Golfers
have been keenly awaiting the launch of this exceptional timepiece,
which will enable them to keep a tally of their strokes throughout
the game. Romain Jérôme Watches has created this model
especially for them. With its movement and styling designed exclusively
with golf in mind, the dial is immediately identifiable as the
tee-off green of an 18-hole course. Its creator, Alain Bajulaz,
explains how this long-standing dream of a student of watchmaking
became a reality. |
|
Created
by a self-taught watchmaker
After studying precision mechanics and electronics in Geneva, and working on
projects to develop the first quartz watches for Timepiece Electronic by Motorola,
followed by a commission for Girard-Perregaux, Alain Bajulaz left the world of
watchmaking to strike out into information technology and create his own company,
which today employs 30 people. As a happy father of four children (two girls
and two boys) whose first names have been associated to create the name of the
company, he began to knock a few little white balls about without ever imagining
that golf would one day become the spearhead of his business.
An artist who dreams and boils over with new ideas, Bajulaz is a self-taught
watchmaker. It was at a gala evening held by Franck Müller that quite
by chance he met a friend, Jean-Marc Wiederecht, from his days at the mechanical
engineering school, whom he had not seen for over 20 years and for whom he
later developed the case of a watch built with golf in mind.
This timepiece very quickly acquired a strong identity. When he filed an application
for a patent on the GMT Golf Counter, Bajulaz discovered that a similar concept
had already been developed back in the twenties. In partnership with a leading
Genevan family of financiers, he went on to take the strong concept of his
product forward in his own time and to launch it on the relatively saturated
Swiss watchmaking market in March 2005.
Innovative timekeeping technology
Turning now to technology and golf with the brand’s beacon product, Golf
Master Time: the pushpiece (the horns symbolize a golf club head) at 10 o’clock
actuates the left-hand counter, which indicates the hole to be played. Whenever
it is pressed, the hand moves one step onwards. The right-hand counter is simultaneously
and automatically reset to zero. The crown, with a honeycomb structure reminiscent
of a golf ball, enables the mechanism to be wound, the hours and minutes set
and the counter at 6 o’clock reset to zero.
The back has a sapphire crystal revealing the central pastille, hand-engraved
with the RJ logo. The engraved back cap bears the number of the timepiece
and series. Blued, black or rhodium-plated hands machined from solid metal,
a Barenia calf leather or Mississippi alligator strap of the finest quality
with big scales, hand-stitched, with a single or double folding clasp in
18 carat gold and a safety pushpiece engraved with the letters RJ complete
this unique timepiece with exacting standards and minimum indulgence for
a product that stands out so distinctly from a market of big historic brands,
well established throughout the collectors’ world.
A further technical prowess reflecting the designer’s philosophy is the
Master Tourbillon, with a manufactured tourbillon movement and an upper cage
bar consisting of a number of highly complex components recalling the game
of golf.
Looking forward with optimism
The Romain Jérôme brand has already been exceptionally well received
by golf devotees and has sponsored a number of events and tournaments in 2005.
Alain Bajulaz therefore regards the future potential as highly encouraging.
Bajulaz looks forward to 2006 with quiet optimism. The master has set himself
the goal of supervising the production of between 100 and 150 individual timepieces
down to the finest detail. His second aim is to design and launch a ladies
watch, with sapphires or rubies on the dial, variable not only to suit the
aesthetic taste of each wearer but also her golfing prowess—a goal he
will no doubt achieve. |
