Going ahead with the recap of the Geneva event, it’s now the time to discover the novelties presented by Trilobe at Geneva Watch Days 2023. The Watchype Magazine team had the possibility to speak with the innovative French independent watchmaker.
Trilobe has an absolutely visionary approach to the way of living and telling time. Their design code is based on simplifying the various indicators as much as possible through the separation of hours, minutes and seconds and this approach can be seen among all of Trilobe’s watches (“Une Folle Journée”, “Les Martinaux”, and “Nuit Fantastique”). The novelty introduced by Trilobe at Geneva Watch Days 2023 comes with the “Nuit Fantastique” model that shows a green/grey dial made with a “guilloché” texture, a surface finish that reminds to Breguet and Jaeger-LeCoultre watches.

Honestly speaking, we have already seen a guilloché dial on the Trilobe Nuit Fantastique Limited Edition for the Dubai Watch Club or in collaboration with Hodinkee, but the new Trilobe Nuit Fantastique Brume Ref. NF05GB comes in larger numbers and with the “brume” dial colour. The new colour combined with the dial texture creates an incredible movement of shades that all rotates around the only two circular openings made inside the dial where the minutes and seconds can be seen. Moreover, depending on the sunlight, the colour of the dial can change to either green or grey tones. Trilobe perdectly succeeded in translating in the field of watchmaking what the great architect LeCorbusier said about architecture: “L’architecture est le jeu savant, correct et magnifique des volumes sous la lumière” (Architecture is the skilful, correct and magnificent game of volumes under the light).

The overall readability of the watch remains very clear and precise thanks to the X-Centric Calibre (Trilobe’s in-house movement) that exploits rotating rings instead of the classic central hands. Hours can be read by through the disk that rotates externally to the dial, while a decentralised rotating disk shows the running seconds and a dedicated window indicates the minutes. Despite this uncommon way of showing time, the confidence on the wrist is immediate. A small note, not to be ignored, on the case we find the inscription “Paris – France” to celebrate the displacement of in-house calibre production, from Switzerland to France.

The Trilobe Nuit Fantastique Brume shows the following main features:
- Self-winding mechanical calibre with micro-rotor
- 48 hours of power reserve
- Case made of grade 5 titanium
- Case diameter is available both with 40.5 mm and 38.5 mm
- Case thickness is 9.2 mm
- Multi-layered anti-reflective treatment (ARDUR)
- Mirror-polished surfaces alternating with satin-brushed treatments
- Water-resistance up to 5 bar
In addition to this novelty, we also had the pleasure to chat with the Trilobe team and trying out more of their watches on our wrists, including their high jewellery watch, the Trilobe “Une Folle Journée Diamant”. The watch is inspired by the ceiling of the Paris Opera house and the three rotating rings are entirely redesigned to accommodate 150 baguette diamonds, each one cut to fit into the rings. The limited space for the precious stones led the brand to develop an innovative setting process in collaboration with Paris expert gem-setters from Rue de la Paix, RJC certified. In addition, an evolution of material was essential to guarantee the performance and reliability of the movement. Indeed, on the “Une Folle Journée Diamant” titanium is replaced by an aluminium-silicon-magnesium alloy, whose lightness compensates for the weight of the diamonds and allows to set the rings in motion.

Dulcis in fundo, with the “Les Martinaux Secret” Trilobe takes watch customisation to a higher level. By providing them a specific date, place and time, they are able to obtain the related sky map and they can display it faithfully on the dial.

So, visiting Trilobe at Geneva Watch Days 2023 brought us to pay more attention to this independent watchmaker who gives value to every watch it creates through a new way of interpreting time.