PIERRE DEROCHE,

the story of a couple

It is a sine qua non in watchmaking. The entire mechanism depends on it. A subtle balance between power and delicacy that regulates the passage and accuracy of time. What is it? the couple, two equal forces that complement, even oppose, each other. A story of the moment of force.

In mechanics, the moment of force is predetermined. For the initiated, it is a logical and tangible sequence, for amateurs pure mechanical magic. But ‘couple’ can also refer to a shared life. The same parameters, the same actions, but the alchemy is all the more beautiful for being so rare.

Like everything, it begins elsewhere: the rotor produces the energy and winds the mainspring. That is where the power lies! The gears start turning and drive one another. The first rotation; the first vibration. The hours and minutes engage. But at Pierre DeRoche things are otherwise; this system would be too easy. What is their secret? The seconds! It is the arithmetic of the royal retro – 6 x 10 – that makes the difference.

The Story of Pierre & Carole could also have been like any other. But it was love at first sight. They had attended the same school in the Vallée de Joux, but a difference in age kept them apart. Everything changed one evening in Le Lieu. she was 18, he 23; they met and everything fell into place. They had the impression that they had always known each other. And they have been together ever since. Their compatibility became their strength and hastened what followed.

The perfect combination? Watchmakers are constantly seeking it, experimenting and testing parts – as well as their talent. Relationships between couples are also seriously tested, laying bare their different per- sonalities and interactions. But there will always be an element of mystery that is beyond comprehension but on which harmony depends… and which makes the mechanics of the relationship so unique.

First the content: theorems, principles, axioms. In watchmaking, the projection is measured, calculated, uncompromising. The fundamental feature for ensuring that the Pierre DeRoche complication evokes wonder whenever it is seen: a minute is measured by a relay of six retrograde seconds hands. Its secret is revealed through the ab- sence of a dial… a carrier, like a central force, drives – over six 10-second periods each – a series of wheels that activate a rack. Pivoting on a ruby, the rack acts on the strip spring, which becomes taut as it moves slightly. It resists for ten seconds before the carrier lets go. The retrograde seconds hand then returns to its original position and passes the baton on to the next one. and so on.