R07 Legend
Revelation hierarchizes time reading
The small brand from Lully-sur-Morges adds a sports watch and a piece for women to its collection. Both feature the brand’s magical dial.
By Marco Cattaneo
Journalist
“We are not a small brand but a bonsai-sized leading one!” That was the immediate explanation Anouk Danthe, Revelation’s co-founder, gave concerning the brand’s ambitious marketing strategy to launch two new models in 2015. The R07 Legend will enter the market of sports watches and the R05 First Lady is aimed at women. Both are of course equipped with their magical dial.
The secrets of the magical dial
The magical dial is Revelation’s true signature. The brand has been working on it since its creation in 2007 together with the CSEM (Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique), based in Neuchâtel. The result was astonishing: two quartz discs linked to a serrated bezel whose nanostructures have a polarizing effect. It is a complex mechanism because when the bezel rotates, it makes a disc under the hands rotate too. The disc’s position determines whether the dial is opaque or transparent and thus brings time reading to another level.
Regular versions present classic components, such as claymore-shaped hands on a black background. High-end versions are truly complicated and include a dial that suddenly disappears to reveal other functions such as day, date, chronograph or even a tourbillon.
As a matter of fact, the first pieces the brand offered in 2012 were tourbillons. In order to give the magical dial its full meaning, they needed something spectacular, very visible and big. That is why they chose the big balance of the “Tourbillon Manège” which is counterbalanced by a small gold bar. This is how, filled with refreshingly unconscious enthusiasm, Anouk Danthe and her business and life partner, Olivier Leu, designed their own caliber. They entrusted their watchmaker with producing the plates and cutting and assembling the balance-spring. He then relied on the expertise of barrel and escapement specialists for amassing and releasing energy. Both founders of Revelation cover all aspects of the company’s life; from product development to marketing, from strategy to commercialization, and from stall design to accountancy. They even have their own photo studio in the old village school they have established as their headquarters in Lully-sur-Morges, near Lake Geneva.
Range diversification: a must
However, the brand had a rough start. At one stage It was barely known and experts often distrust designers who claim to have developed their own movement. Further, the selling price (CHF 150,000 per piece) discouraged the few end customers they had struggled to find due to their lack of an established commercial network. Revelation then decided to complete its collection by presenting more affordable pieces but still equipped them with its magical dial. In 2013, it introduced a chronograph driven by a Dubois Dépraz movement for a price reduced tenfold. In 2014, they released a self-winding watch equipped with a Sellita movement.
In 2015, the brand is set to continue the development of its collection. “We have to evolve from being a concept to a true brand that has a wide range of products, capable of meeting the requirements of a larger audience. We need to be represented by renowned retailers”, Anouk Danthe highlighted. The R07 Legend is aimed at the market of “great sport” with its rough finishes, its Dubois Dépraz movement, its large date and its retrograde day. The founder added: “We wanted a graphic piece, down to the smallest details”.
Henceforth, the case has solid and angular outlines that are closed with original butterfly-shaped screws. The strap is made with three layers of leather: a black stripe flanked by two caramel stripes. The magical dial of the R05 First Lady features a ladybird on a trefoil that hides and displays the date aperture.