Operation Benedict
The Arceau Harnais Français by Hermès is a very special timepiece. Not only is it distinctive because of the maison’s signature stirrup-like asymmetrical lugs, this watch’s porcelain dial also is engraved and hand-painted with harnessed horses wearing glittering headdresses. The scene pays homage to the Harnais Français Remix silk scarf, which was designed by Hermès artist Hugo Grygkar, who was an in-house designer from the 1940s to 1959. Produced in a limited and numbered series of 24, the gem-set white gold case is worn with a raspberry-coloured alligator strap.
This rainbow-skull watch is the latest limited edition released by HYT as part of its wacky Drop collection. Housed in a black Dlc-steel case, 668 carefully selected gemstones, from sparkling sapphires and amethysts to moss-green tsavorites, bring this kooky watch to life.
“Rainbow”, it’s a safe bet that the watch isn’t the only item in the owner’s collection. Like that Kermitcoloured Aventador, it’s something a bon vivant might enjoy taking to the streets every now and then.
Colour is generally associated with happiness, fun and positivity. Combining multiple colours is particularly optimistic. Those who’ve managed to secure a Rolex Daytona “Rainbow” have reason to be especially ebullient, as these sought-after watches have proven a savvy investment, selling at auction for more than double their retail purchase price. A 2018 model, for example, which was originally bought for US$93,000, sold at a Sotheby’s auction just one year later for US$296,000. Since 2012, Rolex has produced white-, yellow- and pink-gold iterations, each featuring bezels bedazzled with 36 baguettecut sapphires in graduated hues, a further 11 coloured-sapphire hour markers on the dial and 56 diamonds studding the lugs and crown. All this bling comes at a steep cost, of course.
Those seeking a more accessible and rather less audacious way to ‘taste the rainbow’ (as the old Skittles slogan put it) might consider the new Breitling Superocean Heritage ’57 Limited Edition II, which starts at a modest US$4,520. The ‘sequel’ to a similar version with a black dial issued in an edition of 250 pieces in April, this new 1,000-piece release featuring a blue dial and concave design will benefit frontline healthcare workers involved in the fight against Covid-19. In total, Breitling will donate US$500,000 to the cause, split among charities in the UK, US, France, Japan, Italy and Spain. While the design is based
on a Breitling from the 1950s, its rainbow-graduated hour markers references the lively tones of Eighties surfwear. Radical, dude.
If purple is too pedestrian, Zenith claims to have come as close as possible to visualising the invisible colour frequency of ultraviolet with its new Defy 21 Ultraviolet chronograph. The moniker is an allusion to the fact that this is the highest-frequency chronograph on the market, accurately timing down to one-hundredth of a second. In a gunmetal grey, sandblasted titanium case, the violet motif is woven into the fabric-and-rubber strap and pops in the splashes of purple punctuating the state-of-theart El Primero 9004 movement.
London-based bespoke atelier Bamford Watch Department first gained renown for diamond-like carbon blacked-out timepieces. Yet this reputation for a gothic bent belies the fact that Bamford embraces bold colour like few others in horology. I’ve described Bamford, heavily influenced by motoring and its often-brash liveries, as a hot-rodder for watches, transforming standard machinery into one-of-a-kind wonders, in much the same way that early street-racers souped up old Model T Fords into fast-and-furious rides.
The Ford reference is particularly apt when talking about one of
Bamford’s latest joint efforts. In collaboration with watch and jewellery innovator James Thompson (aka Black Badger) and watchmaker Tag Heuer, Bamford has augmented Heuer’s iconic Carrera watches with unique multicoloured dials, handcrafted by Thompson from an extraordinary substance named Fordite. This material forms from years of runoff paint buildup in Ford’s Michigan automaking plants; when hunks of the waste matter are sanded or cut, remarkable swirling patterns appear. The result: singular timepieces with mesmerising dial designs that subtly hint at a need for speed—and a highly colourful personality.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of the alarmingly awkward Sherlock Holmes has catapulted his career to unimaginable heights. Before donning the detective’s hat in 2010, the distinctive-looking London native landed several quirky acting jobs. He’s played theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, Van Gogh and, lest we forget, the hair-raising paedophile in Atonement (2007). But it was his fast-talking performance as the private investigator, which Steven Spielberg has called “the best Sherlock Holmes on screen”, that transformed Cumberbatch into a high-cheekboned dreamboat, quite literally overnight.
