KRAYON ‘Anywhere Aurora’

Lovers of green rejoice. It's a green that evokes the powerful phenomena of nature. The skies that become fluorescent with the hypnotic northern lights. But also, the first days of spring with the rebirth of fertile soil. It can also be the green that evokes fresh grass after rain, lush meadows, forests, valleys, and that need for wide-open spaces that inspires us to embark on adventure. It’s a colour that heralds a feeling of renewal, of optimism and a new, organic energy directly linked with our natural universe – surprising yet self-evident, as if it had always been part of Krayon’s spirit since its foundation only six years ago.

The brand founded by Rémi Maillat in 2017 has a profound connection to nature. This connection is manifest in its hallmark complication: a personal and intimate ephemeris. Until now, this theme has consistently been presented in various shades of blue, often drawing inspiration from reflections on water surfaces.

Today, for the first time, KRAYON boldly explores a new palette and combines it with a new, lighter, more modern metal: Grade 5 titanium.

Titanium: lighter, stronger, longer-lasting

The spirit of innovation that thrives in KRAYON's workshops in Neuchâtel contributes to giving its creations exceptional longevity and reliability. While gold watches have greater heft, the choice of titanium for the case of this new model was a logical one.

That is because titanium is remarkably lightweight — Anywhere Aurora weighs a mere 50 grams — and provides superior corrosion resistance, enhancing the watch’s durability. At the same time, the metal is stronger, hypoallergenic and biocompatible, and its low magnetism ensures the movement’s precision remains uncompromised.

High-precision exterior

While its malleability enables intricate designs, KRAYON faced and surmounted numerous challenges heightened as a result of choosing titanium. These included the crafting of lugs soldered directly onto the case, with a subtle downturn, all highlighted by gadroon fluting for added refinement. Indeed, soldering titanium remains a rarity in the world of watchmaking.

Though the process is similar to that applied on steel, albeit much more arduous and exacting, hand-polishing the case presented considerable technical challenges. A particularly hard material, working titanium with precision requires special tools and skills. Achieving the smooth and radiant finish of the case was an exceptionally complex proposition.

But magic happens... Polished titanium sublimates from a simple material into a work of art. When raw titanium is carefully shaped and polished by hand, it unveils an ethereal glow that seems almost unreal. This material, at first glance dull and bland, morphs into a shimmering surface, capturing light in a unique way.

There is also wonder in titanium’s resistance to scratches, allowing it to retain its splendour over time. A futuristic aesthetic, with its metallic sheen and almost otherworldly lightness, coupled with amazing strength. The contrast created by the magnificent emerald-green dial then lets the watch change radiance according to the sun’s rays, evolving from a light green to an iridescent green with almost turquoise reflections, as if revealing a lode of precious stones.

An atomic green

The dial’s striking green hue was achieved using the ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) process. A testament to technological prowess, this coating method deposits ultrathin films one atomic layer at a time, ensuring a surface of exceptional uniformity and precision.

For Anywhere Aurora's mesmerizing green hue, the ALD method was employed to lay down layers of select compounds, like copper oxide, that interact with light to produce this distinctive shade. The paramount benefit of this technique resides in the precision with which layer thickness can be controlled, allowing for exact colour gradation. Additionally, it ensures impressive scratch resistance and long-lasting durability.

The time of your connection to Earth, anywhere you may be

What if you could know the exact moment of sunrise or sunset in a location chosen by You? Imagine: your special place, anywhere on Earth. In creating this singular complication of apparent simplicity, Krayon introduced a watchmaking first.

‘Anywhere’ defines a personalized moment in time and space, indicating both the duration of the day and the precise moment at which the sun rises and sets in a location chosen by you. It is a horological complication that attunes itself to dreams and desires and deeply intimate secrets, reconnecting the wearer to the powerful and profound rhythms of nature.

Personal, natural time

Time is a deeply personal experience. Yet, for watchmakers, it primarily represents an objective spatial dimension that can be measured. Krayon's Anywhere masterfully unites these two perspectives with its defining complication, its raison d’être: the exact moment when day transitions to night and vice versa, marking the time of sunrise and sunset.

By delivering this information, Anywhere becomes the horological response to a problem of philosophical nature. What makes it unique? The watch displays the calendar at a location on the globe solely chosen by the wearer. It could be the place they inhabit, their origin, where their loved ones are, or the locus of their dreams, it doesn’t matter.

These significant moments and locations, never recorded on a standard watch or even by a conventional complication, are essentials and intimate data, bound within the circle of loved ones and memory.

Thus, the pivotal moments of a day are when the sun rises or sets, when nature awakens at dawn, or succumbs to the encroaching darkness, nearing its untouched state and becoming approachable. This is the hour when animals drink, fish feast, and predators commence their hunt. It marks our connection to the earth.

This emotional dimension of time and space, sitting at the crossroads of personal and actual geography, is the essence of Krayon. Its interpretation of time manifests as a watch that transcends norms and routines. It resembles the mornings and evenings—never identical, always experienced on a personal level. Anywhere’s grand peripheral ring segments the day into two sections, aligning with its rhythm and the life tempo of the wearer. As days pass, length and colour evolve, altering the face of the watch.

A signature complication

Watches with universal time or astronomical indications are anchored to specific cities, chosen through arbitrary conventions ingrained in the practices of watchmakers. In contrast, Krayon’s Anywhere Aurora conforms to the unique visions, aspirations, and dreams of its wearer. It is the logical successor to Everywhere, a hyper-complication capable of indicating the sunrise and sunset times anywhere in the world and was honoured with the Innovation Prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève in 2018. Anywhere is a distilled interpretation, relying on the same patent.

Anywhere Aurora by Krayon displays hours and minutes using two hands, positioned at the centre of the dial that seems to float in the middle of the watch. It is surrounded by a peripheral ring with an orbiting sun that indicates the time over 24 hours. Note that the annular zone has two parts: a day sector (mother-of-pearl white) and a night sector (deep green). Their respective lengths continually evolve, thereby indicating through their positions the sunrise and sunset times read on the réhaut or flange.

The sector length is intimately linked to latitude; it is the north-south position that determines the day’s duration. At the equator, it is always equal to that of the night, and it varies as one comes to the white nights of summer near the Arctic Circle. To incorporate this geographical factor, Krayon envisioned a mechanical positioning system, composed of racks and toggles instead of a fixed, complex, and expensive cam. Upon the client’s request, a Krayon watchmaker simply makes an adjustment in the movement. It can be easily modified, whenever the client so desires.

The relative position of the two sapphire disks is determined not only by the reference position but also by the calendar.

To this end, Krayon’s Anywhere Aurora displays the date and month in a pointer-type counter at 6 o'clock. This is a simple calendar, with each month lasting 31 days. It therefore requires only five quick, simple annual adjustments, which can be made directly via the crown in both directions.