By: Roger Ruegger
For German watchmaker Sinn, one of the basic challenges in the life of a mechanical watch is “the ageing of oils due to moisture in the air contained inside, or diffusing into, the watch.” Since 1995, Sinn is offering for some of its watch models to have the movement “mounted in a nearly anhydrous atmosphere thanks to the three Ar-Dehumidifying Technology elements: drying capsule, EDR seals and protective gas filling.” More recently, Montblanc came up with the idea to simply replace the air inside the watch case with nitrogen for the “0 Oxygen” models (as a result, the last step of the assembly is taking place in a sealed box). While Montblanc’s inspiration clearly came from the world of extreme mountaineering, the goal was the same: “By removing oxygen from the case, the risks of condensation are mitigated, allowing enhanced performance when entering conditions where drastic fluctuations in atmospheric pressure and temperature are common.”
In 1959, Hans Ulrich Klingenberg had come up with a similar idea while working in sales for Glycine: a one-piece case construction that would allow Glycine to leave “out what everybody else lets in”: The Glycine Vacuum watch was “sealed by the pressure of the earth’s atmosphere, its one-piece case and tempered glass crystal” and promised to offer “the most absolute water protection of any watch.” According to Samuel Werner Glur, back then the manager of the Glycine an Altus Watch Factory Ltd., Bienne, Glycine had made regular checks “for a period of four years on a series of watches that were left all this time in a drawer.” Perhaps more importantly, Glycine had also developed a vacuum tank system, “permitting to vent the watches and to establish within them a stable decompression exceeding 95 per cent compared with the average atmospheric pressure.” For the next decade, vacuum watches became one of the specialties of the Swiss brand.
Klingenberg managed to get his idea patented in 1961 (CH355742A), other brands, obviously Altus being the first one after Glycine, followed soon after with the promise of “no more condensation” (like Jaquet + Girard with the Airvac). In 1966, Klingenberg founded the Vacuum Chronometer Corp. in Bienne which would launch its own Vacuum Chronometer in the early 70s and rebrand it under Century in 1975. In addition, the same model was sold as the Waltham Vacuum Automatic (which was voted the best watch from the brand sold in Japan in the year 1970), also offering “perfect tightness in a vacuum.”
In addition to the Vacuum Chronometer Corp., Klingenberg had also registered the Century Time Gems Ltd in Bienne in 1966, for which he’d come up with the “Megalith system”, “fusing two sapphire discs into a single, inseparable entity to create the watch case.” Today, Century is known for its hand-cut sapphire cases and is headed by Philip W. A. Klingenberg, the son of Hans Ulrich Klingenberg. The company’s workshops and headquarter are based in Nidau, a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
To celebrate the 60th anniversary “of its first great technological breakthrough,” Century decided to bringi back a re-edition of the Vacuum Chronometer in three versions (each limited to 88 pieces) – deep black (Ref. VAC.S.V.50i.S.S1), sky blue (Ref. VAC.S.V.9Li.S.S1), and golden brown (Ref. VAC.S.V.80i.S.S1). For the Mastersphere, the original vintage case and movement have been revived, while the bracelet, hands, and dials have been redesigned. Movement is a high-frequency automatic caliber (36,000 vph) based on the ETA 2837. Like its predecessor, the Mastersphere features a hermetically sealed monobloc case, “isolating the movement from dust, humidity, and oxygen — even from the ‘wear of time’ itself.”
The crystal is a 24-facet sapphire glass, creating a link to today’s Century.
Dimensions: ⌀ 36 mm, thickness: 9.7 mm
Case: stainless steel with faceted sapphire crystal
Water Resistance: 100 m
Movement: ETA 2837 with 40 hours of power reserve
Strap: stainless steel
Warranty: 36 months (extendable to 60 months)
Price: CHF 3,950
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