The bezel is often a frontier: it separates the dial from the case, frames the reading of time and, when it turns, performs a precise function. With HIVEMASTER, THEIL wants to give it another role. The Parisian house makes this element a mechanical interface in its own right.
HIVEMASTER is Nicolas Theil’s first watchmaking creation. The watch draws on the structures of living things, at the point where an organic geometry can also become mechanical. The hexagonal dial evokes a honeycomb; it organises the surface through repetitions and reliefs, so that light does not always produce the same depth on the wrist.
A bezel that takes part in the gesture
THEIL calls SYNC MOTION the case complication at the heart of its project. Combined with a crown placed at twelve o’clock, the bezel takes part in setting the time, winding and setting the date. This is the exclusive system presented by the house, whose ambition is to make the interaction more direct.
This shift is interesting because it does not seek to add a function to the dial. It moves the gesture towards the architecture of the case. The watch becomes an object that one does not merely read: one approaches it through its edges, its crown and the resistances of its mechanism.
A first watch, explicit choices
HIVEMASTER adopts a 38.5 mm 316L steel case, a Swiss automatic ETA 2824 movement, an anti-reflective sapphire crystal and a stated power reserve of 38 hours. Water resistance is given as 30 metres, with a Hivelink steel bracelet. These characteristics place the project in a short-series or collector’s watchmaking, more attentive to the design of use than to a demonstration of extreme performance.
Nicolas Theil’s background sheds light on this choice. After experience in fashion, leather goods and design, he approaches watchmaking with attention to form and touch. Nothing yet guarantees the reach of this new house; but its first proposal has a legible point of view, where many launches settle for a decorative vocabulary.
Form before emblem
The risk of organic inspiration is to stop at the motif. HIVEMASTER partly avoids this by making the honeycomb something other than a dial design: the geometry also informs the way the watch is handled. This coherence between surface and interaction is the point to follow.
HIVEMASTER is announced at between 3,900 and 27,000 euros. The price places the object on demanding ground. THEIL will therefore have to make hold together what its first watch promises: a singular design, a credible interface and an execution that withstands both the eye and the hand.
Cette publication est également disponible en :
