tony p
567
Alf Lie: Spirit of the Norse
The Viking Age is the name given to that historical period between the end of the sixth century AD, and the Norman Conquest of England in the year 1066. During this time, intrepid seafarers from the Scandinavian lands now known as Norway, Sweden and Denmark, navigated new paths across the oceans, not just to the British Isles, but further on to such far-flung destinations as Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland in the West, and North Africa, Jerusalem and even Baghdad in the Middle East.
Being sailors at heart, the Vikings apparently never penetrated as far within the European land mass as Switzerland. However, one modern-day Norwegian watchmaker appears set to achieve this conquest, previously denied to his forebears.
Espen Saastad
Mr Espen Saastad (pronounced approximately like "saw-stud") is a third-generation watchmaker from Norway who has just released a pair of highly ambitious watches under the Alf Lie brand name. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Saastad at the "A Journey Through Time III" watch fair, which has just opened at Kuala Lumpur's premier high-end shopping centre, Starhill Galleries. I was amazed to be told by Mr Saastad, as I inspected and (poorly) photographed his two new watches, that the second of them was finished only a day or two before he was due to leave Oslo for Malaysia. Thus, the watches have not even been shown in his own country. Starhill Galleries can therefore claim a true World Premier for this new watch.
To trace the full history behind the Alf Lie name, we must cast our gaze back to 1836, the year one Michael Paulsen founded a watch retailership in Oslo. His business flourished for the next seventy-odd years until it was purchased by another renowned Norwegian watchmaker, Alf Lie. Lie proceeded to build up an international profile as a watchmaker, retailer and repairer, both in Norway and also (in true Viking tradition) across the Atlantic in the USA, where his services were in demand from the most discerning collectors. Henry Ford and the Vanderbilt family were among Alf Lie's list of celebrity clients.
Alf Lie's retailership boasted a thriving relationship with the Swiss watch industry, seeing them casing Patek Philippe movements into their pocket watches from the 1920s onwards; and later, using movements from PP as well as Ulysse Nardin, Movado and Zenith, for Alf Lie wristwatches. Indeed, I was told by Mr Saastad that there exist some wristwatches from the 1950s and 1960s bearing the names of both Alf Lie and Patek Philippe on the dial!
Espen Saastad himself hails from a family of watchmakers, and it came about that the Saastad family purchased the Alf Lie brand in 2000. Gradually Espen began to formulate a grand plan to pay tribute to his own ancestry, the watchmaking heritage of Alf Lie, and the Norwegian horological tradition in general, by releasing an ambitious new wristwatch.
Espen's vision was for a watch with groundbreaking case design and a top-quality, highly complicated movement, which would pay tribute to the Alf Lie company's illustrious history, while breaking away from its longstanding tradition of very classical but somewhat staid designs. His idea was for a masculine and sporty, yet at the same time sensuous and futuristic timepiece.
Alf Lie "Grand Nor" tourbillon monopoussoir chronograph in polished and brushed titanium
The resulting design, portentously titled "Grand Nor", features a tonneau-shaped case with a swooping, curvilinear silhouette in titanium, over which arch a pair of dramatic stainless steel "bars", running along the left and right hand edges of the case front. These bars evoke the imagery of modern architecture, and simultaneously of the handrails of an ultra-sleek private yacht - could this be the influence of a genetic memory from Mr Saastad's Viking forebears?
Whatever their subconscious origin, the Grand Nor's bars are very deliberately intended to create a strong brand identity for the new range of Alf Lie watches; and they also serve an obvious practical function of protecting the sapphire crystal and bezel of the watch's casefront.
For the mechanical heart of this new watch, Espen collaborated with BNB Concept's Matthias Bouttet in the creation of an entirely new, manual-winding movement, featuring a 5-day power reserve and a tourbillon, as well as a monopusher chronograph governed by a column wheel. The movement (designated Cal. 1450AE) is open-worked, with the chronograph's sub-register indices being incorporated into the movement's bridges.
At rear, instead of a baseplate we find a number of further bridges, arranged in parallel lines to impart a sense of transparency and lightness, yet retaining structural rigidity for mounting of the moving parts.
Lightness is what the Grand Nor is all about. All of the movement bridges, front and rear, are crafted from a highly unusual aluminium/lithium alloy which saves weight while imparting great strength to the movement's architecture. Combined with its titanium casework, the resulting timepiece is startlingly light, almost RM009-like in its lack of heft. And yet, with the monocoque design of the Grand Nor's exterior and the extra torsional rigidity imparted by its swooping bars, this watch feels as tightly built as a racing Ferrari.
