Introducing: The Voluptuous Yet Elegant Trilobe Une Folle Journée Rhodium-Plated Editions In Black, Blue, And Green
Une folle journée is French for “a crazy day.” When you first put a Trilobe Une Folle Journée on your wrist, it is not a normal day anymore, even though it might have started like any other. That’s quite an achievement for the young Parisian watch brand. The “Crazy Day” with its time displayed by three elevated circles is not new, but the Trilobe Une Folle Journée Rhodium-Plated Editions in black, blue, and green are. Let’s look at the three watches in their 40.5mm titanium cases with movement bridges showing a rhodium-plated finish to enhance their architectural qualities.
Although Trilobe is still very young — it was established in 2018 by Gautier Massonneau in Paris — the brand’s creations have such a unique appearance that they quickly became instantly recognizable. That’s not a bad result for a finance guy who was determined to create intricate timepieces with unconventional time displays that didn’t rely on traditional watch hands. Massonneau wanted each Trilobe timepiece to tell a story and evoke emotions, making it both a functional accessory and an artistic expression. That philosophy earned Trilobe four nominations at the prestigious Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), where it won the Petite Aiguille award in 2022.
Three new colors for the voluptuous yet elegant Trilobe Une Folle Journée Rhodium-Plated Editions
Though Trilobe’s Une Folle Journée is not an all-new watch, the new Rhodium-Plated Editions in black, blue, and green do the brand’s concept justice. At the heart is still the patented X-Centric caliber. This automatic movement is the result of a collaboration with Le Cercle des Horlogers in La Chaux-de-Fonds. It debuted in 2020 and now powers every Trilobe wristwatch. But for these three new “Crazy Day” editions, the movement underwent some aesthetic changes. The X-Centric’s bridges now feature a rhodium-plated finish that enhances their architecture. Highlighting the caliber’s details helps them visually interact with the concentric circles and deepen the watch’s three-dimensionality.
The three rotating rings, each displaying a gradation of time, turn via a suspended mechanism under a large sapphire crystal dome, allowing the wearer to view the time from various angles. The sapphire dome is made in Japan and then smoothed and polished in Switzerland.
The rings of time
The three rings in black, blue, or green don’t simply perform some sort of dance under a glass dome. In actuality, they tell time quite intuitively. Trilobe reversed the traditional three hands moving around fixed numerals. Instead, the discs — showing hours on the largest, minutes on the middle one, and seconds on the smallest — rotate past a red marker, which indicates the current time.
The three discs also turn on different levels, with hours being the lowest, minutes in the middle, and seconds on the highest level. It takes nine pillars to hold these rings up, and the highest sits a little over a centimeter (!) above the dial. If you keep that in mind, the watch’s 17.8mm thickness doesn’t seem that crazy. The Trilobe Une Folle Journée is certainly not a slim watch, but that was also never the idea behind it. Despite the thickness, though, the shape and original time display make this an elegant watch. By giving the timing rings a strong color that contrasts strongly against the rhodium-plated movement, the Une Folle Journée looks a bit industrial — more Centre Pompidou than Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, if you catch my drift. Trilobe has created a mechanical microcosmos with a futurist touch.
What a touch of color and contrast can do
Now, what’s your favorite colorway for the off-center stack of rings? Mine is probably green. It’s neither too traditional nor too trendy. You might have seen black and blue time rings before in the Une Folle Journée collection, but they turned above a movement with a dark Anthradec finish. The rhodium-plated backdrop in these new versions brings more lightness to the look of the Une Folle Journée. You might want to know that each ring is made out of a titanium cornice, hollowed, and polished. Each one also holds a curved and satin-finished inner ring executed in a titanium-aluminum alloy. You’ll understand why Trilobe chose titanium for its lightness, but the metal is quite difficult to shape and delicate to polish. Luckily, after taking great care doing so, the result is a shimmering kind of stunning.
Looking past rings and pillars
If you look past the time rings, the absence of a dial offers a good look at the 196-part movement. Made with custom-made components, the X-Centric caliber, a micro-rotor movement designed and developed exclusively by Trilobe, is just 6.49mm thick. It features multi-tiered bridges and plates with sharp edges polished by hand and a micro-blasted finish resulting from the use of diamond-tipped tools.
The three Une Folle Journée Rhodium-Plated Editions are exotic watches with an off-beat look and character. Thankfully, though, they do appear wearable. Okay, these are not “everyday beaters,” but they don’t immediately take over a room like some other exuberant creations from independent watchmakers tend to do. Maybe the round, not-so-extravagant titanium case with a moderate 40.5mm diameter keeps the craziness in check.
The Trilobe Une Folle Journée Rhodium-Plated Editions in black, blue, and green cost €20,400 (ex. taxes). What do you think of them? Share your thoughts on the concept and/or execution in the comments section below.
