Baselworld 2014: RJ-Romain Jerome’s Spacecraft Black goes undercover

Baselworld 2014: RJ-Romain Jerome’s Spacecraft Black goes undercover

After the successful launch of the original Spacecraft in 2013, RJ-Romain Jerome has decided to go undercover with a new stealth finish.

RJ-Romain Jerome introduces an all new blacked-out Spacecraft mirroring the army’s anti-detection technologies. Unveiling a new bold and edgy look, the new timepiece recalls the aesthetic of stealth aircrafts such as the famous F-117 Nighthawk that flew through the skies unnoticed for over 20 years*. 

The three masterminds behind this exciting project, Mr Manuel Emch, CEO of RJ-Romain Jerome, Mr Eric Giroud, internationally renowned designer and Mr Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, expert watchmaker, have created an unprecedented creative explosion. With its Darth Vador look, the unusual trapeze-shape timepiece features a black, matt facetted, PVD-coated titanium case. Form and function are perfectly aligned and give time reading a whole new dimension: the hour display is revealed on the slice of the case with an orange indicator and is read laterally. The minute indicator is featured on a black rotating disc with an orange cursor on the top of the case. 

The futuristic watch beholds a unique mechanical self-winding movement that has been exclusively developed for RJ-Romain Jerome by Geneva-based manufacturing facility Agenhor. It combines four different complications – lateral, linear, jumping and retrograde – which is unprecedented and represents the most complicated indication of time ever made. To finish off the complication, the time-setting has been designed as a screw-lock crown at 12 o’clock. 

Exclusive to this stealth edition, a black and orange buffalo leather cuff has been designed to embrace the new Spacecraft. The watch now adapts to the wrist perfectly with its fitted leather cuff. The orange leather half of the strap recalls both the hour and the minute indicators giving an additional sporty look to the watch. 

Limited to 25-pieces, the new Spacecraft Black will empower its wearer with a sense of cosmic freedom reserved to all stellar Easy Riders. Once again, RJ-Romain Jerome offers a new way of reading time and explores a new sense of creativity. 

* Stealth technology reduces radar and thermal detections from enemy sensors 

MANUEL EMCH

Born in Switzerland in 1972, Manuel Emch studied design at the Art Center in La Tour-de-Peilz before gaining a Master’s Degree in business at Lausanne University’s Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC). The winner of several watch design awards, Manuel Emch is gifted with considerable skills in the field of establishing and consolidating brand identity. He ably demonstrated this as CEO at Jaquet Droz, which he revived and repositioned as one of the finest references in the field of Haute Horlogerie. 

On January 1st 2010, Manuel Emch joined RJ-Romain Jerome as CEO in order to give it a fresh creative impulse and to establish the credibility and reputation of this youthful brand that shakes up the conventions and clichés often associated with watchmaking. 

In parallel with his activities in the watch industry, Manuel Emch, has for over 20 years, nurtured a passion for Contemporary Art and has built up an eclectic collection. 

ERIC GIROUD 

Eric Giroud spent his youth in a cultural and artistic environment in Switzerland. In 1995, after having studied music and architecture, he started working for different creative studios in Switzerland. He discovered and practiced graphic, packaging and product design. Designing objects marks the real turning point, a new horizon and a feeling of deep passion. He opened his own design studio in 1998 and now mainly focuses on the design and development of timepieces. 

During the same period Eric Giroud discovered a delight for contemporary art and became a connoisseur and art collector. As a great source of inspiration, visual arts and music play a very important part in his approach to design. He considers his job an interface between man and industry. His method of work is mainly based on human exchanges and research, both stylistic and technical. 

JEAN-MARC WIEDERRECHT

Born in 1950, Jean-Marc Wiederrecht is a contemporary watchmaker little known to the public at large, but highly appreciated by the greatest watch companies for his expertise. When he completed his watchmaker’s training in 1972, a time when the industry was in the grips of the quartz crisis, Jean-Marc Wiederrecht joined the Châtelain company, where he remained for six years. In 1978, he began a new phase in his career by turning tofreelance and specialising in the assembly of extra-thin movements. Ten years later, Jean-Marc Wiederrecht developed his first retrograde perpetual calendar – which would become one of his specialities. In 1996, he founded Agenhor SA, a Geneva watchmaking manufacturer specialising in the development of mechanical modules, and in 2007 he was awarded the Best Watchmaker Prize at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix. 

Jean-Marc Wiederrecht currently works with the biggest names in the watch business, and the list of tailor-made complications he has developed is a long one – as indeed is that of the Swiss, European and international invention patents he has registered.