Horology-enthusiasts will want to pay attention to what Swiss watchmaker Raúl Pagès has come up with his new Régulateur à Détente RP1 watch. The real innovation is a form of a shock-resistant detente-style escapement system. The movement is both designed by Pagès and produced by him, by hand. Raúl Pagès can only produce about four Regulateur a Detente RP1 watches per year. The price isn’t cheap, but it also isn’t unreasonable given the level of skill, innovation, and artisanship deployed in a watch like this.

Detente escapements allow mechanical clocks to be extremely accurate. They are good specifically because they interact with the oscillating balance wheel as little as possible. This reduces friction and forces that can lead to errors over time. Detente escapements are traditionally very susceptible to shock and changes in gravity. For this reason, despite their performance appeal, detente-style escapements never really made a lot of sense for wristwatches. Instead, you will find what is known as a Swiss lever-style escapement in the vast majority of mechanical wristwatches out there. In luxury timepieces, it pays to be unique.

Raúl Pagès is not the first watchmaker to include a detente escapement into a wristwatch. On aBlogtoWatch, we have covered at least two other detente escapement-based watches from Bulgari here, and Christophe Claret here. The Raúl Pagès Regulateur a Detente RP1 watch is actually the most affordable out of the trio. And it is probably the most handmade of the three. Raúl Pagès claims to produce the movement parts each by hand. Even the ancillary spring, which is part of the detente escapement’s stability control system, is wound by hand. This is a very human-made little machine, and that doesn’t even count all the hand decoration and finishing.

The visible action of detente escapement-based timepieces is a bit different from that of Swiss lever escapements. It takes some careful study to see how it works, mainly because it appears to move very little. It is actually deceptively simple. The detente is a rod-like structure that moves each time it is hit with an impulse from the oscillating balance wheel. Each impulse moves the rod, which, in turn, moves away a ruby block that allows for a toothed wheel to turn. That’s basically the entire system. Its elegance means that additional shocks should send false impulses that would lead to serious timing errors. But stability and shock-absorbing systems can address the problem. What Raúl Pagès did to ensure relatively error-free operation is design a detente escapement that “pivots” a bit and is held in place with a finely tuned stabilizing spring. Just the slightest error in spring tension would prevent the entire system from working.

The way Raúl Pagès designed the caliber RP1 manually-wound movement to be both functional and beautiful. So much of the architecture is about visual design with an emphasis and de-cluttering space while also offering impressive surface decorations. Raúl Pagès points to inspiration for the case, dial, and movement from Swiss architects such as Le Corbusier. The inclusion of the detente escapement seems to be about flexing (“look what I can do”) more so than achieving particular performance measurements. For instance, no discussion of actual chronometric results were discussed in Pages’ press release or website. The Regulateur a Detente is lovely enough as it is, offering “standard” chronometric performance, but if the brand were able to advertise something special with regard to timing performance, then I think it would further add allure to the novel approach of producing a wristwatch detente escapement system. The movements are made, one by one, by hand. This makes them beautiful and exclusive but also highly exotic. The movement operates at 2.5Hz (18,000 bpm) and has a power reserve of 47 hours, and is assembled from a total of 171 parts, many carefully hand decorated by Raúl Pagès.

The pivoted detente system has what Pagès calls an “anti-tripping system,” which is essentially a stabilizer to protect from shock and other interference. It is produced from steel, which is a better material than, say, brass. Christophe Claret produced a detente system from titanium, which I don’t think is very doable by hand. The case itself is also in steel. It’s simple but with some lovely details on the side, such as the screws near the lugs. The case is hand-polished, as well, and sized at 38.5mm-wide and 10.2mm-thick, with sapphire crystals on both sides of the case.

On the dial side of the watch, we have a regulator-style display, which is fitting for a movement that is all about accuracy and performance. Historically speaking, regulator-style clocks were the most precise in an office or laboratory. They were the clocks that other people set their watches to, and in order to read them better, they often had separate dials for the hours, minutes, and seconds. Accordingly, this regulator (regulateur in French) dial has a smaller display for the hours (under 12 o’clock), and the seconds (over 6 o’clock), while the main dial is used to indicate the minutes. Raúl Pagès uses the famed cerulean blue number 59 color for the tone that decorates the subsidiary seconds dial, framed by a diamond-polished ring. The hands on the dial are all hand-made and polished by Raúl Pagès, as well.

The watch comes with two hand-stitched leather straps in beige and black. It’s funny to see such high-end watches come with the practical quick-release spring bars that are so common today, even on watches costing very little. It goes to show that the simplest systems can prove valuable for even the most exclusive watches around. Raúl Pagès is a seriously talented young watchmaker with some existing accolades under his belt, including one watch prior to the Régulateur à Détente RP1. This détente escapement-based regulator is, however, likely to be his breakout piece given how contemporary (versus classic) its execution and design are. I look forward to seeing one in person, but these will be extremely rare treats to find out in the wild. Price for the Raúl Pagès Régulateur à Détente RP1 watch is 85,000 Swiss Francs (without taxes). Learn more at the Raúl Pagès website here.