The Handsome Andersen Genève Communication 45 Returns in Platinum

Talking about Svend Andersen and only focusing on the world time complication would be truly reductive of the man’s career. One of the most discreet and yet most revered watchmakers of the independent scene, a founding member of the AHCI, Andersen founded his atelier in 1980, after working for Gübelin, where he got the chance to repair some of the original worldtime watches, with Louis Cottier’s mechanism, before moving to Patek Philippe, also restoring original Louis Cottier-made worldtimers. Naturally, this complication became his speciality, and his founding watch, the Communication 24, launched in 1990. Last year, the independent brand released the Communication 45 in yellow gold, celebrating thr 45th anniversary of its creation. It now returns in an elegant platinum and blue version. 

Svend Andersen, now well over 80, first encountered the worldtime system, as developed in the 1930s by Louis Cottier, and adopted by Patek Philippe among others, while restoring watches in Lucerne in the 1960s, and thereafter during his decade in the Grand Complications workshop of Patek Philippe in the 1970s. In the late 1980s, after he created his brand, he developed his own ultra-thin worldtime module – just 0.9mm thick – at the behest of Italian collectors. The first watch to integrate it was the Communication 24, launched in 1990 on a souscription basis. The eye-catching watches, with a case made by Jean-Pierre Hagmann, featuring distinctive tear-drop style lugs, will be followed by several collections relying on the worldtime function, including the Christophorus Columbus (1992), the ultra-thin Mundus (1994), the 1884 (2004), the Tempus Terrae (2015), the Heures du Monde in collaboration with Asprey (2022) and the Celestial Voyager enamel series in collaboration with BCHH (from 2021-2024).

Last year, to celebrate its founder and the 45th anniversary of the creation of the Communication 24, Andersen Genève released a retro-style watch with, of course, a worldtimer complication and a superb hand-made case featuring soldered lugs, the Communication 45. This handsome model now returns in a more discreet version made of platinum. A watch that is a nod to early models, but also classic Cottier worldtimers, it is housed in a compact 38mm case, only 8.95mm in thickness, with a classic two-crown “Cottier-style” architecture. The case is made by Marco Poluzzi in his workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds (owned by Andersen Genève since 2022) without the use of CNC machinery. It retains the beautiful soldered lugs, mixing teardrop and cow-horn design elements.

While the yellow gold edition played on a striking monochromatic approach, the Communication 45 Platinum is colder and slightly more discreet. The dial, still made of 21ct BlueGold, with Andersen Genève’s historic wave-form tapisserie-guilloché pattern using an authentic 19th-century machine. The map on the dial, available in 3 versions (Asia, Europe, America), is created by infilling the surface with a liquid lacquer of unalloyed gold. For a classic look, the city ring is brushed with a silvery-white tone, and the 24-hour ring uses a blue section for night hours. Openwork hands indicate the hours and minutes.

Inside the case of the platinum Andersen Genève Communication 45 Worldtimer is a vintage A. Schild S.A. automatic base movement that’s been restored and re-decorated – the same base movement is used in the Celestial Voyager, the Asprey Heures du Monde or the Tempus Terrae. This movement runs at 3Hz and stores 40h of power reserve. It is here fitted with the latest version of Andersen Genève’s in-house worldtime module, based on that originally designed by Svend in the 1980s. The rotor, in light blue-toned BlueGold, carries the same tapisserie guilloché as the dial.

Worn on a supple and casual dark blue suede strap, the Andersen Geneve Communication 45 Platinum is released as a limited edition of 45 pieces (15 for each dial variant) and priced at CHF 54,800. More details at www.andersen-geneve.ch.