4K Czapek FAUBOURG DE CRACOVIE | Patek Czapek & Cie?

www.exquisitetimepieces.com

Czapek as a brand deserves way more recognition. A brand that has such a rich history yet once again lacks in marketing. It's sad to see when you get a brand that produces high quality haute horology pieces get little to no recognition because they fail at communicating with their collectors and customers.

My brutal honesty comes from the fact I am a huge fan of the brand & I feel frustrated by the fact they could compete with the big dogs in terms of quality and history.

Allow me to give you an example. I bet unless you are a hard-core collector you've never heard of the brand. Furthermore, I bet most that see the brand in passing don't know they were actually the first partners of Patek before Phillipe. Yup, on May 1, 1839, Antoni Patek and François Czapek established a six-year partnership in Geneva under the name of Patek, Czapek & Cie. Making watches for important collections such as King Farooq.

So why am I hyping up Czapek? Is this a paid ad from the brand? No it isn't, the video is infact sponsored by Exquisite Timepieces. But as you know I have complete freedom to be as brutally honesty as I need to.

The watch we have infront of us is the Czapek FAUBOURG DE CRACOVIE. named after the location of Czapek’s boutique in Warsaw.

In order to truly appreciate the work of Czapek. We need to look very close at the details. Let's start with the deep blue dial with the “Resonance” guilloché pattern.

The dial base is made of a gold aloy, silver, palladium and platinum. The reason behind this mixture is to get the precise hardness for the gilliochue process.

It also provides a suitable cath-ode for the dial colouring process. This is achieved by something called gal-vano-plastie (which is a kind of electroplating) Giving an exceptional dial that could only be truly appreciated in real life. Rarely have I seen such exceptional finishing on the dial, the only watch that comes to mind is the Grönefeld Remontoire with the Kari Voutlainin dial. A watch that became my Ultimate grail...

The hands tho very well finished, I feel has some minor ruff finishing that I feel could have been better. At this price I expected more. Although only crazy watch nuts put watches at this extreme macro, I have been spoiled with the likes of Grand Seiko and A Lange Söhne with their finishing of litterally every hand, screw, indicies and so on.

The case is made out of stainless steel and has some exceptional finishing and a very sharp and unique design. The sides have a frosted finishing contrasting with the polished case. You can also see the sides are deeply sucken in which gives the watch more depth therefore making the case as interesting to look at as the dial. Well for me atleast. Needless to say the case finishing is flawless. The pushers are crown form a bridge like construction protecting themselves from damage. Genius design but a negative for those whole like traditional chronographs. This is a sports watch so functionally I prefer this.

At 41.5mm by 48mm lug to lug the watch fits very comfortably on my 6 and half inch wrist. The 13.8mm thickness adds sportiness although not slim by any means. Personally I like the thickness given the fact it isn't a dress watch. Not to mention automatic chronographs are usually on the thicker side

50 meters of water resistance on this piece which is more than enough for day to day life. I wouldn't take this diving. Infact I wouldn't take any watch over $10,000 diving.

Caliber SXH3: an integrated automatic Chronograph movement that is technically inhouse designed but made by Vaucher specifically for Czapek. COSC certified ofc. Tested twice.

The SXH3 is finely sandblasted and diamond polished around the bridges.

Power reserve: 65 hours

Frequency: 5 Hz - 36'000 VpH

Column Wheel, Vertical Clutch and Linear Hammer.

The movement also houses a Golden Rotor with Czapek logo