Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève 2022
10 November 2022 / Event
Trilobe wins the prize "Petite Aiguille" at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie in Geneva
“Petite Aiguille” for a watch with no hands
After being nominated for three consecutive years for the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, our watch “Nuit Fantastique Dune” won on November 10, 2022. The jury rewarded Trilobe’s creative and daring spirit with the “Petite Aiguille” prize for a watch without hands, but with confidence. Offering an intuitive reading of the time, our “Nuit Fantastique” is a proud representative of our House: “Hands less but with a sprinkle of magic”. Classic in its refinement, offbeat and contemporary, with a disruptive and singular reading of the time. This prize is certainly an emblematic stage of maturity for Trilobe.
A look back at our first trilogy
We are proud to receive this award, at the dawn of our 4th year. On December 17, 2018, Gautier Massonneau launched, at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Paris, the inaugural series “Les Matinaux”, after three years of research & development. By doing so, he turned the traditional world of Swiss watchmaking upside down with eccentrically designed automatic watches.
After Les Matinaux, the Nuit Fantastique and Une Folle Journée complete the French trilogy. With the same technical and aesthetic signature. Between minimalism and eccentric use of hours, minutes and seconds. Morning, Noon and Evenings, these three collections are also completed by a personalized edition, “Secret”, and based on the signature automatic movement, the X-Centric Trilobe calibre.
La Réciproque Clock
15 september 2021 / Collaboration
"La Réciproque" Clock
Trilobe by Daniel Buren
For Only Watch 2021 edition, Trilobe and Daniel Buren have decided to offer a unique creation, based on a singular and meaningful collaboration.
It is from a desire for reciprocity that the Trilobe by Daniel Buren project was born: to combine a young watchmaking House with one of the most recognised Artist on the international scene. Around a scarlet beating heart, imagine a duality between the technicality of the watchmaker and the unique proposal of the Artist in an immediate dialogue with the “X-Centricity” of Trilobe. Daniel Buren and Trilobe have fun with their encounter: opposing forms and colours, disturbing the view, questioning the mind. Art and watchmaking oppose and meet each other, in reciprocal forces.
La réciproque
Forms, colours and meanings find their reciprocal,
Hours, minutes and seconds dance around each other,
Black and White marry to the beating of a red heart,
Verticality is amused by circularity,
The frantic race of the “X-Centric” rings overlaps the verticality of the 8.7cm wide strips,
Colours leave and find each other again,
Shapes finally align themselves twice a day only,
At the time when it all began, the time of the first meeting of Daniel Buren & Trilobe, at 02:13pm.
The D-Centric Calibre
Designed as the scarlet beating heart of the work, this mechanical calibre is unlike any other. It combines the architectural codes dear to Trilobe with the artistic vision of the Sculptor Daniel Buren. A real technical challenge, it took several months of development to create this unique calibre, designed in France and entirely handmade by Swiss watchmakers in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. inspired by Trilobe’s signature X-Centric Calibre, each part has been recalibrated to the scale of this unique clock, to allow the display of the hours, the minutes and the seconds by rotating rings and fixed indicators. In the purest horological tradition, the clock is equipped with a constant-force escapement, while the barrel has been doubled to provide an eight-day power reserve. It features the excellent finishes of traditional watchmaking, with hand-polishing, bevelled bridges, as well as sunburst barrels and a sandblasted plate.
Daniel Buren
Considered one of the most recognised French Artist on the international scene, Daniel Buren has had nearly 3,000 exhibitions around the world. including Monumenta at the Grand Palais (2012), the Observatory of Light at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (2016), “Les Deux Plateaux” in the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais Royal, the Venice Biennale on more than 10 occasions with the Golden Lion in 1986 or the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2005, without forgetting the memorable exhibition using all the available spaces, on the rooftops, in the basement, in the caterpillar, on the balconies, at the Pompidou Centre in 2002. In 2007, Daniel Buren was awarded the Praemium Imperiale of Japan for his work, the highest honour in the field of the visual arts.
