The New Limited Edition Chronoswiss Delphis Glacier is So Cool It’s Cold

One of Lausanne-based Chronoswiss’ creative pillars is crafting fine watches based on the concept of regulation, wherein each critical timekeeping function is displayed on a dedicated “surface” of the watch dial.

In the Delphis timepieces, Chronoswiss has taken the functional separation one more step out of the box by combining a jumping-hours window at noon with a dramatic retrograde minutes gauge that fills the top half of the dial, leaving a curved plate at the bottom of the dial to frame a small seconds indicator.

It is an elegant riff on the regulator model and has also served as a terrific canvas for demonstrating how well the Delphis works with varied colors, materials, and structures. And with today’s just-released Chronoswiss Delphis Glacier, the approach has never looked better.

In examining the 42mm titanium Delphis Glacier, one is tempted to start at the bottom of the dial with its glacially evocative, icy-blue, CVD-coated, guillochéd small-seconds sub-dial.
 

Framed by a relatively matte, granular black dial plate and clean black bridging components, this design definitely puts the icy blue drama of the sub-dial in prominent focus, not quite intersecting with the blued, singular, skeletonized, retrograde minute hand that continues the glacial goodness on the rest of the dial.
 

That hand tracks along a curved 60-minute retrograde minute gauge with its own CVD-coated blue index detailing before making its dramatic jump back to “0” at the beginning of each hour. To further differentiate this action from the ongoing small-seconds portion of the dial, the minute-counting is conducted above a gleaming silver galvanic dial surface with its own hand-guilloché work that evokes a pattern of frozen glacier peaks and valleys.

To top off the theatrics, the deeply recessed jumping-hour window flips in the new hour, smack in the middle of this wrist-worn ice field, just as the minute hand jumps back to its starting position.
 

An exhibition caseback offers a fine view of the in-house C. 6004 automatic movement, with its skeletonized tungsten rotor, which provides 55 hours of power. Along with the top-side view of the 17-piece, top- and bottom-grained Grade 5 titanium case and Chronoswiss’ signature oversized onion crown, there is also a sense of metallic iciness delivered through the construction, which plays well with the blue chromatic design pops.
 

A clean, technical black rubber strap with an understated central rib injects just the right amount of adventure-worthiness for your polar visual explorations (although the watch is rated to 10 bars of water resistance if you want to take it on more demanding physical adventures).

The Chronoswiss Delphis Glacier debuts today under a production limitation of 50 examples and priced at CHF 16,800.

You can learn more at the Chronoswiss website.