New Release: Carl F. Bucherer’s “Four Seasons”

At the inaugural edition of Geneva Watch Days, Carl F. Bucherer has released their Patravi TravelTec Color Edition “Four Seasons”. As evidenced by the name, there will be four different watches comprising the collection.

Being 46.6mm in diameter, this is definitely a large watch. All of these watches are made in stainless steel, have a colour-matched screw-down crown, and employ anti-reflective coating on both sides of the sapphire crystal. The case is water-resistant to 50m. From the pictures, I think it’s clear that there’s obviously a lot going on with this watch… The hand for the first GMT indicator is distinctly different from those of the rest of the watch as it is an inverted triangle. Its shape might make the hour being pointed to more obvious, but I feel that it just adds one more unnecessary deviation to an already cluttered dial. The clutter isn’t aided by the fact that apparently we need to be told how a GMT function works via the “East” and “West” text at the top of the dial. The engraving on the case back is even cluttered, but at least it’s fairly cool… Every timezone is shown with its individual relation to Greenwich Mean Time. The addition of this handy feature on the case back further makes the “East”/”West” text on top of the dial completely unnecessary.

The movement used is Carl F. Bucherer’s calibre CFB 1901.1. Total complications include a date (with cyclops), chronograph, subsidiary seconds, and two GMT rings. The movement is COSC certified and has a power reserve of 42 hours. All variations include a colour-matched rubber strap and a stainless steel folding clasp with a comfort extension.

Overall, this watch misses the mark. These colourful sports watches, if done better, could have been viewed similarly to some of the “Funky Colour” Offshore Divers that Audemars Piguet released a few years back. I wasn’t the biggest fan of those, but at least some people enjoyed them… I don’t know if I can say the latter about this new group. What hurts this watch is how busy it is with its date, chronograph, two additional GMT ring functions, cyclops, widely different hand styles, and partially-lumed indices. The last thing needed on a face this busy is a bright colour to draw even more attention to it. These are way too large, way too busy, and were released in the wrong collection. I would have much rather seen different colours like these released in the ScubaTec line in a smaller case size, something around 41 or 42mm. As a ScubaTec, the bright colours wouldn’t have had so much else to compete with and would have been a much more attractive option overall. This is a prime example of a watchmaker not understanding that less is more. Even down to the unnecessary text on the strap, this watch went for “more” whenever possible, and it didn’t work out well at all. I like the idea of having some colourful options, but the execution here just doesn’t work for me.

All Carl F. Bucherer Patravi TravelTec Color Edition “Four Seasons” watches are priced at 10,900 USD.