Come join CLERC Watches (1-800-513-5866) at Swiss Watch JCK 2015 in Las Vegas May 29 to June 1st for the US launch of the CLERC Hydroscaph GMT Power-Reserve.
Appointments are now being taken, so reserve early and come say hello at the Mandalay Bay in a few weeks! To download an invitation please click here.
They work during day or night, and spend their lives changing time zones using boats or airplanes. They travel to the most exotic and challenging dive sites on earth. They’re more at home 100 feet under water than anywhere on land – except maybe for the local hotspot bars – and they can carry, fix and field-strip and reassemble video equipment faster than the most seasoned TV war correspondent.
They’re super tough, infinitely persistent, resourceful, and consummate professional divers. But most importantly, they’re passionate. Passionate about the oceans, passionate about sea life, and passionate about getting the right shot or film no matter what it takes.
These rare and talented CLERC Professional Underwater Photographers are the amazing folks who help us deliver unique underwater content to the world on a regular basis. They don’t run the streets. They’re difficult to find – it’s a very small community. Word of mouth matters. And because of this, they’re also booked most of the year. Most of them have packed agendas many months ahead.
Meet professional underwater photographer Chris Leidy. Aka: “TRUE TACK” – His motto: Move in truth against the winds of life. We like it 🙂
Chris travels the world connecting with people through the language of his photographs. Throughout his long career, he’s been to Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Micronesia, Vanuatu, Coco’s Islands, Sumatra, Tonga, and the Solomon Islands, to name a few. Never one to follow guidebooks, he lets fate define his experience while experiencing different cultures and settings. Chris will often spend months in a given location – sometimes in draconian conditions – while he absorbs the local culture and fauna through his lenses.
He is a master at conquering his fear and makes an art form of living on the edge. These difficult and dangerous locations give him solace and allow him to re-connect with his soul.
In the ocean, in its mysterious and unpredictable depths, among the landscapes and creatures that he encounters is where he snaps his extraordinary photographs, bearing testimony for the rest of us. Chris consistently attracts the attention of art collectors, ocean enthusiasts, and photography buffs who often bid on his works. Several months ago, he attracted the eye of CLERC CEO GĂ©rald Clerc, who was then able to track him down and sign him on as one of our official CLERC underwater photographers.
Chris embodies the values of our brand: courage, curiosity, an insatiable appetite for exploration, discovery, and pushing the boundaries. That, and the ability to thrive in the most extreme conditions of life. That’s why he likes to wear one of many CLERC Hydroscaphs from his multi-series collection (Central Chronographs and H1) on his underwater missions.
Chris is the grandson of renowned designer Lilly Pulitzer and great-grandson of Joseph Pulitzer, but namesake aside, he has clearly established his own legacy. His work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions across the country including a prominent place in the Elle DĂ©cor Show House at Miami’s Art Basel. Chris’ photos have been featured in major publications including Wall Street Journal, Forbes, House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, Ocean Home, Conde Nast Traveler, and Domino Magazine, to name a few.
See Chris Leidy’s work on our CLERC Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. And visit his website or his Instagram account to learn more about the man and his work. Here are some of his most celebrated shots:
GĂ©rald Clerc and Europe Watch Company’s founder and CEO Jeffery Yau visited one of their Hong Kong stores to unveil a spectacular presentation of CLERC.
Make sure to visit Europe Watch Company on your next Hong Kong trip for a warm welcome and a dazzling choice of CLERC Hydroscaph collection time pieces you will not forget!
Thank you Jeffery for creating such an amazing CLERC experience for your customers!
What was GĂ©rald Clerc, a personal submarine, and a collection of Hydroscaph watches doing at the Singapore Yacht Show last month anyway? Besides hosting some VIP guests on Arthur Tay‘s private mega-yacht (who also happens to own the Singapore Marina)?
Setting up an event for CLERC and Sub Aviator Systems (SAS) of course! People walking up to the booth there were able to discover both the Orcasub personal luxury submersible model and CLERC Hydroscaph watches as Gerald, CLERC CEO, and John Jo Lewis, Managing Director of SAS worked the booth together welcoming hundreds of intrigued visitors – it’s not every year you see a personal luxury submersible at the Singapore Yacht Show!
