When it comes to watchmaking, it’s usually a marathon not a sprint. Bringing a model to life is a lesson in patience, and, well, timing. A tale we often hear about how a watch came to be starts with a chance meeting, some curiosity or perhaps even instant synergy, and then intention and hard work. This echoes the origin story of the new Atelier Wen x Massena LAB Inflection Shuò, the brainchild of William Massena, founder of Massena LAB, along with Robin Tallendier and Wilfried Buiron, the co-founders of Atelier Wen.
The collaboration takes the name “Shuò,” from the Chinese character 烁, which can be translated as “sparkling,” “glittering,” or “radiant.” This aptly describes the shimmering and reflective qualities of hand tremblage – the rare and demanding decorative craft that graces the dial. For the new collaboration, the technique has been entirely executed by hand engraving specialist Coralie Mercier on behalf of GT Cadrans. To achieve the beautiful finish, Mercier pushes a graver across the 18-karat gold surface of the dial while continuously oscillating it. This meticulous work slowly develops a texture thanks to thousands of tiny irregular facets.
The tremblage portion of the main dial plate lays the foundation with a radially brushed sector of either white gold or rose gold creating a border. The smooth contrast of this portion around the periphery houses the hour markers. Here, the brands offer a playful twist on the California dial layout with a mix of custom serif Arabic numerals for hours 10 through 2 and hand-calligraphed Chinese numerals commissioned by Atelier Wen for hours 4 to 8, all of which are blue-filled to match the blued-steel hour, minute, and second hands. For continuity, the outer sector ring is finished with more hand tremblage and framed by a finely engraved huiwen border, a classic Chinese decorative motif named for its resemblance to the Chinese character 回.
As if tackling the rigorous technique of tremblage was not enough, the case and integrated bracelet have been meticulously crafted from tantalum – a notoriously difficult metal to machine and finish. The difficulty of working with tantalum is further heightened by the design language of the Atelier Wen x Massena LAB Inflection Shuò. Here, the 40mm tantalum case and bracelet are inspired by Chinese architectural forms, which are centralized around curves and feature almost no flat planes whatsoever. However, if the full bracelet look isn’t quite your style, there’s also the option of either a blue or a grey sailcloth strap.
Beating at the heart of the model is a customized caliber GP03300 from Girard-Perregaux. Here, attention to detail continues with the curved, sweeping lines of the bridges taking inspiration from the depiction of wind found in historical Chinese paintings.
The white gold dial version is offered exclusively to established clients of either brand in a highly limited run of just 10 pieces. Alternatively, the rose gold dial variation is available to the public with production capped at 40 pieces. Both iterations are priced at $44,100. For more information you can go directly over to either Atelier Wen or Massena LAB.
