A world in gold: Andersen Genève launches the Communication 45

An exquisite limited-edition worldtime watch, cased in yellow gold and produced in three series of 15 pieces, marking 45 years since the brand’s founding in 1980, and 35 years since its first, groundbreaking worldtimer

Andersen Genève presents the Communication 45, a new, handcrafted worldtime watch limited to just 45 pieces – one for each year of the brand’s existence so far – that takes its name from founder Svend Andersen’s original worldtimer series from 1990, the Communication. That watch, much sought-out today, helped reestablish this fabled complication among haute horlogerie collectors and cemented Andersen Genève as one of the most influential and enduring names in independent watchmaking.

The new Communication 45 becomes Andersen Genève’s tenth exclusive worldtimer series since 1990. Refined, technically demanding, and ravishing in its detail, it embodies the key values of Andersen Genève’s art: meticulous design and fabrication, the use of exceptional materials, and a deep, ongoing commitment to artisanal techniques in both watchmaking and decoration.

Three maps, one global vision

The Communication 45 will be made in three distinct 15-piece series, each with a central dial map depicting one of three regions: Europe, Asia, or the Americas. At the heart of the watch is a spectacular, golden-hued map decoration. The centre dial, made from 21ct ‘BlueGold’, is delicately engraved with Andersen Genève’s historic wave-form ‘tapisserie-guilloché’ pattern. Its rich Cognac tone is achieved by kiln firing in the Andersen Genève Atelier, using a ‘BlueGold’ process that is an exclusive hallmark of the brand’s craft. Into this golden-grown sea, the landmass areas are inlaid with yellow gold via a multi-stage etching and infilling process that was developed specially for this watch.

Design for the world citizen

Every element of the Communication 45 has been developed for clarity, balance, and refinement. The case, made by hand in Andersen Genève’s dedicated case workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds, measures 38mm, with curving, beautifully formed ‘teardrop’ lugs presenting a twist on those used in the Communication series of 1990.

A city-setting crown at 9 o’clock features a special “Communication 45” logo (a globe with the number 45), while the winding and time-setting crown at 3 o’clock is capped with a polished “A” logo, an Andersen Genève emblem. Inside, the watch uses a slim, vintage automatic calibre that is completely reworked and deftly hand-finished by the Andersen Genève team, paired with the brand’s in-house, ultra-thin worldtime module.

The time traveller’s atelier: 35 years of Andersen Genève worldtimers

The worldtimer, showing 24 time zones simultaneously, has been a defining focus of Andersen Genève’s work for 35 years. Founder Svend Andersen, now 83, first encountered the worldtime system, as developed in the 1930s by Louis Cottier, and adopted by Patek Philippe among others, while restoring watches in Lucerne in the 1960s; and thereafter during his decade in the Grand Complications workshop of Patek Philippe in the 1970s.

Enchanted by this complication, in the late 1980s he developed his own ultra-thin worldtime module – just 0.9mm thick – at the behest of Italian collectors. This module became the basis for his first worldtimer, the Communication 24, launched in 1990 on a subscription basis.

This was followed, also in 1990, by Andersen Genève’s first serially-produced timepiece, known simply as the Communication – almost identical to the subscription model, and with a case once again made by JP Hagmann – but this time with tear-drop style lugs. With its classical proportions, city ring bezel, and notable lugs, it took clear inspiration from the early Cottier-made worldtimers of Patek Philippe, which had long-since ceased production. (It would be another decade before Patek Philippe returned to the worldtime format.)

Since then, Andersen Genève has continued to refine and reinterpret the worldtime complication, developing a succession of limited series with classical city-ring layouts and detailed decorative work. These include the Christophorus Columbus (1992), ultra-thin Mundus (1994), the 1884 (2004), the Tempus Terrae (2015), the Heures du Monde in collaboration with Asprey (2022), and the Celestial Voyager enamel series in collaboration with BCHH (from 2021-2024).

Today, Andersen Genève remains one of the few independent makers with deep experience in worldtime design, decoration, and mechanical development, still using Svend’s complication module that has been refined over the years.

The Communication 45 draws together many of the ideas that have shaped this legacy: elegant construction, precision mechanics, exceptional artistry, and highly limited production.

The crafts of Andersen Genève: traditional case-making

Each case is made entirely by hand in La Chaux-de-Fonds by long-time collaborator Marco Poluzzi, 83 years old, without the use of CNC machinery.

The Communication 45 features a 38mm case in 3N yellow gold, with a slender three-part construction and a gracefully rounded form, hand-polished to a magnificent mirror finish.

One of its most distinctive elements is the shape of the lugs, which combine the teardrop style used by Jean-Pierre Hagmann for the series-made Communication of 1990 with a more sculptural, curvaceous silhouette – viewed in profile, they take on an elegant cornes de vache (cow-horn) form.

Andersen Genève was able to draw on the deep expertise of Marco Poluzzi, who has been making watch cases by hand for over 50 years, working with many of the great names of Swiss watchmaking. In 2022, his workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds – a trove of antique machinery and tooling – was acquired by Andersen Genève, becoming the brand’s second production site besides its original Geneva Atelier. Just as Svend has done with Andersen Genève’s watchmakers in Geneva, Marco is now training a new generation of boîtiers (case-makers) in La Chaux-de-Fonds to carry forward this complex and delicate traditional craft.

