news September 13, 2024

NORQAIN introduces the Independence Skeleton Chrono powered by the new NORQAIN 8K Manufacture Calibre

NORQAIN, the family-owned independent Swiss watch company founded in 2018, is defined by its great sense of adventure. The disruptive young company’s double-N mountain peak logo is a reminder that its second home is in the Swiss Alpine resort of Zermatt. NORQAIN’s innovative, high-performance mechanical watches are designed to fuel the adventurous lifestyles of passionate, forward-thinking people looking to squeeze everything they can out of life on this beautiful planet.

Introducing a new flyback chronograph calibre

Today, the company is ready to take the next big step in its own watchmaking adventure with a new mechanical milestone and the introduction of an exclusive new high-performance manufacture flyback chronograph movement, the NORQAIN 8K Manufacture Calibre (NK24/1), developed in partnership between NORQAIN and Manufacture AMT under the guidance of NORQAIN founder and CEO Ben Küffer and NORQAIN Advisor to the Board Jean-Claude Biver.

The “8K” picks up on the company’s daring spirit, taking its name from the world’s highest mountains. There are 14 peaks over 8,000 metres (26,247 feet), often referred to by mountaineers and explorers as the “Eight-Thousanders”. Only the bravest and most experienced climbers have summited all 14.

The NORQAIN 8K Manufacture Calibre is a bold, graphic expression of the company’s love of the mountains and unflinching attitude to watchmaking mechanics. Its headline function is its flyback chronograph, a chronograph that can be reset and restarted with a single push of a button. This complex mechanical device was invented almost a century ago as a tool for pilots, but today has many use cases, particularly in sports where fast-paced repeat training exercises are used to build speed, strength and stamina.

Additional quality signifiers include a column wheel, a highly regarded device only featured in high-end chronographs that delivers precise activation of the chronograph function. The watch also offers an impressive 62-hour power reserve and independent chronometer certification, denoting the accuracy of the NORQAIN 8K Manufacture Calibre.

This revered mechanical complication is further enhanced through skeletonisation, the process of removing first the majority of the watch’s dial and then large portions of the movement itself to create a stunning three-dimensional spectacle that highlights the beauty and imagination in the movement’s mechanics.

This celebration of Swiss watchmaking mechanics is backed up by a number of bespoke NORQAIN touches that combine to give the 8K its uniqueness and its compelling, high-energy profile. The company designed every element with the highest level of attention to detail, starting by shaping the cutaway segments in the dial to create the mountain motif, and then decorating the movement’s mainplate, bridges and oscillating weight with engravings of the NORQAIN double-N logo.

Also added is a graphic original motif inspired by our love of the mountains and the soaring peaks of those 14 Eight-Thousanders. To finish, the movement’s designers created additional texture with polished and sandblasted surfaces, resulting in a bewilderingly complex yet harmonious aesthetic. 

And a pair of exclusive new watches

There’s a further twist. The NORQAIN 8K Manufacture Calibre will be extremely limited in production, in part as testament to the complexity of its construction and finishing, and in part to honour the exclusive club of 14 that makes up the world’s highest peaks.

The NORQAIN 8K Manufacture Calibre will appear in just two watches at launch, the Independence Skeleton Chrono 42mm Titanium DLC and the Independence Skeleton Chrono 42mm Steel, based on NORQAIN’s audacious Independence sports watch model. Both watches – the first chronographs in the Independence collection – feature a prominent central chronograph seconds hand and a twin-counter layout with a 30-minute counter at 12 o’clock and a running seconds counter at 6 o’clock.

Both watches share the same dynamic architecture, fusing the visual theatre of the skeletonised dial with the superlative mechanics of the movement and wrapping them in the Independence’s elegant, sporty case, which is further enhanced by its satin-finished, polished and sandblasted surfaces.

The three-dimensional effect continues on the watch’s reverse, thanks to a transparent sapphire crystal case back defined by its wide aperture, a detail that encourages wearers to lose themselves in the intricacies of the 8K’s complex construction. As well as integrating a mountain shape into its form, it’s also coloured to match what remains of the dial after the skeletonisation process is complete.

The Independence Skeleton Chrono 42mm Titanium DLC has a lightweight Grade 5 Titanium case coated in black DLC and a skeletonised black satin-finished dial with purple detailing and gun-metal-plated, lumed hands and hour markers. It weighs less than 90 grammes in total and comes on a purple animal-cruelty-free rubber strap. Each case back will highlight the watch’s exclusivity with the engraving “Limited Edition ONE of 300”.

The Independence Skeleton Chrono 42mm Steel will continue the story. It won’t be limited, other than by production. Initially, NORQAIN has only commissioned 600 8K Calibres, with a second batch expected in time for Watches and Wonders Geneva 2025. The steel watch has a black satin-finished skeletonised dial with gold-plated detailing and lumed hands and hour markers, and comes on a four-link stainless steel metal bracelet.

Both offer 100 metres of water resistance, screw-down crowns, double anti-reflective sapphire glass crystals, open sapphire glass case backs, and the company’s signature NORQAIN plate on the left case flank, ready to be personalised with a customer’s choice of engraving.

Ben Küffer, NORQAIN founder and CEO, said: “The NORQAIN 8K Manufacture Calibre is a giant leap forward in our mission to bring innovative products to the market, and it takes NORQAIN to new heights in Swiss mechanical watchmaking. The story behind it began a number of years ago when Jean-Claude Biver and I were laying our innovation road map: we needed a chronograph, and one that fizzed with our challenger brand spirit. And that’s what this exclusive, high-performance movement does. The 8K becomes our third major innovation milestone, following our Kenissi Manufacture movement of 2020 and the ground-breaking Wild ONE of 2022. The two new Independence models with the 8K are a beautiful expression of the value NORQAIN watches offer. And as with every watch in our collection, we’ve made them for life’s adventurers, men and women who understand what we mean by ‘my life, my way’. Onwards and upwards!”

Jean-Claude Biver, NORQAIN Advisor to the Board, said: “Since I joined NORQAIN as Advisor to the Board, Ben and I have been working on a unique roadmap that will underline our role as a young, dynamic Swiss challenger brand in the Swiss watch industry. After the launch of the Wild ONE, the 8K Manufacture Calibre is another huge step for us. We will continue to innovate and surprise and there is more exciting innovation in the pipeline."

The Independence Skeleton Chrono 42mm Titanium DLC on a rubber strap will retail for CHF 6,450 and the Independence Skeleton Chrono 42mm Steel for CHF 5,950 on a stainless steel bracelet and CHF 5,700 on a rubber strap.

Next, a series of launch events 

To mark this milestone moment in NORQAIN’s history, the NORQAIN 8K Manufacture Calibre and the two new watches will be introduced to retailers, press, partners, VIPs and the company’s global NORQAINER community at a series of high-energy launch events held in New York, Singapore, Tokyo, Zermatt and Zurich. NORQAIN founder and CEO Ben Küffer will attend the New York event on September 12.