A pair months again, Bohen gave us a teaser of its inaugural launch, an overbuilt and impeccably completed luxurious diver dubbed the Mille-Mer. Combining high-end specs and ending in a sturdy package deal (together with 1000m of water resistance), the Mille-Mer promised distinctive worth in a rugged, but refined, luxurious dive watch. After some remaining tweaks and additions to make sure the watch was as much as Bohen’s exacting requirements (all of the images proven listed below are of the ultimate product), the Mille-Mer is now in manufacturing and obtainable for pre-order.
The response to Bohen’s preliminary announcement of the Mille-Mer was overwhelming, however the watch wasn’t fairly able to be launched to the world. Blaise-Dominique Giuliani, the model’s founder and designer, felt there have been nonetheless a couple of modifications that would make the watch even higher earlier than it reached the wrists of shoppers. These exacting requirements aren’t precisely a shock coming from Blaise-Dominique. A veteran of the posh area, he spent a long time working in high-end design and high fashion, growing a status for designing watches that had been just too costly to fabricate. Certainly, it was this very frustration — having his imaginative and prescient constrained by practicality — that led him to launch Bohen watches.
The aim in creating the Mille-Mer was to provide a sturdy dive watch that will rival the match, end, and functionality of watches like Rolex Sea-Dweller, with a distinctly French design ethos, and accomplish that at a fraction of the value. Bohen wished this masculine and daring watch to proclaim its functionality even at a fast glimpse and that’s precisely what it does. If you happen to’re into vehicles, a straightforward comparability to make is to Aston Martin: elegant, sporty, and stuffed with unique particulars.
Measuring in at 43mm in diameter with a 17.5mm case top, that is no petite costume watch. It’s a purpose-built luxurious diver. But, regardless of these dimensions which will appear giant on paper, through the use of a mixture of metal and titanium, the watch wears lighter than the scale counsel and, because of the ample curvature on the case, it simply conforms to smaller wrists, like Blaise-Dominique’s personal 6.8-inch (17.3cm) wrist. In describing why he didn’t produce one other cookie-cutter diver that you just’ll discover saturating the market, Blaise-Dominique doesn’t mince phrases: “The Mille-Mer is a extremely technical software. On this context, it isn’t the watch that adapts to its proprietor, however the proprietor that adapts to the watch. I didn’t create Bohen to please everybody — I simply should fulfill those that will recognize my method between magnificence and technicality.”
The Bohen Mille-Mer is crafted from a mixture of 316L stainless-steel for the case and Grade 5 titanium for the caseback. The addition of a titanium caseback is a small, however difficult addition to the development of the piece that the majority manufacturers would by no means contemplate merely because of the added price and complexity. However it’s the little particulars that separate good watches from nice watches. For instance, the crown at 12 o’clock ensures that there aren’t any stress factors from the crown on the wrist and permits the 43mm watch to put on comfortably on a wider vary of wrist sizes.
Rounding out among the technical specs, Bohen equips the Mille-Mer with a helium escape valve, ceramic bezel, and a sapphire crystal sourced from a Japanese producer that produces lenses for satellites. Positive, Bohen may have opted for a Swiss crystal (the watch already far exceeds the necessities for Swiss Made designation), however the aim was to create a watch with one of the best parts doable, whatever the elevated price. Living proof: A date magnifier affixed to a flat crystal is a straightforward answer, however Bohen was adamant about utilizing a double-domed sapphire crystal. Thus, to include a date magnifier, Bohen got here up with a sublime and useful answer by making a double-bridge positioned between the crystal and fingers (an invention patented by Bohen).
The dial on the Mille-Mer was designed to create a way of depth and texture. The recessed, inky-black dial is offset by the bigger markers and fingers that share sturdy traces and a unified design language. The result’s a dial that’s complicated, eye-catching, and very legible. And, to make sure legibility whatever the gentle situations, Bohen has opted for the strongest lume obtainable in the marketplace: Tremendous-LumiNova X1 grade in a concentrated gel components.
Somewhat than an ETA or Sellita motion, Bohen selected to equip the Mille-Mer with a Swiss Soprod M100 computerized motion, modified to Bohen’s exact specs, together with rhodium-coating to harden the metallic within the motion, excessive anti-magnetic resistance (together with an anti-magnetic cage), and ample ornament, together with pearl bridges and a rotor in CoĚ‚te de GeneĚ€ve. It’s an exquisite motion, even when you don’t get to see it via the titanium caseback. Extra importantly, it’s exceptionally correct, having handed the Chronofiable A8 commonplace from the Dubois laboratory. In different phrases, you get +/- 4 seconds/day accuracy and 42 hours of energy reserve. As Blaise-Dominique says, “A Bohen is refined to the smallest element, even what can’t be seen.”
The Mille-Mer is supplied with a tapering stainless-steel ladder bracelet that mirrors the brushed and polished surfaces of the case. The bracelet is one other instance of Blaise-Dominique’s perfectionism — although the late prototypes had been exceptionally well-made, they weren’t fairly excellent. By including 8g to the band, Bohen was in a position to steadiness the heft of the watch head, creating symmetry on the wrist. Somewhat than a standard spring bar, Bohen additionally switched to a push-button system for tool-less strap modifications. Rounding out the small enhancements, Bohen redesigned the engraved ratchet buckle (patent pending) to easily and simply modify the match with out instruments.
Together with his huge expertise working with most of the high names within the luxurious trade, Blaise-Dominique was in a position to subcontract the manufacturing of the Mille-Mer to Swiss manufacturing companions that produce parts for the highest Swiss manufacturers. Nonetheless, he was decided to maintain costs accessible and keep away from the inflated markups discovered elsewhere within the trade. As Blaise-Dominique explains, “Our watches price the identical value to fabricate, and each part embodies excellence. There may be completely no compromise in the case of high quality. For instance, the indexes of our extra-deep dial will not be molded however machined. The result’s sharper, like diamond-cut items. As a way to make 500 excellent dials, we have to machine 750 units of indexes and discard 250 units that will not meet our required end expectations.”
So, how does Bohen handle to maintain the costs accessible? Easy: The model is engaged on a set margin of x1.66 for the launch value. In different phrases, the model retains pricing utterly clear — the value you pay is 66% greater than the value to fabricate. To place that quantity in perspective, when you’re watches from an enormous Swiss model, a 400-500% markup is frequent. With the Bohen Mille-Mer, you get a real luxurious dive watch with its personal distinctive design language at a way more accessible value level.
Since opening for pre-orders a couple of quick weeks in the past, Bohen has seen a surge in gross sales, with one-third of the five hundred watches on this first manufacturing run already spoken for. If you happen to’re within the Bohen Mille-Mer, pre-orders are open now with watches slated for supply in March 2022. Launch pricing is about at €1,659 (excluding taxes); to pre-order your Mille-Mer and study extra about Bohen, head over to the model’s web site. You probably have any questions in regards to the watch or the model, Blaise-Dominique is more than pleased to speak. Simply ship him an electronic mail on the web site, and he’ll get in contact and even share his telephone quantity when you’d like to speak about Bohen and the Mille-Mer.
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