Pequignet Adds a Dance-Music Tempo Scale to the Royale Paris Chrono BPM

Pequignet released its first chronograph earlier this year, and it was only a matter of very short time before we started getting variants on the theme. This new one, the Royale Paris Chrono BPM, isn't just a new colorway. It's inspired by the French Touch, the 1990s French house scene that produced Daft Punk. Start the chronograph, count 30 bass drum kicks, and the seconds hand will indicate the track’s tempo. It works exactly like a pulsometer, only for music. It’s a gimmick, and a likeable one.

The steel case is 39.5mm wide and 12.7mm thick, a good size for a chronograph. The flanks are recessed, with brushed surfaces and polished bevels, and the lugs are separate and then fixed to the case. Round piston pushers are on the side, next to a push-pull crown. You get a domed sapphire crystal on top, a sapphire window in the screw-down caseback, and 50 meters of water resistance.

The dial fades from electric blue at the top to black at the bottom. The BPM scale runs around the edge in turquoise on black, covering tempos between 35 and 180, with printed equalizer bars between 12 and two o’clock. A smooth recessed ring separates the scale from the center, and faceted indices sit across it. The sub-dials are snailed as a nod to vinyl, with seconds at three and a 30-minute register at nine. Lume is limited to the two main hands.

Despite the Royale name, this isn’t the Calibre Royal. Inside is the Calibre Initial, Pequignet’s fifth movement, with a cam-operated chronograph module from Dubois-Depraz on top. The base is 4.2mm thick, runs at 4Hz and has 65 hours of power reserve. It comes on a black Cordura strap with a steel pin buckle.

The Pequignet Royale Paris Chrono BPM (ref. 9120343) is part of the regular collection, available now, priced at €6,950. See more on the Pequignet website.