Having spent some time at the Baselworld 2017 watch show this year, it’s very easy to see how people spend so much money on fancy watches. Models worth hundreds of thousands are shockingly commonplace. If you’ve already invested in several, how will you keep them safe, sound, and in perfect working order? Just putting them in an ordinary safe obviously isn’t good enough.
What you want is a Bluetooth-connected, leather-covered safe from German company Chronovision. It winds your (non-smart) watches for you, and comes in a size large enough that the floor in your house may not be able to support it. It’s the safe Batman would choose to store his watch collection.
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The compartments that store the watches aren’t just for show, they serve a purpose. It’s essential for many watches to be properly maintained, which means not letting them run out of power. Self-winding watches require movement to wind themselves up, which is usually from your arm when it’s being worn; but that’s not always an option if the watch is worth the same as a normal house, or you have a sizeable collection. That’s why you need a watch winder. Each spins round in the right direction, at the right speed, and for the right amount of time to wind your watch, without it ever leaving the safe.
Bluetooth-connected
Chronovision’s ChronoSync app contains a massive database of watches, complete with the correct winding profile for each one, and each winder module can be programmed individually. If your watch isn’t listed, all the attributes can be manually entered. For the ultimate visual experience, all the winders can be set to work at the same time, resulting in a spinning paradise of watches inside. Because it’s Bluetooth-connected, you can do all this while relaxing on the couch with a glass of (presumably expensive) wine.
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The app also controls the lighting inside the safe, and the tech continues on the outside, with a super secure fingerprint reader to unlock the door, and a hidden key lock behind the scanner in case of a power failure. All the internal parts of the safe are customizable too, including the finish, color, and materials used in the build.
The cost of all this luxury? A mere $36,000 for the version you see here, which was made specially for the show. A lot of money for a safe, but when the collection it contains could potentially be worth 10, 50, or 100 times that — it’s a worthy investment. If you have just one watch that needs regular winding up, Chronovision also sells the Chronovision One, a single, modular watch winder for about $540.