features


When the computer joins the mechanical watch

June 2005



Linde Werdelin is a new watch company. The Biformeter is a totally original innovation. This happens when high chic marries high tech.

A few short years ago, the Hi-Tech timepiece was a dream of the future, a future where the watch would be a technological platform incorporating a telephone, media centre, remote control, e-mail, etc. But the futurists, like the economists, are often wrong. It would not be the watch, but the cellular telephone that would assume this multimedia role.
On the other hand, just try to use a cell phone while speeding down a sky slope, or try surfing the Internet while surfing the powder.
Another disappointment for the futurists involves the aesthetic deficiency of multi-function watches, their bad ergonometric form, and their often clumsy styling. A watch is a practical object, of course, but it is also a piece of jewellery, the ‘only real masculine jewellery’ around, so it is said.
And in the evening, in the après-ski bars, a multi-function watch makes its wearer look like a nerdy maths teacher.


werdelin

werdelin


Now, enter the Biformeter created by the new brand Linde Werdelin. With this remarkable new timepiece, all of these stereotypes are swept away. It is a lovely and classic sports type watch, with an analogue dial, made in 316L stainless steel with rather distinctive styling. Its design is powerful but elegant, and its heart beats to the rhythm of an ETA 2892 or 2893 automatic mechanical movement in the Two Timer version. It is entirely manufactured in Switzerland with Swiss components.
In the morning, on the sky slopes, the Biformeter totally changes its look. It is the same watch, but, then an aluminium ‘Instrument’ clicks in. It is a mini-computer, measuring 42 x 42 x 8 mm and weighing 40 grams, which locks onto the watch. It is a veritable data bank that allows the calculation of all sorts of measurements that can be stored in the memory: heart rate, oxygen level, ambient temperature variations, meteorological conditions, speed, etc. The data can be called up at any time in superb graphic form on the tiny screen that has a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels.
The Instrument is designed to withstand the most extreme conditions, and even if left aside for several months, it not only saves the desired data, but it gives you a quick refresher course on how to use it.
A series of pushbuttons on the aluminium case can be manipulated even with gloves on allowing the functions to be activated simply and easily. The first ‘Instrument’ will be the Earth version, the second will be the Sea, and the third the Air, with their necessary and respective functions.
This type of instrument is reserved for the elite sportsperson and other fans of the extreme. Marketing of the Earth model will begin in Great Britain and will follow the large ski resorts around the world initially in Switzerland, Italy, and Japan, followed by the United States.
The result of the passion and energy of two young entrepreneurs, Jorn Werdelin, the financier and Morten Linde, the designer (he also worked for TAG Heuer, Georg Jensen, Mexx and Bang and Olufsen), the Linde Werdelin brand, located in London is opening a truly innovative and exciting niche in the world of timekeeping.
Prices of the Biformeter begin at 4,400 CHF for the steel version and climb to 9,500 CHF for the gold model. If you want the Instrument, although the watch alone is quite nice, that adds another 1,500 CHF.


Source: April-May 2005 Issue

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