Singer Track1 London Edition (Live Pics)

Two years ago, Singer Reimagined (the sister company of Singer Vehicle Design, creator of some extraordinary Restomod 911s) launched an impressive, cool-looking and mechanically innovative chronograph named “Track1”. After the Launch Edition, the brand decided to introduce city-based models, with the gold-cased Geneva Edition and the black ceramic-aluminum Hong-Kong Edition. Following this theme, here’s the brand’s latest watch, the Singer Track1 London Edition, displayed at the Phillips Perpetual boutique in Mayfair.

Singer Reimagined is the idea of two friends, Rob Dickinson (co-founder of Singer Vehicle Design) and Marco Borraccino, designer. Both are fans of vintage cars, automobiles in general and sports chronographs. The basic concept of Singer Vehicle Design was to reimagine the classic 911 and to combine a vintage look with modern and race-like performances. The idea behind Singer Reimagined is the same. Take the classic, much-loved1970s race chronograph and give it, under the hood, one of the most innovative and performant movements of our era (the Agengraph).

As said, we’ve already seen three editions of the Singer Track1: the Launch Edition, the gold Geneva Edition and the black Hong Kong Edition. This “city-related” concept is now derived with a fourth watch, the London model, which is a new limited edition of 50 pieces, and that will be on display at Phillips Perpetual, the boutique imagined by Bacs & Russo.

Visually, the watch remains the same, with its titanium, barrel-shaped case – reminiscent of 1970s pilot’s watches. Not particularly small (43mm diameter x 15mm height), the watch is surprisingly comfortable on the wrist thanks to the integrated lugs and the curved overall design – which hugs the wrist. The case is the same as the Launch Edition, with a radially brushed container, a polished bezel and “bullhead-like” pushers. The Singer Track1 London Edition is worn on a blue leather strap with folding clasp.

The display is what made the Track1 unique. Founders of Singer Reimagined wanted to give maximum visibility to the chronograph, meaning not with a 3- or 2-register architecture, with small sub-dials. For this reason, the chronograph indications, which are placed in the middle of the dial, are all centrally and co-axially mounted with 3 hands displaying elapsed times just as a standard watch displays the time, on a 12-hour basis. The hour and minute indications are precisely jumping (another technical challenge). The watch isn’t only a chronograph, as it also displays standard hours and minutes, by the means of two peripheral discs, with a pointer at 6 o’clock to indicate the current time.

The main evolution on this Singer Track1 London Edition concerns the dial. While the hours and minutes discs are still black, with orange accents for the chronograph hands, the central part is treated in dark blue, with a sunray brushed pattern and a circular brushed minute track. Around it sits a metallic tachymeter scale – racing chronograph obliges.

What we said about the movement

The movement inside, created by Agenhor’s Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, is a pure technical feast. To have the chronograph displayed on the central part of the movement, Wiederrecht had to employ some serious inventiveness and multiple technical solutions that had never been used before on such a movement. Yet, not everything is entirely new, as the Calibre 6361 or AgenGraphe (the name Agenhor gave to the movement) remains an automatic column-wheel movement. However, all the rest is different or new. This revolutionary movement is based on a set of snail cams storing energy for an entire minute (or hour) before releasing it precisely when a feeler-spindle drops to generate an instant jump (which further enhances legibility). The system avoids varying forces affecting the amplitude of the movement, resulting in greater precision, as the hands always point to the desired indication. The chronograph heart also allows for the smooth resetting of the chronograph (avoiding the violent shocks of the traditional chronograph). 

The second main innovation in the movement of the Singer Reimagined Track 1 concerns the clutch. The newly developed AgenClutch combines the best of the vertical and horizontal clutch. The coupling is made horizontally, which requires less space. Yet the connection is made by friction between teethless wheels, just like vertical clutches, thus avoiding the chronograph “stutter”. Lastly, a tulip-shaped spring provides active flexibility, maintaining the contact between the two wheels whilst ensuring that, in case of a shock, the security wheels are still effective. 

Finally, this movement is automatic, something that you can’t imagine at first due to the absence of a visible rotor – or micro-rotor – on the movement side. In fact, the movement is classically wound by a central rotor, which is positioned dial-side. This was possible simply because of the central chronograph hands – meaning that the rotor can turn around the central axis.

For more details about this movement, please consult our introduction article and our review here.

A limited-edition of 50 watches, the Singer Track1 London Edition is available for pre-order beginning today. It will be on display at Phillips Perpetual, 30 Berkeley Square, Mayfair, London, from September 5th. It will be priced at CHF 45,000 (excl. local taxes and VAT). www.singerreimagined.com.