The crafts of Andersen Genève: exceptional dials

BlueGold ‘Cognac’ – 21ct artistry

Dial making has been a key area of creativity and investment at Andersen Genève over the past three decades. One of its most recognisable techniques is the use of 21ct BlueGold – gold that is combined with iron elements and heat-treated, developing a coloured oxidation layer on the surface with a resplendent, permanent lustre. While earlier models used blue-purple tones, the Communication 45 introduces a rich Cognac shade, achieved through precise control of kiln temperature, time, and atmosphere that has been the subject of considerable experimentation by Andersen Genève’s watchmakers.

It is a technique that, in watchmaking, remains unique to Andersen Genève.

‘Geneva waves’ of a different kind

The wave-like texture of the BlueGold dial, another hallmark of Andersen Genève, is made by a traditional tapisserie-guilloché process using a ‘tapisserie’ pattern that’s over a century old.

The pattern is applied prior to the bluing process, using a tapisserie-guilloché machine that traces an antique template disc to replicate its design, in miniaturised form, onto the 21ct gold dial blank. The template, originally created for pocket watch decoration during the Belle Époque era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was discovered by Svend Andersen over 30 years ago in the workshop of master guilloché engraver Mr. Mayor, and it has been a recurring feature of Andersen Genève watches since then. The engraving is executed using an authentic 19th-century tapisserie-guilloché machine, preserving the depth and texture of the original motif.

Lands of gold

Finally, the map motif is achieved via a new procedure developed specifically for this watch. First, the surface layer of the landmass is removed with great precision to a depth of 0.2mm; this void is then infilled with a liquid lacquer of unalloyed gold – similar in principle to traditional shell-gold inlay. Once cured and polished, the result is a smooth, even inlay of pure gold, that lies slightly recessed amid the waveform ‘sea’ that surrounds it.

Movement from the golden age

The movement inside the Communication 45 is a vintage automatic calibre specially selected by Andersen Genève for its slimness and stability.

Each movement is decorated at an outstanding level. Bridges and plates are gently frosted rather than striped, giving a matte texture reminiscent of early 20th-century finishing styles, and forming a high contrast with chamfered and polished bevels, all of which is carried out by hand. Screws are mirror polished, and the teeth of the wheels are finished to precise tolerances to enhance both function and appearance.

The rotor, in matching BlueGold ‘Cognac’, carries the same ‘tapisserie’ guilloché as the dial.

Watchmaking’s global citizen: Q&A with Svend Andersen

What was your first experience of the worldtime complication?
I moved from Denmark to Switzerland in 1963, and because I could speak good English, I got a job at Gübelin [the Swiss high-end watch retailer] in Lucerne. There, I had the chance to repair some of the original worldtime watches, with Louis Cottier’s mechanism. That was my first real encounter with the complication, and it stayed with me.

In the 1970s, you were part of the three-man team in Patek Philippe’s Grand Complications workshop, alongside Roger Dubuis and Max Berney. Did you encounter many worldtimers there?
Absolutely. Louis Cottier had died in 1966 and Patek Philippe stopped making worldtimers after that. But we would repair them, and once someone came to me with trays of parts from the old Cottier worldtime watches from the 1950s. They asked, “Can we make watches from these?” I looked at them carefully and said, ‘I think we can save three movements from this.’ The parts went to another workshop, they made three gold cases, and that was that. But it taught me something important: how special this concept was, how beautiful, and how rare.

You went solo in 1979, and spent the 1980s making first pocket-watch cases and then one-off bespoke watches. What led you eventually back to the worldtime?
Some Italian collectors were asking me for something more interesting than just hours, minutes and seconds. I remembered those old Cottier watches, and I thought, why not a worldtime? So I began developing my own version. I designed a completely new module, much thinner than what was around at the time. Mine was just 0.9 millimetres, everything included. There weren’t many others around, and those that were used modules that were thicker, like the one from Lemania, and that made the whole watch too bulky. For me, slimness and elegance are very important, especially for a worldtimer.

The Communication started off as a subscription edition of 24 watches. What was the response from collectors like, and how did you get the word out?
When I developed the prototype version, in 1989, I presented it to a German journalist. He published an article, and within two weeks we had 18 subscriptions – out of a planned edition of 24. The other six came soon after. The subscription model meant that people paid 50 percent in advance, and that gave me the funds to buy gold for the cases and to begin production. We actually made 25 cases – the 25^th, which had no lugs at all, I kept. It’s my wife’s watch to this day.

From there, you made the series-produced Communication, as well as a handful of special versions with different dial designs. Why do you think there was such a market for it?

Well of course I was very happy about that. It was very pleasing that so many good people, really committed collectors who loved watches, wanted it. Patek Philippe wasn’t making Worldtimers at that time, so in a way, there was a gap in the market. Ebel and a few other brands were doing them, but not really refined. I was going back to what Cottier had invented.

The different dials were made according to the different requests from my retail partners. For example, a cream colour dial with gold map was requested by Yoshi Isogai of the Shellman Boutique in Tokyo. He sold dozens of such Communication with white dials to high end Japanese collectors. There was also a black dial version which was requested by Mr Fagnola of the Fagnola boutique in Turin, for one of his long time Italian clients.

Further Information

This article is an advertisement feature in collaboration with Andersen Genève. To find out more, visit https://www.andersen-geneve.ch/

All images, courtesy Andersen Genève