Canadian Watchmaker Bradley Taylor Goes Solo With The Paragon
Watchmaker goes it alone after his brand closed during the pandemic.
Canadian watchmaker Bradley Taylor has revealed his first solo watch, the Paragon, a 39mm stainless steel 3Hz automatic, he produced in a spare bedroom during the pandemic.
Taylor, who is based in Kitsilano, Vancouver, produced the watch to develop his own individual style, searching for a modern guilloché (the finely engraved repeating patterns on traditional dials) style as well as seeking to explore hand and numeral design.
In the spirit of traditional établissage (or division of labor) watchmaking, Taylor turned to perhaps the world’s most renowned dial-maker Kari Voutilainen and his Swiss dial-making company, Comblémine. The new La Tornade guilloché pattern can be seen running around the border of the dial and again on the small seconds sub dial, this time in reverse.
Taylor turned to Canadian typographer Ian Brignell to create a distinct set of numerals to serve as hour markers, which are machined before being finely polished and then individually applied, and the ‘Bradley Taylor’ word set which is printed on the dial.
Each carbon steel hand is first laser cut to achieve the correct profile and then shaped and polished by hand, with each taking 20 hours to perfect before being heat treated to attain the correct color, which customers can specify.
Taylor selected the recently developed 5401/32 automatic movement from Vaucher SA (the movement manufacturer owned by Parmigiani Fleurier which has suppled movements to Richard Mille among others) to power the Paragon. The movement features hand-finished internal bevels, Cotes de Geneve striping and a 22k yellow gold winding rotor, which Comblémine finished with the same La Tornade guilloché pattern. The watch is also water resistant to 120m.
Taylor, who trained in Le Locle Switzerland until 2015, was one half of Birchall and Taylor, the first Canadian fine watchmaking brand, that closed its doors for good in the face of COVID-19 despite showing great promise with its debut Reference 1 and 1R watches, of which 35 were sold around the world.
Taylor will produce just 12 pieces of the Paragon with each priced $22,000 USD, head over to the watchmaker’s site for more information.
Elsewhere in watches, Girard-Perregaux produces a one-off sapphire crystal Quasar to celebrate Chinese New Year.
