RESERVOIR x REVOLUTION HYDROSPHERE BRONZE ‘MALDIVES’ EDITION

François Moreau has always had a fascination with gauges. It is something that becomes abundantly clear at our first meeting, in Mexico City, during the 2019 El Salón Internacional Alta Relojería — an event that now appears to have taken place a lifetime ago, considering the seismic changes of the past 10 months. Immediately François and I discuss the beautiful pragmatism of gauges such as the Smith speedometer and tachymeter mounted to my 1972 Norton Commando, as well as the VDO gauges that presided over the stripped-out spartan cabin of my 1979 Porsche 930 Turbo, a car that used to try to kill me on a daily basis as a young man living in Los Angeles. We joke, in particular, about the turbo boost gauge that remained motionless even when you had slammed the accelerator to the floor for several seconds — thanks to the model’s notorious turbo lag — before skyrocketing beyond one bar once the turbo finally spooled up and shot you forwards towards what seemed like certain death.

“We wanted to create the world’s first retrograde dive watch, but only on the condition it is a truly functional dive watch.”

Moreau laughs