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WOTY 2014: Christophe Claret Poker

Highly Commended. Innovative Watches of the Year 2014.

Christophe Claret unveiled one technical marvel after another at BaselWorld this year; it was a real tour de force showing off complications that weren’t all necessarily time-orientated.

Claret’s Gaming collection, which already includes watches with mechanical solutions to replicate both Baccarat and Blackjack games, was born from his discovery of an early 20th Century mechanical box that replicated the random throwing of a pair of die.

The latest and most ambitious watch to date is the Poker. Here Claret developed a 655-component movement to reproduce the 32,768 different poker hands a player can be dealt from a 52-card deck, for three players, so the watch needed to be able to randomly ‘deal’ cards.

The result required two watchmakers working on the project constantly for two years but the execution is flawless, with louvered blinds shielding each players’ hand from the others and a striking cathedral gong that sounds each time a pusher is activated. Claret seems unique among his peers in devoting such extraordinary resources to such fanciful complications.

James Buttery

Editor of WatchPro, the WatchPro Hot 100 and The Luxury Report.

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