GALLET Multichron Regulator cal. Venus 140 / 1940s Black Mirror Dial

A black mirror dial.

It keeps a deep, wet-looking gloss, with faint marks drifting across it like a thin film.

The gilt lettering rising in gold has sunk dully with the years, and in the instant it returns the light it speaks for the depth of time that has been used.

Time above, counter below.

The layout is entirely in the service of the chronograph's function, yet those two eyes in a vertical line look almost like a mirror image, holding a slightly uneasy balance — a beauty that is deliberately not too neat.

A non-water-resistant Calatrava case.

Never over-polished, it keeps the outline of its bevels.

It feels soft to the touch and yet holds a core.

Within an unadorned practicality, the designer's conviction lives on.

The Venus Cal.140.

Faint traces of oxidation spread across the mainplate, and the lines of Côtes de Genève flow with shadow beside them.

That stillness should perhaps be received instead as the aftertrace of a long sleep.

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