14
Mar
2018

Phase 2 , chapter 8

PROJECT X41 – EXCLUSIVE MANUFACTURE MOVEMENT

It’s already been a few a months since we started work on the slightly crazy project of designing a spectacular manufacture movement brimming with mechanical magic, all at an affordable price.

You needn’t look further than Switzerland to find the finest experts in this type of movement. Having chosen one of the best manufacturers of movements in the country, we are now working on the architecture of our future movement.

There’s a good chance that the end result will be quite different, but here is a preliminary sketch to give you some insight into the direction we are looking to take.

FUNCTIONS: Hours, minutes, seconds (potentially a power reserve for the manual version)
CHARACTERISTICS: Precision – between +2 and +10 seconds per day / 46 hour power reserve

WHAT MAKES THE X41 PROJECT SO SPECIAL?

  • A unique opportunity to take part in the development of the first community-exclusive movement
  • The chance to wear a watch fitted with an exceptional movement that showcases the finest watchmaking expertise while retaining a reasonable price.
  • Fully designed, manufactured and assembled in Switzerland
  • Featuring architecture and design reserved exclusively for the CODE41 community
  • Each part (except the regulating mechanism) machined specifically for CODE41.
  • Exclusive peripheral oscillating weight (for the automatic version)
  • Approximate retail price of $ 3’500 / € 3’045 with comparable models costing around $ 15’000 / € 13’045

EXCLUSIVE PERIPHERAL OSCILLATING WEIGHT

Skeleton movements often require manual rewinding, as an oscillating weight – and the various gears one requires – would “obstruct” the transparency and make the whole watch thicker. This is why our partner has developed an exclusive peripheral weight which provides all the advantages of an automatic watch while preserving the beauty, transparency and delicacy of a manual movement.

The concept of a peripheral weight has already been explored by a number of brands, but has often been abandoned because the ball bearing was too loud and not very efficient. Our case is different as, following several years of development, these problems have been resolved through machining and managing the finishing (hardening, buffing) of the components in-house to ensure the perfect size and finish. In addition, the bearing is mounted on a vibration damper to limit the noise and absorb shocks.

WHAT ARE THE PRODUCTION COSTS?

COMPONENT COST ORIGIN
MANUAL MOVEMENT $ 1,100 / € 957 (minimum 500 units) SWISS
AUTO MOVEMENT (peripheral weight) $ 1,400 / € 1,217 (minimum 500 units) SWISS
STEEL CASE, TRANSPARENT CASEBACK $ 80 / € 70 CHINESE
LEATHER STRAP, DEPLOYMENT CLASP $ 30 / € 26 ITALIAN/CHINESE
ASSEMBLY $ 30 / € 26 SWISS
PACKAGING $ 15 / € 13 CHINESE

WHAT WILL THE RETAIL PRICES BE?

STEEL CASE – X41 MANUAL
MANUFACTURE MOVEMENT

COST OF PRODUCTION Approx. $ 1,255 / € 1,090
FUTURE RETAIL PRICE Approx. $ 4,390 / € 3,817
SPECIAL LAUNCH PRICE Approx. $ 3,290 / € 2,860

STEEL CASE – X41 AUTOMATIC
MANUFACTURE MOVEMENT

COST OF PRODUCTION Approx. $ 1,555 / € 1,352
FUTURE RETAIL PRICE Approx. $ 5,440 / € 4,730
SPECIAL LAUNCH PRICE Approx. $ 3,990 / € 3,470

HOW WILL WE BE ABLE TO OFFER SUCH LOW PRICES?

Our aim is to offer you a retail price of approximately $ 3’500 / € 3’045, while comparable watches cost around $ 15’000 / € 13’045, or even more. So how can we offer such low prices?

  1. The design of each component of the movement has been fully optimized.
  2. We want to order 500 movements, allowing us to reduce costs by around 35% compared to smaller quantities.
  3. Our policies of total transparency, a fixed profit multiplier and simplified distribution enable us to cut out the middlemen and pass the savings on to you.

SO? WHO’S INTERESTED?

As usual it’s you, dear members, who will decide whether or not this exceptional movement will see the light of day. For this project to be viable, we will need to produce an initial series of 200 watches.

RESULTS OF VOTES:

Yes, I’m all for it! And I want to be one of the first to buy an X41.
533 votes
Yes, it’s a great project, but I’m not thinking about buying one at the moment.
1,306 Votes
No, I don’t think this project is a good idea.
123 Votes

MANUAL OR AUTOMATIC?

MANUAL REWINDING
LAUNCH PRICE: APPROX. $ 3,290 / € 2,860

  • 308
  • 475

AUTOMATIC REWINDING
WITH PERIPHERAL WEIGHT
LAUNCH PRICE: APPROX. $ 3,990 / € 3,470

  • 1607
  • 48

THE STAGES OF THE PROJECT

There’s still some work to do, but we’d like to launch for pre-orders in March 2019. As you know, we need at least 200 members to support this project to be able to launch production.

14 March, 2018: Preliminary ideas
18 April, 2018: Integration of big date
31 Oct, 2018: Construction of the movement
5 Dec, 2018: Development of the design
6 February, 2019: Finalization
March, 2019: Launch for pre-orders

NEXT CHAPTER, 6 FEB: PROJECT X41 - UPDATE

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  5. luques.jean-philippe@neuf.fr says:

    Oui le dateur est en effet un incontournable sur une montre mécanique. Les quartiers lunaires serais un plus ,àinsi que des repaires phosphorescent ou bio-luminnescent seraient un plus de de visibilité et une clin d’œil moderne et écologique de part la bio luminescence.Personnellement un bleu acier flamė serait du plus bel effet sur le boîtier, lui apptant une touche artisanale (parole de forgeron !!!)Jean-Philippe Luques (un forgeron passionné de sciences et technique novatrices ainsi que d’écologie ).Avez vous pensez à l’utilisation d’un systeme a moteur où mouvement magnétique de type Tesla (Nikolas ).Ce serait le point d’orgue de cette montre d’exception et la preuve d’une maîtrise de la miniaturisation ;voyez les moteur magnétiques Minato au Japon.Je pense que cest adaptable à l’horlogerie avec de métaux non magnétiques,comme le titane combiné à des pieces en carbone et en céramique.Je ne suis pas horloger et ne connais pas grand choses à cette mécanique magique , mais j’aime les belles choses, les montres en particulier si elles sont novatrices.
    Un passionné. Mon e-mail : luques.jean-philippe@neuf .Merci d’avoir pris le temps de lire les divagations d’un doux rêveur passionné de technologie.

    Reply
  6. ncdard@orange.fr says:

    bonjour, je trouve votre projet intéressant j’attends plus de précision pour envisager un achat investissement
    à vous lire
    cordialement

    Reply
  7. philippe.coulmont@gmail.com says:

    Je possède un squelette automatique. effectivement la problématique est la lisibilité de la lecture a tout les moments et ceux de manière rapide et sure. pour l’histoire, j’ai raté mon train d’une heure, alors maintenant pour les moments important je relis deux fois l’heure. Il est crucial de poser 12 rubis ou autre pour lire l’heure. J’aime le design épuré et actuel.

    Reply
  8. GENIN says:

    Le dateur me paraît également important, et un règlement avec PayPal un intérêt non négligeable.
    J’ai un regret, ne pas avoir su que vous organisiez une contribution pour monter votre projet…

    Reply
  10. Laurent says:

    Même si pas forcément utile, la date oui, pourquoi pas indiquée par une aiguille sur un anneau excentrique ou périphérique….

    Reply