Newer brand Cyrus is one worth taking note of, and I finally got some hands-on experience with their flagship watch model called the Klepcys (I first wrote about it here). The piece was dreamed up by the brand and brought to life by the talented Jean-Francois Mojon – who helped explain some of the intricacies of the watch to me. In short, it is a highly-functional exotic watch with a welcome contemporary character.
Mr. Mojon sits as one of the few top indie watch movement developers around today. Many brands solicit him for work and I have a feeling that he only takes on projects that he likes. These days, dreaming up cool new ways to indicate the time is very en vogue. Mixing special hands with retrograde indicators is especially valued. The Klepcys does all that. The time is indicated via two moving discs and a retrograde hour hand that doubles as a day/night indicator. The system is very cool.
The inner most disc is the seconds indicator. Outside of that is the minute ring. You read the minutes at the hour hand which sits next to both the current hour as well as where you read the minutes. In the video you’ll see just what I mean. The hour hand is a bit like a small cubic rod. There is yellow on one side and blue on the the other. It spins around between day and night cycles. I thought that was pretty cool. On the left of the face is a retrograde date indicator and moon phase. Both of these indicators are special as well.
For the date, the Klepcys once again uses a spinning cubic hand. It has the numerals 0-3 on it, and operates to indicate the first digit of the date. It moves along a 0-9 scale to indicate the second digit of the date. Very simple but wonderfully executed. The moonphase is a beautiful little item that starts with a detailed golden moon orb. It has a hood that moves around it in order to indicate the phase of the moon. Detailing is wonderful, and I love how Mojon intentionally exposed some of the mechanics behind the movement. It is like a non-skeletonized dial that still celebrates the fact that it contains a mechanical movement.
The movement inside the Cyrus Klepcys is the caliber CYR598. I was surprised to learn that it is in fact an automatic. There is a micro rotor hidden in there somewhere – I believe under the retrograde date display. Mechanically the Klepcys is quite a special watch and I love the innovations as well as display of time and other indicators. Very cool to view and operate.
The dial itself is also an area of interest. It won’t appeal to everyone, but the combination of textures and level makes it feel like a very high end item. Detailing is very cool, and the pieces are nicely made. I didn’t spot poorly made pieces or improperly machined textures. It is also nice to see a round dial in a cushion case – which you don’t much see in exotic complication watches.
The case itself has some very elegant finishing and details. One item to note is the gold coin replica on the back of the watch. Cyrus owns the original, and made miniature perfect copies of it that go into each watch. The original coin is an artifact that is over 2,500 years old. As I mentioned, the case is cushion shaped with wonderful effects on the side. The cases employs polished, brushed, and satin finishes on its various parts. The bezels are DLC coated black. Size is admirable at 48mm wide, but it wears very comfortably due to the short lugs. I love the abundance of textures and polishes all over the case and dial of the Klepcys.
Cyrus makes the watch available in 18k red gold, 18k gray gold, and titanium. Various versions of the watch have different finishes I believe. The integrated reptile strap is well done and I love the sharp looking clasp. Nothing boring there. With the Klepcys, Cyrus has set a high bar. As a first attempt for the brand, it is really very well done. They later released a less expensive chronograph watch called the Kuros. While neat, it doesn’t match the splendor of the Klepcys… but it is also much less expensive. With some quirks but a lot of personality and function, the Klepcys is a great example of a contemporary exotic complication wrist watch that should make enough people happy. Price is about $100,000.
