With international travel resuming at last, one particular watch complication is set to enjoy renewed appeal: the world timer. After spending most of the past two years sitting in suede-lined storage boxes, watches able to tell their wearers the time anywhere on the globe at a glance are relevant once more. The technology dates back nearly a century to the innovation devised by Louis Cottier in 1931 when he produced a timepiece showing all the Earth’s time zones simultaneously.

Patek Philippe was the first manufacturer to form a partnership with Cottier, producing the world timer in 1939. How appropriate that master watchmaker Svend Andersen, a world timer maestro, spent nine years at Patek Philippe’s Atelier des Grandes Complications in the 1970s, working on watches with Cottier’s world time complication.

One of the key players in the watch renaissance following the near-death of the mechanical timepiece in the wake of the arrival of quartz, Andersen’s provenance is exceptional. Since 1980, he has produced five series of world timers, along with unique pieces, with the themes of Communication, Christopher Columbus, Mundus, 1884, and Tempus Terrae.

Andersen established his eponymous maison, Andersen Genève, in 1980, during the darkest years of the quartz crisis. Thanks to his popularity among enthusiasts who hired him both to restore vintage watches and to create bespoke, unique pieces, Andersen has entered a collaboration with long-time collector Benjamin Chee.

Chee founded Benjamin Chee Haute Horlogerie (BCHH) in 2019 as the realisation of a dream to combine traditional handmade haute horlogerie with other arts and crafts. His goals? To create the finest watches in the world and, in doing so, to establish his home country Singapore not only as a consumer of fine watches but also as a source. His formula is to combine Singaporean excellence with traditional Swiss watchmaking, blending elegance, artistic dials and high complications.

Joining forces with Andersen Genève, BCHH has announced a spectacular world timer, the self-winding Celestial Voyager. Its revivified AS movement, with 40-hour power reserve, is housed in a platinum case that’s a svelte 37.7mm in diameter, with sapphire back revealing the movement. Available in a series of only 10 pieces, the Celestial Voyager employs elements of Andersen’s five preceding series of world timers that featured the Cottier-inspired complication. Each will boast a unique dial combining cloisonné enamelling and engine-turned guillochage, with the artisanal movement and case finishing.

Exemplifying the exclusivity is “Sunset Over Cappadocia”, its case only 10.1mm thick yet featuring a three-layered dial comprising a cloisonné enamel dial centre, an aventurine city ring and 24-hour ring. To personalise it even further, Cappadocia is written in rose gold on the city ring. Now all that’s needed are flights to Turkey.

POA; andersen-geneve.ch