Trilobe’s Trente-Deux Secret Edition treats time as memory made visible. Each dial is a bespoke star map that fixes a chosen date, time, and place. It is intimate work, more keepsake than canvas, and it asks the owner to supply the poetry.
The sky is not guessed at. Trilobe calculates stellar positions with an algorithm informed by Jean Meeus’s “Astronomical Algorithms” and integrates the variations in Earth’s motion. In practice, it means the constellations you remember are the ones you see. The rendering is quietly obsessive too. Constellations are first engraved, then pad printed in powdered silver through micro deposits, layer by layer. Lacquer adds depth so the stars seem to hover, a small orchestra of light above a dark field.
The house complication remains the point of view. Hours, minutes, and seconds run on three co-planar rings, read against fixed pointers. It is legible once learned, and pleasingly free of theatrics. Underneath, the in-house X-Nihilo calibre brings a 42-hour reserve at 4 Hz, with 34 jewels and 218 components. Design to assembly is kept in Paris at the Trilobe Manufacture, which suits the watch’s measured character.
The case is 39.5 mm across, 10.15 mm thick, with a 46.18 mm span from lug to lug. Water resistance is 5 bar. Dials carry a sunburst lacquer, with an azuré and Clou de Paris seconds wheel for a touch of texture that does not shout over the sky.
Two expressions set the tone. In 316L steel, the watch comes on a matching bracelet, with an optional rubber strap. In 18-carat rose gold, it arrives on a rubber strap color matched to the sunray dial. The strap is not an afterthought. Its grained surface and grooved underside keep comfort high, while vertical lines and chamfers echo the case finishing. A small duck motif on the underside nods to water resistance and to Trilobe’s impish side. Construction is robust too, with material injection in a steel mold and a metal insert for the case connection, plus a double folding clasp linked within the rubber.
The Secret Edition began as Gautier Massonneau’s idea and took two years of development before the concept became a reliable customization. The result serves memory without fuss. As a collector, I admire the restraint. No star overwhelms the time, and no graphic trick excuses imprecision. It simply lets your moment breathe on the dial.
Pricing: Trente-Deux Secret 316L Steel (3201SB) 21 500€ exc. tax. Trente-Deux Secret 18k Rose Gold (3203SB) 39 500€ exc. tax.
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