Now 43, Cumberbatch has proven to be the ultimate chameleon, having played everyone from Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate (2013). His portrayal of British mathematician Alan Turing, who cracked Nazi Germany’s Enigma military code during the Second World War, earned him Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. This year, the performer stars in true-life drama The Courier, which is set for an August 28 theatrical release.
This Sixties-based spy story bursts with intrigue and political subterfuge, but what was Cumberbatch’s most memorable moment on set? “The last scene we shot because I got to eat a doughnut afterwards,” he tells me. For the role, he lost a striking amount of weight to transform himself into British businessman Greville Wynne, who spied on the Soviet Union during the Cold War and spent 18 months in a Moscow prison after being caught. Directed by Dominic Cooke, The Courier is based on Wynne’s real-life experiences, and production had to be suspended to give Cumberbatch enough time to slim down to Wynne’s post-lockup figure.
Drawn to characters he describes as “unexpected”, Cumberbatch enjoys the challenge of an on-screen transformation. But when asked about his greatest achievement, he refuses to answer. “That’s a question for others. Getting my first paid acting job felt as good as anything I’ve been lucky enough to land.” His thoughtfulness has somehow survived super-stardom. “Life’s about the journey,” he reminds me, before admitting that winning his first BAFTA for the title role in Patrick Melrose (2019) was a “wonderful moment”.
For Cumberbatch, there was never any doubt about which road his career would take. When asked what he would do if he could no longer act, he draws a blank. “I have no idea. Maybe I’d be a surf instructor in Costa Rica. Or a tree surgeon.” The only child of British actors Tim Carlton of Downton Abbey (2011) and Wanda Ventham of Only Fools and Horses (1989-1992), Cumberbatch grew up in London’s exclusive Kensington neighbourhood before attending Harrow, one of the oldest all-boys schools in Britain. From there, he headed straight to drama school. On advice from an agent, he began calling himself Benedict Cumberbatch—adopting the surname his father had dropped years before, thinking it too complicated.
You’d be wrong, however, to assume it’s all been smooth sailing. While filming the BBC mini-series To the Ends of the Earth (2005), Cumberbatch and two of his
co-stars were kidnapped in Kwazulu-natal, South Africa, after a day spent scuba-diving. When the trio pulled over with a flat tyre, six men jumped them at gunpoint. After a visit to the ATM, the hijackers let them go. Surprisingly, this harrowing ordeal hasn’t put Cumberbatch off the underwater sport. “I’ve loved diving ever since I learned how to do it with a friend in Mozambique years ago.”
It’s one of the reasons Cumberbatch wears a JaegerLecoultre Polaris Memovox. The original from 1968 had one of the first diver’s alarms, which would remind divers when it was time to resurface. Cumberbatch was introduced to the Swiss watchmaker when he starred in Doctor Strange (2016), in which he plays one of Marvel’s more mind-blowing superheroes. He’s currently learning lines for the sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (planned for 2022).
“In 2016, Jaeger-lecoultre was just another watch brand to me,” admits Cumberbatch, but he learned more about the company after visiting its manufacture in Vallée de Joux. Engraving and enamelling require hours of minute manipulation. “There was a George Seurat masterpiece called Bathers at Asnières projected onto a screen that was the size of the original painting,” he recalls. “Not understanding what I was looking at, I turned around and saw that a lady was painting it onto the back of a Reverso watch, which is no bigger than a postage stamp. She was doing it with a brush barely bigger than a millimetre.”
Halfway across the world, at the time of interview, Cumberbatch and his family were adjusting to life after lockdown in New Zealand, where he is filming Jane Campion’s upcoming drama The Power of Dog (planned for 2021). He and his wife, the stage director Sophie Hunter, have two sons, Christopher (nicknamed Kit) and Hal. “I’ve tried to maintain some sense of sanity by using lockdown as a forced opportunity to be in one place.” Fun-filled activities include learning how to play the banjo and baking bread. “Actually,” he contemplates, “it’s been really busy.” And a good thing too, because we won’t have to wait long before we see him back on the big screen.