SpotlightGeneva Watch Days 2023: The Trilobe Nuit Fantastique Brume Takes Tradition Into The Future

With their unconventional approach to watchmaking, independent watchmaker Trilobe have managed to make themselves known in the world of high horology. This is impressive in an industry where watch brands bank on centuries of watchmaking savoir faire, and given that Trilobe was set up only in 2018, this recognition was no easy feat. At the Geneva Watch Days 2023 convention, the brand present their latest Nuit Fantastique Brume timepiece with the hours, minutes and seconds on wheels displayed beautifully against a Grain d’Orge guilloche pattern on the fixed watch face. The Nuit Fantastique Brume stands out for its combination of traditional watchmaking techniques and the brand’s progressive time-telling style with the wheels in constant motion.

How Trilobe Turns Time-Telling Around

Unlike a typical watch with moving hands, Trilobe’s timepieces feature wheels that move anti-clockwise around the dial, even as the three-lobed logo that serves as a timekeeping marker stays in place. The Nuit Fantastique, which translates to ‘fantastic night’, was the second timepiece released by Trilobe in 2021. It featured a grained pattern on the hours ring around the periphery of the watch, a smaller, off-centred circle with the minute displayed through an aperture, and a slightly larger, overlapping seconds circle, with the numerals on the ring in constant motion. In the centre of this seconds ring was a contrasting triangular Clous de Paris gulloche pattern that stood out starkly against the graining on the rest of the dial.

Patterned Mist Of The Nuit Fantastique Brume

For their latest Nuit Fantastique Brume timepiece, the straight triangular pattern on this seconds circle contrasts with the curved guilloche Grain d’Orge motif on the fixed part of the watch face. This pattern on the dial was created by a guilloche craftsman called on by the brand, with the starting point at the centre of the minutes aperture. Essentially, what the guilloche pattern does is play with light that falls on the dial, and the texture’s different angles change the way the colour is perceived in varying light. The Nuit Fantastique Brume’s dial is coloured in a shade of grey-brown that resembles the abstract shade of ‘mist’ the watch is named for (‘brume’). The graining on the silvered hours and minutes, and the azured effect on the periphery of the seconds ring contrast with the two distinct guilloche patterns on the dial, letting the traditional watchmaking craft shine through.

The straight triangular pattern on the Nuit Fantastique Brume's seconds circle contrasts with the curved guilloche Grain d’Orge motif on the fixed part of the watch face

Essentially, what the guilloche pattern does is play with light that falls on the dial, and the texture’s different angles change the way the colour is perceived in varying light

The 38.5mm version of the timepiece features a grade 5 titanium case in beautifully mirror polished finish alternating with a satin-brushed treatment, while the marginally larger 40.5mm timepieces are in similarly finished grade 5 titanium, or rose gold. Undoubtedly, the rose gold case, with matching accents on the dial, looks dressier than its sturdier and lighter sibling, but it does somewhat mute the effect of the patterned dial. The titanium versions are water resistant to 50m while the rose gold case has a 30m resistance rating.

Wheels That Turn The Nuit Fantastique Brume

Inside the watch is the automatic X-Centric calibre designed and created by the French brand that normally operates from Switzerland. However, in this instance, the mechanism behind the Nuit Fantastique Brume was developed entirely in the French capital, where Trilobe recently inaugurated their workshop. As a result, a signature on the display caseback proudly reads ‘Paris-France’, instead of the brand’s previous ‘Swiss-made’ tag. Driven by a micro-rotor, the movement offers a 48-hour power reserve.

The Grain d'Orge pattern on the dial was created by a guilloche craftsman called on by Trilobe, with the starting point at the centre of the minutes aperture

Inside the watch is the automatic X-Centric calibre designed and created entirely in Paris. As a result, a signature on the display caseback proudly reads ‘Paris-France’

Careful planning and execution of textures and finishes define the aesthetic of Trilobe’s Nuit Fantastique Brume, resulting in a watch that beautifully melds the grandeur of the past and the innovations for the future. And Trilobe present a watch that looks like a piece of art on the wrist with its guilloche patterns and unconventional time-telling discs. One almost can’t wait to see what Trilobe have in store for the future.