This year’s WatchPro Salon is shaping up to be a showcase of innovation and independent watchmaking from both international and British businesses.
Few will be fresher and bolder with their vision than Apiar, a brand new British company that will unveil its first collection of 3D printed watches made from thousands of 0.06mm layers of Grade 23 titanium, the same purity that surgeons use for hip replacement joints.
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After milling using advanced CNC machines, the “additive manufacturing” process creates lightweight, super-strong cases with fascinating geometric shapes like lattice windows on their sides.
Once the case and bezels are complete, they are finished by expert hand polishers.
The resulting watch collection, named the Invenire, is highly configurable because the 3D printing process.
There is a choice of three different patterns for the latice windows on the side of each case.
You can choose from a titanium bezel with six or twelve ‘tabs’ (six looks better on the prototype shown to WatchPro).
This is before you get to selecting the look of your dial, which is made using a brass blank from a UK manufacturer before being decorated with a choice of Arabic or Roman numeral hour markers; a central guilloché circle can have three different looks: Cloud de Paris, hexagon or a geometric striation pattern.
Next choose the colour of your dial before selecting from a vast range of leather and rubber straps in various hues and textures.
The options are almost limitless.
It does take four to six months between configuring and ordering your watch and receiving the finished piece, but it will be almost guaranteed to be unique to you.
Under the hood, Apiar has chosen an automatic La Joux-Perret G100 three-hand movement with date, which has an impressive 68-hour power reserve.
The decorated movement is on show via an exhibition case back.
For the first run of Invenire watches, Apiar is asking for a manufacturing deposit of £1,404, which is 65% of the total cost of £2,160 (including VAT).
Orders will be taken for around the next month, with delivery of the finished watches promised in four to six months.
So far, according to Apiar founder Matt Oothuizen, around 70% of sales have been to the United States, but the company has just joined the Alliance of British Watch & Clock Makers, and is likely to take part in next year’s British Watchmakers Day.
Before that, Apiar is making its worldwide public debut at WatchPro Salon in November.
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Apiar is among an exciting line-up of independent watchmakers from around the world who will gather in London on November 1 and 2 for this year’s WatchPro Salon.
Salon takes place in the luxury ballroom of The Londoner, one of the most exciting hotels to have opened in Central London in the past five years.
Other exhibitors at WatchPro Salon include:
Awake Concept, Trilogy, HERBELIN, Ollech & Wajs, Brew Watch Co., Sinn, BA111OD, Serica, eBay, Escudo, ID Geneve, Moels & Co., Mondaine, Luminox, Victorinox, Backes & Strauss, Atowak, HEGID, Apiar, Duckworth Prestex, ChronoSwiss, Nottaris, WREN, HTD Instruments, MICROMILSPEC, Horage, and Tsar Bomba
Scenes from WatchPro Salon 2023
