Watch Review: Carl F. Bucherer Heritage Bicompax Annual Chronograph Watch

Watch Review: Carl F. Bucherer Heritage Bicompax Annual Chronograph Watch - Printable Version

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Watch Review: Carl F. Bucherer Heritage Bicompax Annual Chronograph Watch - admin - 08-21-2024

Since its launch in 2019, I have wanted to review this Carl F. Bucherer Heritage Bicompax Annual Chronograph for the simple reason that there are few others out there like it. Let us dive right in and see how it fares under greater scrutiny.

First, the feature set. As its name aptly describes it, this Heritage Bicompax Annual — Universal Genève anoraks will take issue with the “bicompax” bit, but we will leave that to them in the comments — offers the date with an annual calendar and big-date display complication. On a personal note, the annual calendar is my favorite calendar variation, because it can offer a good balance between mechanical and indication complexity and cost. The difference between this and a full-fledged perpetual calendar is that the former requires manual adjustment at the end of every February, while the latter does not.
That’s the con, but the pro is that you do get a month display — it is essential, otherwise, when setting up your watch, how else could you tell which month the watch is accounting for — and you get to enjoy the mechanism automagically adjusting itself at the end of April, June, September, and November. So a perpetual calendar is more exciting on exactly one midnight in a year — if that is what you are after, more power to you, just be aware that it can often be a lot more expensive than regular or even annual calendar watches.

Pushers above the plane of the crown — a solid hint at a dial-side module.

Then there is the chronograph, apparently built into the same ingenious module from Dubois-Dépraz. When we say module, what you will want to imagine is an added layer of cams, wheels, and plates fitted onto the dial side of the ETA 2894 base movement. The “dial side” is the important bit there, because if you flip the Carl F. Bucherer Heritage Bicompax Annual Chronograph around, its caseback will only reveal a familiar sight: that of a base ETA caliber. There are no wheels, heart-shaped cams, or arms that you would normally associate with a chronograph’s caseback view, simply because these all are installed on the dial side.

Power reserve is brief at 42 hours, operating frequency is solid at 4Hz, and the self-winding is reasonably quiet — a small detail of the 2894 that will be greatly appreciated by those like me who are driven up the wall by whirring, noisy self-winding systems. The movement, dubbed CFB1972, is a high-grade ETA, which entails an elaborate finish with extensive use of perlage, gold letters, and an open-worked rotor. On a personal note, I much prefer this to the “industrial” look of many of today’s manufacture movements, including those from Kenissi.

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On the upside, this means that every indication, including the big date and the month, are tucked right up close against the dial. There is no need to use unsightly cyclops magnifiers and/or to go hunting for a date display somewhere several layers below the plane of the dial; instead, everything is up close to the wearer just as it would be on a non-chronograph watch. A fun quirk (and nothing more) is that I reckon there is at least some connection between this Carl F. Bucherer Heritage Bicompax Annual and the famous Richard Mille RM011 range (and later 11-02, etc.). If you look at the dial layout and feature set, they are exactly the same: Running seconds at 3, chronograph minutes counter at 9, big date display at 12, month display for the annual calendar at 04:30. You tell me if this is a coincidence.

The end result is an unusual dial with an asymmetrical layout that somehow still looks natural and calculated. The proportions are almost perfect across every element — nothing is too brash, too large, or the opposite at too petite or too insignificant. The subdial texts and even the month display won’t be an easy read for those with troubled near-sight vision, although this is true for most all complicated-looking watches with numerous features of this size.

At the right angle, in direct sunlight, the dial is blindingly reflective (see the photo directly above), revealing its metallic sunburst finish that is otherwise overpowered by a saturated color palette that ranges from red gold through bronze to salmon. It is one expensive-looking dial, with numerous surface treatments — all beautifully executed. Turn the watch away from the sun and the sunburst finish completely disappears and a grained, almost frosted-like treatment takes its place, darkening the color and increasing the contrast between the base and the various texts and indications. In a world of cheap and simple lacquered dials — at this price point and well beyond — this impressively technical dial is like a breath of fresh air that is fun to appreciate.