Whether you’re talking vintage watches, designer handbags or other production items, desirability increases with the size of the collector audience. A famous owner, intrinsic rarity, a film tie-in – add any of these to an object of interest and you’ll see why, for example, a Nasa-issued Omega Speedmaster is worth 10 times that of the same watch without the link. For the Andersen Genève x BCHH Celestial Voyager Supersonic, the added appeal is aeronautical.

In collaboration with Benjamin Chee Haute Horlogerie (BCHH) – a Singapore-based high horology brand for one-of-a-kind collector timepieces – Andersen Genève has created the BCHH Celestial Voyager Supersonic world timer. Here we already have two types of collector who will covet the watch: fans of the brand and those partial to watches that show the 24 time zones. Another enhancement for covetability, there will only be 20 examples of this artisanal timepiece. So far, so special.

Next, there’s the appeal to collectors of a particularly rarefied nature: the watch features a champlevé dial. These decorative faces are always hard to come by as they require skilled artists to produce the dials by hand. But the design that fills the centre of the BCHH Celestial Voyager Supersonic dial will excite two more collector types. It shows the much-missed Concorde in flight over the Chrysler Building in New York City.

Concorde enthusiasts will swoon, as will devotees of the New York City skyline. If Andersen Genève’s goal was to create for BCHH a watch that celebrates the romance of travel, it has amplified the sensation by featuring the most celebrated civilian aircraft in the history of flight.

Concorde probably inspired more watch users to acquire world timers than any other means of travel, as it could cross the Atlantic in less than four hours. It managed this by reaching a speed of more than 1,350mph (Mach 2.04). Such a legendary aircraft merits a timepiece imbued with the spirit of the traveller. Only a world timer will suffice, featuring a complication that shows all 24 time zones. Founder Svend Andersen mastered this key model’s requirements during his tenure in Patek Philippe’s Grand Complications workshops in the 1970s. Patek Philippe was one of the first houses to employ the world timer – created by Louis Cottier – and Svend was so inspired that he introduced his own in 1990, a decade after founding Andersen Genève.

Andersen Genève’s first collaboration with BCHH, in 2021, was the birth of the original Celestial Voyager series, seven watches with unique cloisonné enamel dials. The Celestial Voyager Supersonic has been limited to 20 to match the number of Concorde aircraft that were built. Like the 2021 Celestial Voyager, the new Supersonic features a traditional Cottier-inspired design with rotating city and 24-hour rings, and dual ultra-thin crowns either side of the case.

Only five pieces can be produced each year due to their work-intensive, hand-built nature. Each can be personalised at the client’s request, with the arrangement of the stars, city names and the livery on the Concorde suitable for customisation. The sky is surrounded by the 24-city ring, made of aventurine stone.

Andersen Genève chose platinum for the slim 37.8mm case, with the back bezel made of Grade 5 titanium, as employed in modern aircraft. The sapphire glass back allows the wearer to view the watch’s automatic movement with a winding rotor in 21ct BlueGold, a proprietary Andersen Genève material, decorated with wave-form guillochage engraving and embossed with the silhouette of the Concorde. Lastly, further ensuring its provenance, a mother-of-pearl ring around the movement bears the names of Benjamin Chee Haute Horlogerie and Andersen Genève.

£POA; andersen-geneve.ch