Massena Lab’s latest collaboration is a steampunk regulator wristwatch created together with Vianney Halter. Blending the best of both their respective styles, the Old Soul is an unusual yet appealing proposition for collectors looking to get a sampling of the independent watchmaker’s best known works.

The Old Soul displays the time regulator-style, with the hours, minutes, and seconds on separate registers. But it indicates the minutes with a clever trick: a “floating” minute pointer on a clear sapphire disc. Inside is a vintage Minerva movement that’s been dressed up for the occasion but still recognisable as an early-20th century calibre.

Initial thoughts

The Old Soul a continuation of the collection that began with the Old School made together with Luca Soprana. If Massena Lab founder William Rohr’s aesthetic sensibilities prevailed with the earlier watch, it is Mr Halter’s signature style that dominates the Old Soul.

The Old Soul is unquestionably quirky — both as a whole and in the details. The watch looks like a regulator, but lacks the traditional vertical sub-dial arrangement. It also lacks a central minute hand, featuring instead a “floating” diamond-shaped pointer. The “floating” hand is a nifty optical illusion but it’s a straightforward concept that replaces the hand with a clear disc.

Inside the piece ticks an equally unexpected movement, a “new old stock” Minerva cal. 17.22. According to Massena Lab, it was the discovery of a forgotten batch of movements that prompted the development of the Old Soul. Bearing the hallmarks of classic pocket watch movements from the 1920s, the Minerva cal. 17.22 fits unexpectedly well with the Vianney Halter style. The movement has been decorated by hand, but has not been modernised. 

The lack of any complications, however, is slightly disappointing. With the Old School, Massena was somewhat constrained by the time-only “school watch” format. Here, there are arguably less constraints, especially given Mr Halter’s most famous works are complications. The regulator display feels a little plain, especially since it features a fine, but somewhat basic, movement. 

As with Vianney Halter’s past collaboration with Louis Erard, the lack of complications perhaps detracts from the Vianney Halter name. Admittedly such collaborations are more affordable compared to the watchmaker’s usual fare. The Old Soul is priced over CHF30,000, which accessible for a Vianney Halter, but substantial for a time-only watch of this type.

Dial, rivets, and a disc

The visual identity of the Old Soul is clearly the result of the collaborative work between Vianney Halter and William Rohr, the veteran industry personality who founded Massena Lab. The former is known for his steampunk, asymmetric designs, while the Old Soul in contrast is symmetrical with a wide and legible face. 

The dial itself feels generous, with a layered construction and classic details. The brushed, silvered railroad minutes track is traditional element, while the typeface of the numerals is clearly Vianney Halter’s. 

The most intriguing detail on the dial is the absence of a traditional minute hand. Instead, the creators opted for a “mystery” hand — a blued arrow on a thin sapphire disc, which leave the impression of a floating, minute-telling lozenge. 

The mysterious minute indicator, along with the horizontal arrangement of the seconds and hours sub-dials make for a unique and unexpectedly appealing regulator watch, which makes reading the time both easy and fun. 

A large, brushed plate obscures much of the dial, adding to the optical illusion of a “floating” minute hand. The stainless steel plate is fixed atop the sapphire crystal, which is something rarely seen. The plate is deeply engraved and layered, and of course features polished rivets, perhaps the best known signature of Vianney Halter.

There are a few details which add to the quirkiness of the Old Soul. One are the names of both creators printed on the underside of the sapphire crystal, but each in their respective fonts. And Mr Halter’s love for asymmetry is suggested by the differently-sized rivets that frame each sub dial.

A restrained case

All of Vianney Halter’s watches employ a case that is as much of a statement as the dial or movement. In this respect, the landmark Antiqua is the most notable, as is the more recent Deep Space. The Old Soul has an uncharacteristically restrained case, especially by Halter standards — perhaps a concession made to accommodate Massena Lab’s preference for quieter designs or maybe even more efficient manufacturing.

That being said, it is hardly plain. Measuring a large 42 mm in diameter, the case has a fairly tall concave bezel, which meets the sapphire crystal with a raised lip. The 42 mm diameter still feels a little large for such a piece and the size could have been easily shaved down by a few millimetres by reducing the bezel thickness. The well-proportioned lugs are stepped, polished along their edges, and appear classical in form.

Compared to the unusual dial and steel plate atop the crystal, the case looks like it might belong to another watch — yet it all works together very well.

One element that is clearly Vianney Halter is the flat crown featuring two rows of tall rivet heads. The riveted crown is a signature Vianney Halter element — although its practicality for hand-wound pieces is debatable. 

The case back bears a simple but meaningful fine engraving: “Time is the Fire in which we burn”. A verse by American poet Delmore Schwartz, the phrase was uttered in a Star Trek movie — a nod to Mr Halter’s widely confessed love for the sci-fi franchise.

Vintage movement

Inside each of the 47 examples ticks an “old soul” — repurposed Minerva cal. 17.22. These hand-wound movements come from a bygone era of quality ebauches, long before Minerva was acquired by Montblanc. Developed and built in the early 1920s and fitted to pocket watches up until the mid 1940s, the cal. 17.22 indeed looks like a pocket watch movement, filling the large case nicely. 

Like many movements of the period, the cal. 17.22 was hand-made to a degree, since it were created before the widespread use of automated or mechanised tools like CNC mills. Most of the finishing was done in the modern day. The broadly spaced bridges are covered in hand-applied Geneva waves on the top surfaces and finished with anglage all around. The base plate is finished with perlage, while the screw heads are black-polished.

The regulating organ solid, comprised of a large, free-sprung balance paired to an overcoil hairspring. The cal. 17.22 was developed after the discovery of the temperature-compensating hairspring alloys, so it employs a monometallic balance and conceivably an Invar hairspring.

In substantive terms, the original movements were left almost untouched, save for the addition of a small plaque bearing both the Vianney  Halter and Massena Lab logos. The centre wheel was also probably reinforced to carry the heavy sapphire minute disc, and the stock hour works were modified for the regulator display, but other than that the calibre remains a 1920s creation.

The age of the cal. 17.22 is apparent in the details: the balance cock with lack of shock absorbers; a large, 2.5 Hz balance; and the modest power reserve of just 36 hours. While this leaves the movement reassuringly original, the lack of shock absorbers is impractical on a modern movement in a wristwatch, and also not impossible to retrofit on a vintage calibre.

Key facts and price

Massena Lab Old Soul by Vianney Halter
Ref. —

Diameter: 42 mm
Height: 12 mm
Material: Steel
Crystal: Sapphire
Water resistance: 30 m

Movement: Minerva cal. 17.22
Features: Regulator hours, minutes, and small seconds
Winding: Hand-wound
Frequency: 18,000 beats per hour (2.5 Hz)
Power reserve: 36 hours

Strap: Midnight blue leather strap

Limited edition: 47 pieces
Availability: Direct from Massena Lab
Price: CHF32,000 excluding VAT

For more, visit massenalab.com.