture is what makes beautiful ruins””. This sentence echoes the craftsman Adrien Penso when he speaks about the beauty of an object with its patina.
The architecture and the time
The architecture shares the same links concerning the time, questioning its origins and finality. For Paul Jaquet, the time is punctuated by moments of attention and others more unconscious, this is why we appreciate it, because of its relativity.
Today, Beaubleu and Paul Jaquet have the same conception of the time in the work done: to spotlight the time in its smallest details, while growing this vision. Nothing more surprising then to see a poster where it was written « Temporality and creation, its taking the time to go faster”, inspired by an old advertising slogan.
We finish
the interesting morning the head full of images, inspiration and motivation to
grow Beaubleu. The adventure is just starting and as said Paul “don’t forget, kill
two birds with one stone!”.
We wish you
wonderful hours,
Beaubleu
Two years ago, we organized the launch of our first circular hands collection in an Art Gallery in the center of Paris. Some of you were present, and later the others have joined our universe. But no matter when you arrived because today, you are all a piece of the Beaubleu story.
Make the Time your time
Watchmaking is a world of artistic and technic innovations, we all agree. But don’t you think it kept something too traditional and “old”? Rules have never changed and today we find more and more copies of the most iconic watches. Where have the creation and the innovation gone? By creating Beaubleu, we want to offer a new vision of the time. But first, what is the time? Each answer is very personal and unique. Of course, the time is a value, yet it changes, becoming longer or shorter depending on the moment. Compare the five minutes while you wait for your train (always late) and the five minutes you take to enjoy your glass of Whisky or your favorite cake. Verdict?
“The Beautiful is always strange”
I think Beaudelaire couldn’t find another sentence which match better with the identity of Beaubleu. Why do we think that something is beautiful? Let’s get out of the esthetic side. The Beautiful can be something different, the perception of what is beautiful changes for everyone. An object becomes beautiful because of an artistic and créative process , as we talked about when we met the Atelier Penso. And about the strange? Actually, we think that the strange is a singularity which tends to get out of the usual codes. For Beaubleu, our singularity must be our beloved circular hands, signature of the House.
Our watch’s circular hands
The hands, often forgotten by the watchmaking industry, are the result of deep design researches for Beaubleu. They offer a different way of reading the time, more poetic and narrative. Usually the hands show a direction however for us they mark a moment, an instant which becomes yours. Our hands dance and twirl to create a moving graphic which will surprise you every minute.
Beaubleu collection Union journal de bord de la production aiguilles rondes
Beaubleu and its circular hands: a story of sharing
The time story of Beaubleu starts with its name and its design signature, but writing the story of its rime it’s writing the story of your time. On this way of making the time something more personal, we want to create a real relationship with you dear Ambassador. We had the pleasure to meet you and you shared with us the most private anecdotes such as the date of your wedding and your favorite Brooks. The future is full of surprises because, as you know, you can access to several events only with your watch. And last but not least, you will participate in the creation and elaboration of our next collections. Never forget, the time of Beaubleu is before all your time!
During meetings, private presentations, or even drinking at a coffee, a Beaubleu watch often catches someone’s eye. Then THE question comes: how did you come to this design? Today we want to take time to explain this step in the watch’s story to you.
The concept of the watch : from Mind to Body
Before jumping on the paper to scribble a tangle of two circles, with one shorter than the other, let’s define a concept.
In general we quickly are tempted to start the design of a watch by its style: vintage, sporty, futuristic, modern… But first, we started by asking questions, such as: How will it be worn? Where will it be worn? What are the needs it must fulfill? So many questions that will sketch a strong idea without falling into the same exercise.
For Beaubleu, the main idea was the measurement of the time and its composition. It was necessary to return to the very foundation of what a watch is. With that, we have broken down the foundation in three distinct parts: the technique (the movement), the transport/ornament (lug and strap) and the reading of the time.
From there, the design of the watch came almost naturally. The body of the watch encloses the mechanical heart in a refined way to highlight the movement. The lugs attached to the straps have been worked with curves inspired by the automobile design. The dial and hands evoke the kinetic movement of the planets, the very basis of our perception of time.
Round Handed Sundial
The spirit of the watch are its dial and its hands. You have to keep in mind that you will glance at your timepiece several times a day for years. Then the design must not bored you.
The Dial
This part serves both time references (3, 6, 9 and 12 hours) and sets. Knowing that the accuracy is of the order of one micron (0.001mm), a watch dial of about 30 mm in diameter seems very quickly like a huge planet to fill. We played with graphics and relief to dress this space as an architect or a planner who identifies flows and uses. Grooving or joining of two pieces will be different depending on the direction of the consumed light, as will the material treatment depending on the ambient light.
To create a recognizable piece for you, we focused on a shape, a treatment, a color and a graphic. To be consistent with the concept of the sundial and our Galilean inspirations, we had to rethink the idea of a temporal indicator: the hands.
Every creation is a succession of goings and comings between inspiration and sketches. The B01 was not an exception. After several tests on the work of Galileo, the circular hands gradually took shape to finally become the signature of Beaubleu. The circular hands became an indicator and a moving graphic. As you can see, by crossing each other, they form an evolutionary graphic throughout the day. From the alignment of the planets to the race of the sun, it is a spectacle within reach of a wrist.
We could talk for hours and continue to share our passion for design and watchmaking. However, we invite you to contact us to discuss deeply if you want.
Wishing you wonderful hours.
Beaubleu
Félicitations, vous êtes l’un des nouveaux heureux propriétaires d’une montre Beaubleu. Vous vous demandez sûrement comment faire pour la conserver la plus belle possible et gardez votre mécanisme en pleine forme ! (more…)
In general we quickly are tempted to start the design of a watch by its style: vintage, sporty, futuristic, modern… But first, we started by asking questions, such as: How will it be worn? Where will it be worn? What are the needs it must fulfill? So many questions that will sketch a strong idea without falling into the same exercise.
This part serves both time references (3, 6, 9 and 12 hours) and sets. Knowing that the accuracy is of the order of one micron (0.001mm), a watch dial of about 30 mm in diameter seems very quickly like a huge planet to fill. We played with graphics and relief to dress this space as an architect or a planner who identifies flows and uses. Grooving or joining of two pieces will be different depending on the direction of the consumed light, as will the material treatment depending on the ambient light.