To finish off the elegant curved lines of the Grand Nor's exterior, a tightly-integrated rubber strap is offered with a deployant clasp (the latter was not available at the time of showing). Alternatively, an alligator strap will also be offered. The watch case is available either in fully brushed titanium, or in polished titanium with brushed titanium "feet" for the bars (rendered for both models in polished stainless steel - sensible, given the likelihood of their attracting most of the knocks and blows of daily usage). A decent-sized knurled crown is capped by the "AL" logo in a rather elegant font; and the monopusher button at 2 o'clock boasts a somewhat nautical profile, although I'm not sure whether this was deliberate or merely arose from the necessity of following the side contours of the case.
Personally I was not entirely convinced by the layout chosen for the Grand Nor's chrono sub-registers; while I have no objection to their positioning at 2 and 4 o'clock, I found their bridge extensions, which drop down to anchor points at the bottom edge of the bezel, slightly odd. However, there was no doubting the beauty of the tourbillon at 6 o'clock, with its "AL" cage echoing the charming inscription on the watch's crown; that same logo forms also the chrono hands' counterbalances. This is a very subtle branding for a watch which in reality needs no more than this - so unusual is its overall design, I feel that the Grand Nor will be instantly recognisable as an Alf Lie watch from across a crowded room, logo or no.
Another subtlety is the inclusion of a rather discreet power reserve indicator at 8pm.
Overall this watch is no slouch in the complications department, boasting a monopusher chrono, tourbillon and 5-day power reserve with its own indicator. The first series will be limited in production to around fifteen pieces, although Espen was at pains to stress to me that this is no "limited edition" - further series will undoubtedly follow. Nevertheless my guess is that variations will inevitably be introduced into future models, sufficient to distinguish this first series as a true collector's item.
On hearing the rather ambitious price of CHF260,000 for the Grand Nor, I felt obliged to challenge Espen on the matter of "value proposition" for a potential purchaser of this timepiece. After all, that sort of money can buy you a hell of a lot of watch from an established maker. His reply was that Alf Lie is indeed an established maker, with the roots of the company being continuously traceable back by more than 170 years - making it in fact an older firm even than its illustrious former movement supplier, Patek Philippe. According to Espen, the Alf Lie customer will be buying into a brand with a long and grand tradition, and the watch itself justifies its price by offering an exclusive movement with a high level of complications, an intricate and extremely difficult-to-execute case construction, and a powerfully stated design identity. I leave the reader to decide for themselves, with the caveat that the actual watch is much more impressive "in the metal" than in my execrably poor photos.
Overall, my impression is that the Alf Lie Grand Nor is not just another "me-too" über-complication tricked out in an oversized case. The level of finesse and originality in its design and execution are way too strong for that type of accusation. Price aside, this is a worthy new contender in what has recently become a surprisingly crowded field. Simply put, the Grand Nor is a beautiful-looking timepiece which owes little or nothing to the design cues of other high-end maisons. An impressive début offering from a recently re-launched brand (albeit one with a real history behind it), the Grand Nor marks Alf Lie out as a name to watch.
Cheers
Tony P
Technical Specifications - Alf Lie Grand Nor
Calibre ref: 1450 AE
Movement:
- Mechanical movement with tourbillon-type Swiss lever escapement
- Hand winding
- Standard analogue hour and minute display with central hands
- This basic calibre features a built in column-wheel chronograph visible on the dial side and copmrising two counters (seconds and minutes)
- Tonneau shape
- Width: 30.40mm
- Length: 32.90mm
- Thickness: 7.40mm
Indications:
- Hours and minutes
- Chronograph: 60-sec counter at 1.30, 30-min counter at 10.30
- Power-reserve indicator at 9 o'clock
Crown: two positions (winding and setting)
Push-piece: Single push-piece on the crown: start, stop, reset
Power reserve: 120 hours
Frequency: 21,600 vph
Number of parts: 265
Jewelling: 35
Water resistance: 30m (~100 feet)
Case: tonneau, titanium
Case dimensions:
- Length: 55.40mm (with horns)
- Width: 44.30mm
- Thickness: 16.90mm
Strap: rubber or hand-stitched leather
Clasp: folding type, titanium
Alf Lie: Spirit of the Norse
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