There are plenty of brands sat at my periphery that I generally enjoy from afar, or pay attention to for future reference (comes with the territory), and one of them is Krayon. This brand is the vessel through which part watchmaker, part engineer, Rémi Maillat brings his visions to life, confronting our relationship with the sun in the process. In this latest release, dubbed the Anywhere Arborea, the brand’s signature poetic complication of displaying the time of the sunrise and sunset, is paired with a dial motif inspired by Henri Rousseau’s masterpiece The Virgin Forest at Sunset (1910). The result is quite stunning, and leans into the conceptual nature of art and time, and our relationship with it.
The Anywhere collection of watches from Krayon appear relatively straightforward at a glance, but they feature the remarkable ability to track the time of the sunrise and sunset through a set of discs that continually adjust through the year to account for the seasons. This novel complication developed by Maillat requires the use of an adjustable cam, which is the focal point of the movement when viewed through the caseback. The location of the wearer is set once when purchased, and when given the correct month, date and time, the watch will track the length of the day with a reasonable amount of accuracy to between 5 and 10 minutes.
Displaying this information is generally a sticking point for watches that employ similar complications, and this is where Krayon steps into form. The center of the dial displays the hours and minutes, as well as indicates the month and date as you might typically expect, though it leaves a gap between itself and the case, and this is where the day and night discs are displayed, along with a likeness of the sun, which makes a 24 hour rotation. The discs themselves contract and expand to show the length of the day as it shifts between seasons, along with the time of the sunset and sunrise. It’s a simple visual cue that effectively communicates the amount of daylight you have left at a glance.
The Anywhere watch manages all of this within a 39mm case that measures just 9.5mm in thickness. For the Anywhere Arborea, Krayon is using platinum, underscoring the limited and special nature of the watch, which comes courtesy of the dial. The dial is done in an abstract manner here, but the source of the design is clear, and its inspiration is a direct complement to the complication being displayed. The dial bears the likeness of a lush garden as depicted by Henri Rousseau, which can be seen as its own indication of the season.
The center of the dial consists of 575 miniature alveola, each a slightly different size and shape, which are hand-painted by an artist. This mosaic expression is unique, and quite compelling at this scale. The reference material is clear when viewed as a whole, but not direct in any sense. What they’ve achieved here is a work of art in its own right. Just 15 examples of the Anywhere Arborea will be produced, and with any luck, we’ll see additional seasonal dependent landscapes expressed in a similar manner in the future. Krayon