You are playing a game of Taboo with friends. The rules? Have people guess your brand in a limited amount of time, using keywords or key phrases. Which descriptors would you use? Ready? You have one minute—go!
No hands, more magic
3 moving rings
New way of reading time
Every period has its change! What is the fundamental difference between the brand of today and the one of tomorrow?
We are at the beginning of Trilobe’s story. After our first year of launches, of which we are very proud (being nominated at the GPHG, our participation at Only Watch, opening up our distribution networks, etc.), we are ambitiously building a strong maison for haute horlogerie, including a 10-year plan for our collections, while underpinning our brand’s identity. Evidently, you won’t find hour and minute hands at Trilobe, but we will continue to ‘point’ towards a creative, poetic and audacious direction.
If you had to choose a model to represent the brand, which one would it be and why?
The “Les Matinaux” Secret watch is the model that, without a doubt, best illustrates our brand: to captivate once again our relationship with time by developing watchmaking that is artistic, anti-utilitarian and very personal.
Bespoke, each dial is made to measure with a map of the sky reflecting the position of the stars on the day, time and place that is dear to you. Each watch made is therefore a unique piece, conveying meaning and the history of its owner. In this way, the starry sky is a freeze frame for a chosen moment in life: a delicate way of immortalising a precious moment in one’s life and an open-air secret on an intimate moment.
Can you share with us a memorable experience that attests to Trilobe’s uniqueness? We are always interested in anecdotes!
I have excellent memories of my first meeting with our partnering manufacture. I immediately agreed to the project, but during the discussion, the head of the Technical Department told me, with a pronounced Neuchâtel accent: “Gautier, it’s a great project, but there’s one problem: the Trilobes are not aligned on the dial”. It was interesting to see how striking the visual identity of our watch is and how it shook up preconceived ideas on watchmaking. I think it’s a strength.
If you had to appoint a fictional ambassador, who would you choose and why?
Is it possible to create a wishlist with all the great names in this world, hoping that our wishes will be granted ? Joking aside, our best brand ambassadors are the incredible moments that are told by the wearers of our Secret watches.
“My soul has its secret. My watch has its story”. Can you tell us some of the brand’s secrets?
You would be surprised by the choices our customers make for their Secret watches. While many choose dates related to their wedding, anniversary or date of birth, some choices testify to extraordinary lives! For example, one of our clients chose the sky of his solo passage on Cape Horn in the 1980s.
Many of them obviously keep their date a secret, but when they share it with us, we often discover glimpses into incredible lives!
Time is a foundational concept at Trilobe. What is your interpretation of time? And how do the three rings indicating the hours, minutes and seconds reflect the suspension of time as it passes?
“You have the hour, I have the time,” is what we say at Trilobe.There are three rotating rings, each bearing a unit of time: the largest ring for the hours, the middle one for the minutes, and the smallest for the seconds. Will you need an extra quarter of a second to read the time on a Trilobe? What if the time has come to free yourself from this ambient instantaneity, from constant immediacy? To no longer live on the edge? Isn’t the real luxury to take one’s time?
The Trilobe watch, with its highly anti-utilitarian vision of timekeeping, takes the watchmaking paradigm, traditionally aimed at greater precision, instantaneity and technical innovation, and flips it around. Trilobe invites you to interpret time differently: time set in motion, time taken for you, time liberated.
The following quote from René Char is the proverb by which Trilobe lives by: “Impose your luck, embrace your happiness and go towards your risks. By looking at you, they will get used to it”. Where does this poetic inspiration come from that characterizes the spirit of the brand? And how does it translate into your timepieces?
This collection of poems by René Char, poet and resistance fighter, invites us to go against convention, to live, dare, create—a starting point for Trilobe, which today, in its own way, offers an alternative to traditional three-hand watches without sacrificing any of its quality or craftsmanship.
It is time to dare, and Trilobe must be understood both as an invitation to live life, while at the same time adding romanticism to the heart of our relationship with time.
