Robots, Rattrapantes, and Other Necessary Excesses

Czapek unveils its Antarctique Rattrapante ‘R.U.R.’ with a robot on the dial, a split-seconds complication turned inside-out, and a century-old Czech literary reference—because why not?

The contradiction could not be clearer: a Geneva maison resurrected in 2015, now grafting a titanium robot head onto a haute horlogerie rattrapante, all in the name of “beauty.” One imagines François Czapek, Napoleon III’s watchmaker, squinting in disbelief. And yet, this is the century we inhabit: robots and emperors share the same wrist. In a landscap…