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.

Beaubleu Paris Brio Blue automatic watch limited edition made in France

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

As we use to tell you with Atelier Penso, meeting a craftsman means the travel, which is as much interesting as incongruous. The chance brings us out of Paris, in the middle of the south of France’s vines, where we meet Romy, founder of Lignée Studio.

The time: complex material to create

When we arrive, we question ourselves about this beautiful location to talk about art, creation and design. A wine domain to talk about design? Yes, everything started there for Romy and it is a beautiful story. First, a smell from the winery room comes to our nose, the smell of the soft humidity which keep safe the wine and the wood. Once we get in, Romy shares with us the heart of her creation, not about wine but time, the one which improve and tell a story. We travel in the times: past, present and future. We have been fascinated by Romy’s capacity to be inspired by shapes and uses of the past. There are the ones with her father, where the hand’s intelligence brings to spontaneity and personality in the making. This location where we are, overhung by a luminaire composed of 1000 bottles of wine in the Winery room.

Creating an object as a jewel, creating a jewel as an object

Questioning the essence of the jewel itself, where the owner is not only a person but also a place. It extends the identity of the location and of the owner. Of course, we are inspired and when we ask how she created this link between the creation and the owner, she answers naturally “as you came here, the same sensitive, olfactory, visual and sensory process”. Recreating the emotional link with the objects we are surrounded by, for a use more just and poetic, a creed that Beaubleu approve completely.

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.

l'architect Paul Jacquet

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

beaubleu rencontre l'architecte Paul Jacquet

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.

Beaubleu Paris Brio Blue automatic watch limited edition made in France man

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 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.

inspiration beaubleu survolte aiguilles rondes BeaubleuIn 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

dessins des montres beaubleuThis 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

Watch Sketches Beaubleu