ill robots rule all our lives one day? Or will Czapek’s Rare People escape that fate? Might the answer be found in Czapek & Cie’s new Antarctique Rattrapante ‘R.U.R.’, where a robot adds a playful animation to the mechanics revealed beneath the grey-metallised sapphire dial? As the chronograph function is activated, the robot’s eyes change colour: press start, the eyes turn yellow (recalling Shrikes in the movie Mortal Engines). Stop: they turn red. And on reset they turn blue.

A closer look reveals more details that distinguish the R.U.R. dial from previous Antarctique Rattrapante models: the white chronograph hand, the blue aluminium rattrapante hand with a white tip. On the peripheral chronograph seconds register and the two sub-dials, ‘XX’ symbols represent the robot’s language – a language invented for R.U.R. that takes its roots from the Predator movies’ Yautja alphabet (remember the count-down?) and plays with the X of Xavier (no prizes for guessing who was behind that idea!) The robot’s head, created by Czapek’s valued partner MD’Art is a miniature work of art and technology in its own right. Made of titanium, it was cut, hand-polished and laser-engraved; each of its eyes is micro-painted by hand using neon tones of the three colours.

“When we launched the Antarctique Rattrapante in 2021, one of our shareholders immediately suggested incorporating a robot into the movement, as a way of celebrating the beauty of the mechanism,” says Xavier de Roquemaurel, CEO of Czapek & Cie. “Since the pursuit of mechanical and aesthetic Beauty is central to our philosophy of watchmaking at Czapek and we are always thinking about different ways of approaching it, we loved the idea of a robot – a playful mix of aesthetics and mechanics – but the real impetus for the robot idea came from further away…”

The Czapek team’s discovery that the word robot had been introduced to the wider world exactly a century earlier by another man called Čapek (with the Czech spelling), made the rattrapante-with-robot idea irresistible. A prominent Czech intellectual, Karel Čapek was deeply concerned about the scientific materialism that emerged in the early 20th century. His play, R.U.R. – Rossum’s Universal Robots, about mechanical men that were built to work on factory assembly lines but that rebel against their human masters, was a critique of the dehumanising potential of science and technology. First performed in Prague in 1921, within two years it had been translated into 30 languages. (The original first edition is in the Museum of Science-Fiction in Yverdon, Switzerland.)

In early drafts of his play, Čapek named his creatures labori, after the Latin root for labour, then, at the suggestion of his brother, Josef, Čapek opted for the Czech roboti – robots in English. The word had, in fact, first been cited in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1839, referring to a ‘central European system of serfdom, by which a tenant’s rent was paid in forced labour’. Thanks to Čapek, ‘robot’ has come to mean the humanoid machines of science-fiction novels and films and his play paved the way for dystopian sci-fi scenarios such as Terminator and Blade Runner. A century after R.U.R., we hear echoes of Čapek’s worldview in current discussions about automation, artificial intelligence, the cloud-based network of power that increasingly governs our lives, the ethics of transhumanism… essentially the same profound and important questions about the relationship between humanity and technology that concerned Karel Čapek.

Created in collaboration with Jean-François Mojon of Chronode, Czapek’s Calibre SXH6 effectively turns the split-seconds chronograph movement inside-out to reveal the beauty of the rattrapante mechanism. While a chronograph mechanism is normally on the underside of a calibre, in the Antarctique Rattrapante the split-seconds mechanism takes centre stage on the dial side. A tripod bridge in the centre holds down a patented satellite minute train and split-second mechanism. Each half of the movement is visually anchored by a column wheel – one at 12 for the chronograph and one at 6 for the split-seconds mechanism. The entire operation of the chronograph mechanism is laid open for the viewer to enjoy: the engagement of the horizontal clutch, the action of the rattrapante clamps, and the way that the two column wheels work opposite one another and in tandem with the activation of the two pushers.

With a split-seconds chronograph, the viewer tends to focus on the movement of the hands. However, with the changing colours of the robot’s eyes on the Antarctique Rattrapante R.U.R., attention is drawn directly to the mechanical beauty and complex operation of the split-seconds mechanism. Following the design principle of integrating form and function, the robot is set on top of the chronograph column wheel so that, each click of the column wheel (triggered by activating the stop-reset-start pushers) directly translates into a changed eye colour.

