The Fratello x Czapek Promenade Transparencies Viridian Green

A new collaboration between our Dutch fellows from Fratello and independent watchmaker Czapek has just landed. Following their first and successful collaboration, which was a green take on the brand’s luxury sports watch with an integrated bracelet, the Antarctique Passage de Drake, the Dutch magazine is back with its signature Viridian Green colour, but on a different model this time. Based on a recent, dressier watch recently launched by Czapek, this new edition, the Czapek Promenade Transparencies Viridian Green, reveals its beautiful mechanics through its partially green-tinted dial. 

Let’s first talk about Paris… Why? For two reasons. First, the strong connection François Czapek had with the French capital, having a boutique at Place Vendôme. Second, Viridian Green. This specific colour, which has been elected twice by Fratello on their dedicated Czapek, was, as the team explains, “first prepared in 1838 in Paris in the midst of its artistic radicalization”. Parisian colour chemist and painter Antoine-Claude Pannetier discovered the pigment as a hydrated form of chromium oxide. However, in 1859, French painter Adrian Guignet improved on Pannetier’s recipe, patenting the cheaper production method and making it more accessible. This led to Viridian Green becoming a staple colour on the palettes of impressionist artists of the time – and in Fratello’s palette, too.

While the base colour of the first collaboration watch of Fratello and Czapek has remained, everything else has changed: different model, different style for the dial. This new limited edition is based on the brand’s latest creation, the Czapek Promenade, which we can classify as its more classic, more elegant take on the steel watch. It comes with a round 38mm steel case, with a more modern approach than the brand’s inaugural watch, the Quai des Bergues.

What sets Fratello’s edition apart, something that’s clearly indicated in the name, is the semi-transparent dial revealing the handsome movement underneath. Instead of a solid guilloché dial, Fratello and Czapek have created a smoked Viridian Green sapphire dial with a gradient effect… And this smoked transition unconventionally emanates from the small seconds sub-dial at 4 o’clock. And in return, it allows a subtly coloured look inside the movement, the calibre SXH7 – which we first discovered in the openworked Czapek Antarctique Révélation.

A skeletonized version of the now classic in-house calibre SXH5, which powers most of the Antarctique watches, it retains the same technical specifications – 4Hz frequency, 60h power reserve – as well as a winding system using a recycled platinum micro-rotor. Front and back, the decoration of the movement is refined, with open ratchets, sandblasted black bridges, bevelling, straight-grained sides, and hand chamfering.

Worn on a green Cordura strap, complementing the specific tone of the smoked dial, the Fratello x Czapek Promenade Transparencies Viridian Green is a limited edition of 50 pieces. It will be exclusively available for pre-order from the Fratello Shop from Friday, December 6th. It will be priced at EUR 32,000 (excl. taxes), and a 30% deposit will be asked to reserve the watch, with the balance due when the watch is ready for delivery at the end of July 2025.

For more details, please visit Czapek.com.