Boutique watchmaker J.N. Shapiro is part of a very exclusive club in the world of luxury timepieces. One of only a handful of fake watch companies to operate in Los Angeles, the marque is doubling down with another Californian contingent, San Francisco Bay Area-based enthusiast group Collective Horology, to create an exclusive iteration of its flagship Infinity Series design. The resulting limited-edition J.N. Shapiro Infinity Series P.01 is designed, assembled, hand-finished, and partly manufactured in California, offering a variety of case options paired with an impressive engine-turned-meteorite dial.
The 40mm case of the J.N Shapiro Infinity Series P.01 is elementally simple in form, allowing the dial to take the visual spotlight. With options in stainless steel, white gold, and rose gold, however, there's a fair amount of potential variety to this case's character on the wrist, and with a svelte 9.75mm overall thickness, the feel remains elegant and dressy.
Advertising MessageEngine-turned dials are something of a specialty for J.N. Shapiro, and for the Infinity Series P.01 it has taken this painstaking process to the exotic territory of a meteorite dial. The overall dial design is classic, with J.N. Shapiro's unique take on heat-blued Breguet hands above a brushed Arabic hours track featuring hand-painted numerals and an oversized applied-gold small seconds ring at 6 o'clock. Of course, the meteorite material itself is the real star of the show. Made from 4 billion-year-old reclaimed meteorite material, the majority of the dial, at first glance, is left to the natural chaotic striping pattern common in meteorites. On closer inspection, though, the artisanship involved in the engine-turning process begins to show. The concentric rings of the dial are progressively more deeply finished, with the area outside the chapter ring left almost completely natural. Inside this ring, the striping pattern is cut through with J.N. Shapiro's signature "Infinity Weave?guilloché pattern, while the small seconds subdial cuts through even deeper with this pattern to create a uniform layer. While the heavily patterned nature of meteorite may feel at odds with the orderly weave of the engine-turning at times, it's impossible to deny the craft involved (the brand claims over 150 hours of labor to produce a single dial), which results in a unique final product. As an added touch, buyers have the option of replacing the applied gold J.N. Shapiro nameplate at 12 o'clock with a customized name.
Although assembled, regulated, and hand-finished in J.N. Shapiro's Los Angeles workshop, the Infinity Series P.01 sources its hand-wound movement from Uhren Werke Dresden. This 19-jewel caliber beats at a steady 21,600 bph with a 54-hour power reserve. J.N. Shapiro pairs the Infinity Series P.01 with a deep brown alligator-pattern leather strap for a classic look on the wrist.
The limited-edition J.N. Shapiro Infinity Series P.01 marks the first in Collective Horology's new Portfolio Series, a planned run of limited custom timepieces made in collaboration with boutique manufacturers. Only 10 examples of this model will be made and will be available for purchase exclusively to new and current members of the Collective Horology group. MSRP for the J.N. Shapiro Infinity Series P.01 begins at $21,500 for stainless steel cased models. For more information, please visit the brand's website.
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