he history of marine chronometers is one of my great passions,” says legendary British superyacht designer Tim Heywood. “But this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to design one. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance.”

The results of this partnership between the German watchmaking powerhouse and Heywood are twofold: first, there’s the ‘Cube’, housed in a dark brown case that can be ceremoniously opened via three folding doors; and second, the more exotic ‘Coco de Mer’, whose case shape is based on – you guessed it – a coconut.

Heywood, known for designing his yachts completely from scratch, found inspiration in individuals and objects with seafaring abilities. He started with Marco Polo and ended up with the humble coconut, a fruit famed for its ability to float across oceans (this is more urban myth than fact, but the symbolism is undeniably potent!).

British superyacht designer Tim Heywood

“Ships are, after all, the only objects designated by feminine pronouns in the English language. The marine chronometers I’ve designed echo the organic and feminine designs of my yachts.” After a visit to the Wempe Museum in Hamburg, a city celebrated for its international port, Heywood decided to break with tradition, allowing the chronometer to be completely removed from its case, for example, to be placed on a desk – a departure from traditional fixed marine chronometers.

The Coco de Mer marine chronometer

The Cube marine chronometer

Worried that his coconut design might be ‘too much’, he also came up with a more conventional design for Wempe. They fell in love with both, and set to work producing them at their facility in the watchmaking town of Glashütte.

“I was blown away by the result and what they were able to do with my design,” says Heywood. For the dial, he swapped out his initial idea of white silver for a more nautical blue after being struck by a wristwatch someone had worn at one of their early meetings. He was also keen to leave two openings at 4 and 8 o’clock to showcase the movement and its serial number.

The production of marine chronometers is an integral part of Wempe’s watchmaking heritage. Since 1905, the company has outfitted seafaring vessels with these precise timekeepers, whose accuracy remains unaffected by rough seas and fluctuating temperatures.

Wempe’s “unified chronometer,” housed in a classic case, has been in production (and continuously refined) for the past 80 years. The intricately decorated Type 07 three-bridge movement represents a new generation of technology.

Every component of the movement was recalculated in Wempe’s workshops; for the balance wheel, for instance, the engineers chose a classic bimetallic construction, albeit with a galvanic coating. The gimbal of the gold-plated brass case resembles an abstract sculpture when the timepiece is wound with the movement facing upward.

But how does designing a watch compare to designing a yacht? “The size is different, but there are a lot of similarities, because both are an amalgam of details,” Tim Heywood explains. “Much like a marine chronometer, I believe that a yacht design is only as good as the sum of its details. And great things take time, so you have to be patient and determined.”

Price: $57,460 (Cube) - $91,825 (Coco de Mer)

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION