If you've been reading Gear Patrol for the past few years, you may recall the news about an interesting French watch brand called Semper & Adhuc. The brand utilizes vintage movements in newly fabricated cases, similar to American brand Vortic. This was (and is) a pretty novel concept in wristwatches — and the brand even went so far as to allow the customer to decide on the crown orientation and dial color in its unusually shaped pieces. (Pretty cool, if you ask us.)
Well, the Semper & Adhuc have made it past their early Kickstarter days and are now a fully fledged French watchmaker, and to prove it, they've done something pretty special: brand founder Colin de Tonnac sourced movements from legendary French company LIP for integration into a new watch.
The Instantanée, limited to just 20 pieces, features the caliber R100, a simple (and very small) LIP caliber made between 1958 and 1970 that helped power that brand's watches during their heyday.
The Instantanée itself is beautiful: featuring a round, satin-finished steel case measuring 37mm, it's reminiscent of vintage pieces, though flipping it over reveals a neat "eyecup" that allows one to glimpse the vintage movement beating within. (What's even cooler is that the buyer can choose either a right- or left-side crown orientation.)
The dial is wildly cool, and double-signed: it bears both Semper & Adhuc and LIP's signatures. Grey with white and pink accents and thin stick hands, it's an exercise in minimalism that wouldn't be out of place on a piece from the 1960s.
The whole shebang, which is paired with a French leather strap from Bordeaux, can be custom engraved on the case back according to the customer's wishes. At ~$2,403, the Instantanée certainly isn't an impulse purchase, but rather one that should be appreciated by fans of French watchmaking, as well as folks who appreciate minimalism...and just plain ol' good design.
