One of the great advantages of a small, independent watch company is flexibility in approach. Charles Girardier, a fledgling brand still fresh off a Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG) award in 2020, was looking to solidify its portfolio when the inspiration came knocking on the door—the Rolls-Royce Enthusiast’s Club had approached them to create something to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the automotive marque.
The result was the new Synchronaut collection. It is only the brand’s third, and is a bit of a departure from its previous outings, with a more concerted eye towards function. It has a classical round profile, but between the 39.5mm titanium case, textured and coloured dials, and luminescent markers, it taps into a more contemporary, slightly sporty vibe. The Synchronaut is a GMT; the subdial at 6 o’clock indicates the date, an additional central 24-hour hand tracks the home time zone, and the small round window at 10 o’clock is a day/night indicator for local time. The local time zone can also be easily set thanks to the two pushers on the right side of the case.
A racing green-dialled version of this watch is reserved for the Rolls-Royce Enthusiast’s Club, while blue, brown and grey versions are staying as part of Charles Girardier’s main offerings. The texture of the dial, despite its chevron-like pattern having a contemporary, almost carbon fibre evocation, was actually implemented with a traditional guilloché technique.
Patrick Ulm (pictured above), the CEO of Charles Girardier and the man behind its modern-day revival, explains that the Synchronaut’s key traits were inspired by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “Elegance and comfort,” he says. “We managed the elegance part with the guilloché, which is really beautiful. It has tradition and history, values that we share with Rolls-Royce, and we had to integrate it into the watch. We managed the comfort part with the pushers. [It makes it] so easy to change the time.” Guilloché was something he was keen to explore after the grand feu enamel dials of his first two collections, the Signature Myterieuse and the Magic 8. It also had the benefit of making the Synchronaut slightly thinner—it measures only 11mm in total thickness—which was more important in a watch that was meant to be less ornamental.
A touch of modernity is found in the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique used to colour the dials. “Rolls-Royce has elegance and comfort, but at the same time they innovate. These are all the elements we wanted to have in the watch,” Ulm says. The choice to make it a GMT was also to tie it into the theme of travel—and the use of pushers also makes it look like a chronograph, reinforcing the link to motoring.
The Synchronaut’s calibre, CG SYNC-1863 GMT—1863 being the birth year of a certain Henry Royce—is also something of a stepping stone for the brand. Built on a base movement from Vaucher and utilising a Dubois-Dépraz module, it nonetheless features some modifications unique to Charles Girardier, such as in the oscillating weight, pushers and day/night indicator. These modifications were done by the brand’s close partner, the boutique specialist watchmaker Oscillon, with whom Charles Girardier shares an office in Buchs, near Zurich. This sort of mechanical exclusivity is giving the brand an extra edge even as it sets its sights on loftier goals—it is preparing to release its own in-house movement. “I think this is how we differentiate ourselves. We wanted to reach that kind of expertise. I think this is what is attractive to collectors,” Ulm says. “We are really taking it seriously, from a blank sheet of paper, from scratch, to say—this is Charles Girardier.”