Only Watch 2023
July 18, 2023 / Event
Une Folle Journée Réconciliation
Trilobe and the art of Kintsugi
Trilobe is honored to be taking part in the 10th edition of Only Watch, a charity auction created in 2005 in support of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The auction has already raised nearly 100 million euros for research into muscular dystrophy and neuromuscular and genetic diseases. 2023 marks the Brand’s third participation. For this occasion, Trilobe has chosen to transform its latest creation “Une Folle Journée” into a singular timepiece echoing the philosophy of Only Watch.
13 years after coming across the Japanese art of Kintsugi (金 継 ぎ) while in Tokyo, Gautier Massonneau, Founder and Creative Director of Trilobe, decided to draw from it to create a unique piece, “Réconciliation”. This art consists of repairing broken objects with gold. A profoundly inspiring philosophy: instead of rejecting damaged objects, Kintsugi considers that their scars carry stories that deserve to be valued. The radiance of gold, a noble and precious material, gracefully reconciliates beauty and imperfection, transforming these wounds into a symphony of light.
The story of this piece thus transcends physical mechanics and plunges its readers into the realms of philosophical contemplation. With its exposed fractures, this timepiece bears witness to the passage of time. Like the tribulations of life that shape us, this unique creation pays tribute to the journey it has undertaken – a transformative odyssey where it has been intentionally broken, emerging even more precious and captivating.
The impact marks on the rings and the movement are handmade by a craftsman watchmaker who achieves a hammered effect finish on the bridges, the plate and the symbolic rings. The damaged parts are then gilded by hand with gold leaves. This piece of art thus resonates with Only Watch’s profound philosophy of seeing beauty in all things.
In the field of watchmaking, where precision and perfection reign supreme, the Trilobe “Une Folle Journée” collection stands out for its unique expression of time and embodies a new narrative in the art of watchmaking. At the heart of this collection lies a captivating innovation, that challenges traditional codes. Featuring a 10.2 mm high sapphire dome, the watch shows three rotating rings, representing the hours, minutes and seconds, set in motion by a system of pillars.
A unique piece, the “Réconciliation”, will be sold at the 10th edition of Only Watch, on 5 November 2023, in Geneva.
Trilobe @ Time For Art
12 December 2022 / Event
Trilobe @ Time For Art
On December 10 and 11, 2022, in New York, took place the first ever auction of watches to benefit contemporary art and its artists. 100% of the proceeds is donated to them, through the Swiss Institute.
This event highlights the close ties between the worlds of art and watchmaking, through the sale of pieces with unique and innovative designs that reveal the singular vision of their creator.
Trilobe for the occasion sold a limited edition at $16, 380 which was estimated at $6,000-12,000.
Nuit Fantastique Désert, a unique piece
Trilobe is supporting the Time For Art auction by redesigning its Nuit Fantastique collection with a «Desert» edition.
“Nuit Fantastique” is a proud representative of the House, of its creativity and audacity: classic in its purity, offbeat and contemporary, with a disruptive and novel reading of the time.
For this edition, the iconic grained dial has been given the color of desert sand, appreciated for its elegance and sophistication. Underlining and sublimating the symbol of infinity through a contrast of colors, the grained dial awakens under the light of polished and satin-finished angles, like grains of sand in a desert lit by a radiant sun.
Designed for a grade 5 titanium case, the Desert Edition of the Nuit Fantastique collection pays tribute to the purity of Trilobe’s design. It embodies with finesse and style a timeless and refined luxury, for an offbeat watch creation.
The complicity between Art and Trilobe
From its conception, Trilobe has placed art at the heart of its DNA. Like a work of art, Trilobe aspires through its watches to make people feel emotions by telling stories in a new form based on even more innovative techniques.
Trilobe has been inspired by literature, René Char, Stefan Zweig or Beaumarchais, for their works that take an opposite view of the world we live in, in order to propose a new reading of time.
Architecture is also a great source of inspiration for Trilobe and is reflected in its designs. The name of the brand is borrowed from a universal and timeless architectural motif echoing the three pillars of time.
Thus, Trilobe has never ceased to strengthen its affinity with the world of the arts, and in particular with contemporary art. One example is its unique collaboration with Daniel Buren, one of the most recognized French artists on the international scene, for the 2021 edition of the Only Watch charity auction.