However, like many of Czapek’s playful – and deceptively simple – ideas, the robot presented plenty of challenges. Finding the finish for the head that would best enhance its volumes and contrast with the surrounding elements took a great deal of experimentation with different techniques and textures. Choosing the right colour and finish to ensure the vibrancy of the eyes and contrast with the head also involved a lot of back-and-forth with materials and techniques. When working at such a level of detail, the slightest change to one element affects the balance of the whole. To ensure perfect mounting of the head on the movement, Chronode developed a special assembly jig to help index all the wheels and related parts to the head.

A split-seconds chronograph is one of watchmaking’s most prestigious complications – distinguished from regular chronographs by a pair of clamps that instantly immobilises one of the chronograph wheels when the split-seconds pusher is activated. Meanwhile, the other chronograph hand continues to count the time. When the clamps are released, the immobilised hand will ‘catch up’ (rattraper in French) with its companion.

In the bowels of its split-second mechanism, the Antarctique Rattrapante R.U.R. hides an ingenious mechanism: an isolator. Thanks to a lever, the isolator enables the split-seconds mechanism to completely decouple the two chronograph seconds wheels without generating friction in the rest of the mechanism. This sharply reduces the chronometric disturbances that may occur during use of the split-second function. With this additional function, the R.U.R. represents a step forward in the construction of the Czapek split-second chronograph.

Czapek’s calibres are distinguished by a wealth of haute horlogerie hand-finishing on the components, creating a play of light that amplifies the beauty of the movement architecture. On the dial, the mirror-polished heads of the screws and column wheels and the hand-bevelled levers and bridges contrast with the matte sandblasted finish of the main plate. On the reverse side, visible through the sapphire crystal caseback, an oscillating weight made of 5N recycled rose gold is complemented by matte bead-blasted bridges outlined by hand-polished chamfers and other finishes including circular satin-polished wheels and black-polished screws. The rotor winds a single barrel that provides the 4Hz movement with 60 hours of running autonomy. Complementing the sleek design of the 42.5 mm. case, the integrated bracelet echoes the movement finishing with its combination of brushed surfaces and highly polished C-shaped links.

The 77-piece Czapek Antarctique Rattrapante ‘R.U.R.’ edition will be available as of September 5th 2025 at authorised Czapek dealers worldwide, the Czapek boutique in Geneva at 18 rue de la Corraterie, and at Czapek.com.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• FUNCTIONS • Split-second monopusher chronograph, hours, minutes & seconds • Chronograph’s minutes at 4:30 • Small seconds at 7:30 • Split-second pusher at 10:30 • Rattrapante ON/OFF indicator at 6:00 • Indication of the chronograph state by the robot head at 12:00

• MOVEMENT • Calibre SXH6: haute horlogerie automatic • power-horse movement with a split-second • monopusher chronograph module • Power reserve: 60 hours • Frequency: 4 Hz - 28’800 VpH • Variable inertia balance wheel • Two column wheels, chronograph horizontal • clutch • 49 jewels, 441 components • Recycled 5N rose gold rotor with Czapek logo • Diameter: 34mm

• FINISH • Finely shotblasted bridges with hand-polished • chamfers • Linear satin-finished chronograph levers with hand-polished chamfers • Circular satin-finished wheels • Black-polished screws, studs and column wheels

• CASE • 42.5mm stainless-steel case • Lug to lug : 46.6mm • Height (with glass-box): 15.3mm • Perceived height (bezel to case-back): 10.5mm • Sapphire crystal glass-box with anti-reflective treatment • Sapphire case back with anti-reflective treatment on the inner side • Water resistance: 12 atm • Screwed-down crown

• BRACELET • Integrated stainless steel bracelet with Czapek • exclusive “Easy Release” system & micro adjustment device • Complementary rubber strap • Additional calf leather strap on demand

• DIAL • Open-worked split-second chronograph on the dial side (world première) • Robot head indicating the chronograph state: running (yellow), stopped (red), and reset (blue) • Sword hours and minutes hands with SuperLuminova treatment • Split-second hand in blue with white tip • Main seconds hand in white with blue tip • Grey fumé sapphire glass minutes ring and counters made with PVD evaporation