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A constant force signed by Sebastien Loeb

The story of Cabestan started four years ago when Jean-François Ruchonnet decided to launch his own brand. A micro-mechanic by training he’d been in the watchmaking business for 25 years, starting with Chopard in 1984, and then working with many brands including Tag Heuer and Breguet through his company DMC.

“We used to do virtual imagery,” says Ruchonnet. “Then I went from ‘virtuality’ to reality. That is to say, I was tired of working for other people, so I decided to create a movement trilogy based on: a car movement, a boat movement, and a plane movement. So, I sold the car movement to a major brand, the second movement I decided to keep for myself and to build a brand on it, and this brand is Cabestan.”

Although a micro-mechanic by training, Ruchonnet had also trained as a watchmaker, but his real story is more a story of rags to riches building on his tremendous talent as an engineer and tenacity. “I’m no designer, I’m no engineer, I’m really a man from the street,” says Ruchonnet. “I was a homeless at 18 years old, and had to learn to manage on my own, so I learned on the job.”

The idea of the Cabestan brand, the CreaLuxe concept, is based on his vision of watchmaking movements. “I’ve learned from experience, that if you want something done right you’d better do it yourself. So I knew that if I wanted to get this project going I would have to invest myself with clients, with partners I could trust, and that I would have to invest in a factory. So at Cabestan we buy wristbands and the glass but all the rest is made in-house – a real integrated factory.”

“On the side of the nautical cabestan, you can see the boat wheel in the back, and when you look on top of it you can see the little chain that goes down on the boat deck with the anchor at its end,” explains Ruchonnet. “Here with this watch it’s the same. When you look at the Cabestan watch on its side you see the cabestans, the winches that go back up, and whether it is a catamaran or a trimaran, when you turn the watch upside down it looks like the hulls of a boat.”

In 2008, Eric Coudray and part of the gyro-tourbillon team joined him so he feels that he now has one of the best watchmakers and watchmaking teams in the world. “I believe in team-spirit, my assistant is young, my watchmakers are young, I am surrounded by young people. I’m 44 and without my team nothing gets done.

“I’m an epicurean who lives his own dream. I’ve always given myself objectives and I’ve always worked very hard to achieve them. I have reached a point in my life where I am really happy. I’ve a wonderful wife, wonderful kids, I have a great team, and a great balance in my life, and when one has that you have the duty to share … hence my participation in Only Watch.”

Ruchonnet lives near the famous Rally WTC racing driver Sebastien Loeb, who is also a friend and who has kindly agreed to sign the Cabestan Only Watch. “We’ll do it together, and we’ll do a watch for the kids,” said Loeb.

“For Only Watch we have created an extremely high-end, extremely rare watch, a Cabestan Winch Tourbillon Vertical, and I think that a watch signed by Sebastien Loeb will make this watch even rarer,” says Ruchonnet. “A lot of people make demands on him, and he’s a very nice guy but can’t do everything but he has offered to do this for Only Watch, and I am really pleased.”

This watch is bi-colored combining natural titanium and black PVD titanium. The gearwheel and the flare are golden, the chain is normal, Cabestan, and has the same characteristics as a normal Cabestan watch being extremely precise. The glaze is black, and the drums are black with white luminova numerals, and pyrex glass.

On the sides you have honeycomb patterned ventilation grids made of mim, the same grids as you have on the front of sports cars. The back of the case is engraved with the plan of the Monte Carlo racetrack and with the signature of the five-time world champion Sebastien Loeb and No 1/1.

“It is one of the the most precise models in the world,” confirms Ruchonnet. “It has a constant force escapement thanks to the chain, and a ‘gear shift’ …well much the same as if it was a gear shift. And the tourbillion is fed by a constant force from the chain.”

 

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For more information contact:
Ita McCobb
Patrizzi & Co Auctioneers SA
Tel +41 22 318 28 38
e-mail i.mccobb@patrizziauction.com

Audrey Baylac
Association Monégasque contre les Myopathies / Monaco Yacht Show
Tel +377 93 10 41 70
e-mail audrey@monacoyachtshow.mc