Luxury Swiss watchmaker Wyler Genève celebrated its launch on the Taiwan market by offering undeniable proof of the shock resistance of its watches. After the brand’s collection was presented at the Tien-Wen store in partnership with Wyler Genève’s local distributor Swiss Prestige Taiwan, one of the watches was deliberately driven over by a car outside the store to prove the effectiveness of its shock-absorption system.
Paul Wyler, the founder of the Wyler Watch Company, audaciously proved the effectiveness of his own invention, the Incaflex balance wheel, by throwing his company’s watches off the Eiffel Tower in 1956. The new limited-edition Wyler Genève chronograph incorporates the Incaflex balance wheel with a new case design worthy of Paul Wyler himself. Its case uses double the number of components of a normal watch casefor a design that seals the watch movement inside a titanium holder in a carbon-fibre frame that is suspended on springs between two metal plates that form the upper and lower case elements of the watch.
Although the Wyler Genève chronograph had its first long-term test on the wrists of the two drivers on last year’s Paris-Beijing centenary expedition (they wore the watches on their 16,000km journey on the open 1907 Itala), as yet nobody had attempted to mimic the daring tests performed by Paul Wyler. Wyler Geneve’s Managing Director Bruno Grande was therefore delighted at the initiative taken by the Tien-Wen store in Taichung to celebrate the launch of Wyler Genève in Taiwan. “We had been considering ways to show off the shock resistance of our watch for some time, so I’m delighted that Tien-Wen and our partner, Swiss Prestige Taiwan, came up with not one but two ideas to test the watch. I certainly wouldn’t recommend that anyone drives a car over a beautiful Wyler Genève Chronograph, or that they deliberately drop one from a height of 10 meters. But this rough treatment is a great way to prove how effective our unique design is”.
The tough Wyler Genève watches will be sold at the Tien-Wen store under the brand’s partnership with the Swiss Prestige Group, which is firmly established as a leading agent of fine Swiss watches throughout Asia. The store chose to repeat Wyler Genève’s internal experiment for the public, but was more particular in its choice of vehicle. Recalling Wyler Genève’s partnership with Italy’s exclusive Zagato design house, which saw a first ever watch with design by Zagato launched in limited edition last October, Swiss Prestige Taiwan secured the services of a rare Alfa Romeo SZ from the 1990s for the test. Only just over 1000 models of this design classic were produced and, more significantly, it represented a turning point in Zagato’s transition from a coachbuilder to a modern design house. Only 25 Wyler-Zagato watches were produced and all sold out on the day of its launch.
The brand also produces two high-end models: the tourbillon and the WM2. The Wyler Genève Tourbillon features a manufacture movement with a 5-day power reserve, big date and the world’s only tourbillon cage mounted on springs, whilst the WM2 has the brand’s first manufacture movement with 10-day power reserve.
At the beginning of this month in the exclusive Ghostbar at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, Wyler Genève launched its new El Camino Real chronograph in matt black ceramic with a matt black dial and luminous orange hands and hour markers. Named after the famous route on the West Coast of the United States, the watch continues Wyler Genève’s exploration of the world’s most legendary routes and its launch was accompanied by an exhibition of photographs of the route taken by the photographer Francesco Carrozzini.
