With the X-Watch, the Manufacture of DeWitt is taking the watch industry into a whole new dimension by creating an authentically unique model for the 2011 edition of Only Watch. Loyal to his own principles as well as to the values of his brand, Jérôme de Witt had promised after the 2007 edition that he would be back with a piece as crazy as his spectacular Incognito, which had reached the second highest price at auction behind Patek Philippe. While the X-Watch is the third concept watch from DeWitt, it embodies the brand’s philosophy as well as its expertise, the latter being especially vividly symbolised by its patented automatic sequential winding system with peripheral oscillating weight, and by its reversibility as already explored in the Antipode, its second concept watch. Design and architecture, particularly in New York, have always inspired Jérôme de Witt. It is indeed that of a concrete mixer that has given rise to the reversible mechanism, enriched with an X-shaped cover partially concealing the front or the back of the watch. The mysterious cross slowly opens into two sections, like an Unidentified Flying Object, when the pushers on either side of the grade 5 titanium case are activated, thus enabling it to rotate and adopt an upside down position. The equally reversible movement, entirely conceived and developed in-house, is composed of 535 parts and powers the following functions : bi-retrograde display of the hours and minutes on either side, 120-hour power reserve indication, chronograph, automatic tourbillon with small seconds on the carriage.

“We wanted to restore the luxury object to its true place, meaning a rare object that inspires dreams”, said Jérôme de Witt in an interview last year, although not referring specifically to the X-Watch. Perhaps he was already thinking about it. Above and beyond its intrinsic qualities, the proprietary Calibre DW8046 is enhanced by the openworking of the chronograph and the rose gold finishes on the peripheral rotor, featuring lines echoed by those adorning the centre of the hourglass-shaped applique. Accentuating the visual delight, a blackened nickel disc less than one millimetre thick and drilled with 58 holes has been delicately placed in the centre of the movement so as to separate the two sides. At the next edition of Only Watch in 2013, DeWitt will be celebrating its 10^th anniversary, so one can only guess what the next step might be !