Maitres du Temps Chapter One Watch Hands-On

Look in the image gallery below and you'll see not only the large and impressive box that the watch arrives in, but the specially made piece of luggage that the watch box is placed in. I was really excited about these elements of the watch presentation. Trust me that the box and leather bag themselves are very expensive to manufacture. Over all I am pleased to have had the chance to experience the Maitres du Temps Chapter One watch. Remember that they are part of a limited edition and not easy to find. I met with a Maitres du Temps rep to check these watches out at the watch store Chatel in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Soon I will do another hands-on look at the Maitres du Temps Chapter Two watch.In the video I made, you can see the tourbillon escapement in action. The timepiece has many functions, including all the calendar information, chronograph, moonphase, and GMT hand. Still, they are laid out in a beautiful manner. You may not use the functions all the time, but instead of them cluttering up the design of the watch, they ARE the design of the watch. To press this point look at the top and bottom of the elongated tonneau case. The aluminum rollers there are part of the aesthetic look of the watch, and are also used fro the moon phase, and day of the week indicators.While I mentioned this previously in other articles, I really like how the pushers on the watch are all labeled. Trust me that this is rare. Look at some complex Patek Phillipe watches and you'll find little pin pushers all around the case. None of them are labeled and pressing the wrong one results in much frustration. For the Maitres du Temps watches a different approach was taken. They wanted to be more user oriented, so you'll notice on the rear of the watch there are labels engraved into the gold case indicating what the pushers do. Such an obvious element to help in satisfactory ownership, but curiously absent from most other watches.Looking into the movement you can see that is has an incredible amount of hand decoration. It just overflows with it. So much perlage and Cotes de Geneve polishing all over the place. It shines and glistens and is just cool to see. The Chapter One watch is manually wound tourbillon, while the Maitres du Temps Chapter Two is an automatic. Wait for a follow up article with a hands on look at the Chapter Two watch.The presentation of the timepiece from the personal message engraved on the back to the craftsman feel of the timepiece is worthy of the approx. $400,000 price.A watch such as the Chapter One requires an impressive presentation box.