Lausanne-based CODE41 started 2021 with a bang. Launching its attention-grabbing NB24 at the start of the year, the brand best known for lifting the curtain on traditional luxury watchmaking since its meteoric rise at the beginning ot 2016, has gone on to build even more excitement around its horological projects.
This week, CODE41 launches its latest project for the year, which represents the next generation of the popular X41collection. The launch ushers in the fifth edition of the X41 series since its debut in March 2019 — with subsequent releases in November 2019 and July 2020 completely selling out during their pre-order campaigns — and demonstrates CODE41’s persistent and sustained interest in the series’ unconventional design.
Like the models that have preceded it, the X41 Edition 5 will stick with the formula that has brought it so much success until now: namely, an exclusive design and architecture built in collaboration with, and exclusively for, the CODE41 community, as well as a novel mechanical movement complete with a peripheral oscillating weight— an extremely technical feature currently mastered by very few brands. The movement itself is designed, produced, and assembled entirely by hand in Switzerland in short production runs. In total, including the movement, the watch is composed of 90% Swiss components, executed to the finest of luxury standards at the level of watches that are up to four times as expensive.
The X41 Edition 5 watches will feature avant-garde case designs, with water resistance to 10 ATM (or 100 meters), quite a bit higher than the 3- to 5-ATM levels found most often in luxury timepieces at this level of production. Additionally, the Edition 5 will be available in two case materials. The first is a grade 5 titanium, which notably replaces the grade 2 titanium used in previous iterations of the design and brings to it an increased durability, better resistance to scratches, and finer quality of finishing. The second is an AeroCarbon material commonly used in the aeronautics industry, and prized for its resistance to bending — 2.5 times more resistant to bending than steel, in fact — and its lightness, twice that of titanium and four times that of steel.
Like each previous project undertaken by CODE41, the X41 Edition 5 represents the brand’s latest effort in making fine watchmaking more accessible, authentic, and transparent. The company’s focus, from the start, has been on optimizing value for its community, and that remains true with the Edition 5. “The price is not the result of market positioning, but a direct reflection of the cost of production,” Claudio D’Amore, Founder and CEO of CODE41, said earlier this month. Under CODE41’s TTO label (Total Transparency on Origin), all production costs and the mark-ups required are explained, so the brand’s focus can remain on the creating high-quality mechanical watches, and its fans’ focus can be on enjoying them.
The new CODE41 X41 Edition 5 will be limited to three batches of 150 watches each, with pricing starting at $5,443 USD. The pre-order campaign is live now, here, with the first batch already sold out. The campaign will conclude on July 15 at 9AM EST, with deliveries set to begin in March/April of 2022.
To learn more, visit CODE41, here.
Confusing dial with those skeleton hands and shapes at all angles.