When the Czapek Antarctique Terre Adélie first launched in 2020, you could feel the watchmaking world’s breath catch in its throat. This was big news. We were witnessing the birth of a legend. For too long, we’d laboured in the long shadow cast by Gerald Genta’s brilliance. Suddenly, a new luxury steel sports watch with an integrated bracelet that somehow looked like everything and nothing else was available. Things, thankfully, would never be the same again.
Fratello × Czapek Antarctique Passage de Drake Viridian Green 50-piece limited edition - Credit Czapek
If there was one thing wrong with the original Antarctique (other than a slightly dodgy click spring setup that has since been upgraded to improve winding security and power reserve retention) it was its limitation. The Terre Adélie’s luscious lustrous lamé dials were a finishing fan’s dream. Available in silver, blue, black, and red, they were the cherry on top of Adrian Buchmann’s stunning case and bracelet design. They were the horizontal corrugations of the Patek Philippe Nautilus. They were the Tapisserie pattern of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. They were the artfulness amidst the architectural elements that made the Antarctique a stone-cold show-stopper.
However, a limitation of just 99 pieces per dial was never going to be enough. That proved the case as the model sold out before many of us had finished counting our pennies (or non-essential organs). The Passage de Drake model soon followed, but the lamé had been replaced by the “Stairway to Eternity” flinqué pattern. The new pattern had a bit more bite. It was more aggressive and angular. Like the case, it had a sportier, more masculine vibe. But it wasn’t quite as beguiling as the lamé, and I think we all knew that.
Fratello × Czapek Antarctique Passage de Drake Viridian Green 50-piece limited edition - Credit Czapek
Initially, the Stairway to Eternity dial was presented with shorter hour indices and an Arabic numeral indicating 12 o’clock. A separate minute track that allowed for clear time indication without disrupting the stamped flinqué pattern had been added, creating distance between the case’s inner edge and the peripheral tips of the hour markers. I personally lamented the dismissal of the “double claw” index at 12 and the elegantly elongated indexes of the Terre Adélie and so proposed to Xavier de Roquemaurel, Czapek’s beloved CEO and #1 brand ambassador that we collaborate on a new version of the Passage de Drake that blended the dial furniture of the Terre Adélie with the new, more dramatic pattern of the PdD.
The result of our shared endeavour was the Fratello × Czapek Antarctique Passage de Drake Viridian Green 50-piece limited edition. It sold out in 37 minutes and seemed to convince Xavier and co. that it possessed the best combination of dial elements for the PdD line. Subsequently, the long index dial was added to the catalogue and eventually became the default option for the Passage de Drake pieces that followed.
Since then, we’ve seen several new colours and styles come and go, but the lamé finish still haunted us all. The guarantee that those models would never be made again had hamstrung the brand during the early stage of its rapid growth because although there was an obvious way to bring that delightful dial finish back (in a precious metal case), it wouldn’t make sense to the consumer until the brand had built up its reputation sufficiently to drop an all-gold interpretation thereof.
Luckily, that time is now.
Czapek Antarctique Mount Erebus - Credit Czapek
Over the past two years, Czapek has done its best to navigate a tricky landscape only partly of its own making. The boom times of the pandemic saw the brand close its order books after requests raced past four figures (and then some). The brand, which has made no secret of its collaboration with partners — or “friends” of the brand as it likes to call them — in the creation of its wares, decided it was time to start moving certain elements of production in-house to better control waiting times and to deliver on the orders that, while unfulfilled, remain unconfirmed.
What a strange limbo in which to exist for so long. Czapek, undoubtedly one of the greatest success stories of modern times, had “sold” more watches than it needed to sell in five years in one, and yet, the unexpected acceleration of interest in its products meant it wasn’t actually able to finalise those sales until much later.
Czapek Antarctique Mount Erebus - Credit Czapek
And that created another problem: how do you continue to grow a brand and add nuance to its story when you haven’t got any watches to sell? You can’t simply stop announcing novelties because then you’ll drop off the radar and by the time the “sold” pieces are ready for delivery, you’ll have cancellations aplenty because many customers will have lost interest.
And so you have to announce novelties that add to the brand, that grow the value of that which has gone before, and maybe, just maybe, step up the price point significantly enough to encourage previous backers to stick at the level they bought in at (so you don’t simply have hundreds of buyers moving over from one model to another and throwing your production plans for a loop), and to enable you to drop an absolutely mega upgrade to the inaugural model when the time is right…
Czapek Antarctique Mount Erebus - Credit Czapek
The Czapek Antarctique Mount Erebus in full rose gold with its deep blue lamé dial is that piece. While its retail price is €55,000 — more than €30,000 more than the standard stainless steel Antarctique pieces still available in the collection — the current price of gold goes some way to explaining that (alongside the €36,000 price tag of the Antarctique Revelation released last year setting the stage for bigger and bolder ticket prices).
As an object, I’ve seen few better. The Antarctique has been my favourite luxury sports watch design for a long time and working on a limited edition release was the greatest privilege of my career. I have to say, however, that this model blows my own efforts and every previous effort out of the water. It’s incredible. I feel almost as excited as I did when I first held the Terre Adélie prototype, knowing then as I know now that we’re looking at something very special indeed.
Will the market conditions fall for the Mount Erebus in the same way as they did for the Terre Adélie? No, not a chance. These are trying times and this is a tough sell at €55K in any climate, let alone this one. But is it divine? Is it a worthy return for the lamé finish? Yes, it couldn’t be better. I wish this model, limited to 100 pieces as it is, all the success in the world, and I simply cannot wait to see what other executions of the lamé surface finish Czapek has in mind to deploy on this new and ultra-luxurious platform.
Technical Specifications
- Brand: Czapek
- Model: Antarctique Mount Erebus
- Price: €55,000 (excluding taxes) or €32,600 on the rubber strap with gold folding buckle
- Material: Solid 5N rose gold
- Movement: Proprietary SXH5.01 micro-rotor calibre
- Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, and date
- Crystal: Sapphire crystals front and back
- Case dimensions: 40.5 mm wide, 10.9 mm tall, with water resistance to 100 metres
- Bracelet: Solid 5N rose gold
- Availability: 100 pieces with 30 made available on Czapek’s website and the remainder through the brand’s trusted retailer network
