Aqua Jade

The Dague is the offspring of the friendship between Andrea Marzari, who has been in the watch retail business since 1995 and in 2002 founded Lorologiese.com, and Alessandro Poggi, a seasoned watch collector and conaisseur,  The Dague comes out of the passion for  watchmaking, it is an unreasonable act of watch-love and the result of dedicated craftmanship.

Our offices and laboratory are located in Morcote, one of Switzerland`s most characteristic and attractive lakeside villages.

The case

We started from the coin-edge style and we developed to a more contemporary feel on the philosophy “less is best”, we modified some proportions, we added a sapphire glass and see-through back to show the watch`s beating heart, and we decided for Titanium, which is lighter than steel, anallergic, amagnetic, and it has an intense-grey hue.

the case diameter is 41.7 mm diameter and its thickness slightly less than 11mm. The result is a well proportioned watch, pleasantly on the thin side, which does not feel or look bulky and which is very comfortable to wear on most wrist sizes. The caseback is secured to the case via 4 screws and the front glass is a domed sapphire with anti-reflective coating on the inside. 

The movement : We needed The Dague`s  beating heart to be reliable, qualitative  and emotionally good looking. The starting point is an older generation of lepine movements, exceptional quality, hand-made, manufacture-grade, hand asssembled and hand finished movements whose production started way back in time, in 1908. These movements are nicely thin (3.75mm), they have six separate bridges, copper gaskets (chatons), a nice large bi-metallic open balance wheel with compensating screws, a deep-blue Breguet hairspring and an open manspring-barrel bridge. This look is different from that of most contemporary movements which tend to be smaller, to have fewer and closed bridges and smaller balance wheels. The amount of work necessary to re-create these movements is considerable, 60 hours per piece,  the decision to use these movement indicates that passion has won over common sense.

The Movement 

The original movements are 40 mm in diameter so we downsized the platine to the smallest possible diameter, which is 37,8mm, or 16,75 lignes. First the movement was given its first complete service, replacing all of the worn out parts like rubies, balance axes, main springs, screws.... 

The movements were then assembled, oiled, timed and tested for accuracy and the ones that passed our tests were selected for the next steps. Each movement was now completely taken apart one more and the platine and the six bridges went for the next round of hand “finissage” that would have a contemporary feel as well as watchmaking heritage quality, a finish which would emphasize the attractive movement design:

- the platine was micro-billè to an even matte finish;

- the bridges underwent “straight satinage” – satin finish

– a finish grade which is refined, modern and quintessential at the same time; after satinage the bridges went for “anglage ” - The mirror-polishing of their edges  

This was all done by hand, the classic way

The barrel bridge was engraved with our markings and finally, all parts went for a galvanic rhodium treatment to a shiny white-gold tone back on the watchmaker bench, the movement was re-assembled and re-serviced. After many more hours of work, we have a handful of beautiful, hand finished, completely restored, movements with the uncompromising beauty we had in mind when we laid out the project.

As a tribute to the age of these venerable movements, we decided, in some cases, to leave a few of details of the steel parts on the balance-wheel bridge in their original condition, with minor and characteristic traces of time .

The Dial

we wanted a dial that would pass the test of time and of changing styles with a contemporary flavor and playful colors.

We kept our first design for a sandwich with large rounded roman numerals on a mirror back plate which has been galvanic treated, mirror polished and printed with the sub dial;

The top plate has been hand enamelled, the upper surface has undergone 4 temperature treatments at 150° over 3 days, the result is a glazed “enamel” finish with a special and warm lustre these watches are made in a very limited edition, the “Dague Aqua Jade” will be made in three pieces only.

A final note

The Dague takes its name from the ancient Roman legionaries’ short sword, a smaller blade than the Gladius, designed to be used as a left-hand back-up weapon. The Dague was a loyal companion always on a legionnaire left flank, it was their ultimate survival and daily use blade. Following this philosophy, “The Dague” is meant to become our time-companion, always on our wrist.The Dague hands are also our design, they are inspired on the designe of these anciant blades, are easy to read and distinctive, they are mirror diamond-polished and are treated with Tri-Tech Super-Luminova luminescent material for good night visibility.

As The Dague is manufactured largely by hand where no two Dague are exactly the same.