Yet personal luxury submersibles are very desirable to the super-wealthy who frequent the show. Why? Because they love to bring various “toys” on their mega-yachts. And while many of them carry helicopters, speed boats, jet skis, and all sorts of other fancy machines, very few, if any, actually have personal submarines on board.
Orcasub is unique in the way it can easily be transported and launched from aboard a luxury yacht. It’s both easy, quick, and economical to use in several outboard or onboard configurations. With its compact profile and folding wings, Orcasub can fit on almost any sized yacht. And it’s easy to deploy right into the water on a moment’s notice.
Imagine spotting a great whale or a pack of Orcas in the middle of the ocean, stopping your yacht, climbing aboard your personal submarine, and quickly launching to follow them under water? Sub Aviator Systems and CLERC now make this a soon-to-be very popular reality.
Openwater Heroes is CLERC’s new Ocean Conservancy Program dedicated to generating and expanding awareness of specific ocean conservancy initiatives throughout the world.
Every year, CLERC will promote and raise awareness for specific causes dedicated to preserving the beauty and health of our marine ecosystems. The individuals spearheading these causes will be selected as CLERC Openwater Heroes then recognized and rewarded for their efforts and leadership.
According to CLERC CEO GĂ©rald Clerc:
“Our Hydroscaph watches were born from the oceans, and extreme underwater conditions at depth drive everything we do on the engineering side. The same can be said for the aesthetic side of our timepieces. So it’s only natural that CLERC should strive to give back to the oceans for inspiring us. We will do this by promoting significant ocean causes and the selfless heroes behind them who too often remain unknown and uncelebrated.”
Gerald, himself a certified scuba diver, believes the oceans are increasingly being threatened by industrialisation, consumption, and energy exploration. Yet the beauty of the wide oceans and the life they contain is a gift to all mankind and deserves protection and preservation.
CLERC’s Openwater Heroes promotional efforts will undoubtedly benefit from the brand’s newly-announced partnership with Sub Aviator Systems – making it the first Swiss luxury dive watch company ever to conceive and test its watches in partnership with a luxury submarine builder at their underwater testing facilities.
Do you want to participate, contribute, or suggest a new Openwater Hero to us? Then email us at openwater@clercwatches.wpengine.com.
It’s been a short while since Baselworld 2015 of course yet so much has happened since then already! CLERC had an amazing run during the show. First, we unveiled our new GMT models of course. This new Hydroscaph series is rated for 800m depth and sports a 42 hour power reserve. The version with the gold hands and numerals and brown rubberized alligator bracelet was showered with compliments from press and retailers alike. Brown is back!
Second, we officially announced our multi-level partnership with Nuytco Sub Aviator Systems – this means CLERC will be the first and only watch company to offer its own line of personal luxury submersibles. We brought a reduced sized model of this exploration machine on the stand where it welcomed our numerous guests every day. And this video played non-stop all day long at the stand causing many to simply stop and watch in awe.
With this new initiative and Orcasub, CLERC is essentially defining a new underwater flight luxury segment. Reaction from press, bloggers, and retailers was very inquisitive – and very positive. The first version of Orcasub – aka Super Aviator – will start traveling the globe in 2015. And several VIP clients have already expressed interest in custom-building an Orcasub for themselves.
Last, but certainly not least, CLERC is very happy to announce that 2015 will see the opening of new retail locations in Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, St Marten, Aruba, St Thomas, Egypt, Dubai, and Moscow. We are expanding in existing key markets and entering new ones in Central and South America.
Did you miss us at Baselworld this year? Don’t worry! And come see us at JCK in Las Vegas May 29 to June 1st! Appointments are now being made for the largest Watch and Jewelery show in the United States so don’t miss out!
For the latest, up-to-date information on Orcasub visit CLERC Exploration Machines on Facebook.
We’ve always said the Hydroscaph diving watch collection was a “new breed of Swiss luxury watches” but in fact, CLERC is further evolving into a new breed of Swiss luxury watch company and forging a new era in the industry.
This is because we have entered into a long-term, multi-level partnership with Sub Aviator Systems, the producers of Orcasub – a Personal Luxury Submersible.
Both CLERC and Sub Aviator Systems make what they call “exploration machines”. While CLERC’s powerful yet stylish machines fit handsomely on the adventurous male wrist, Sub Aviator Systems submersibles fly swiftly at 2,000 feet under water. In both cases, these creations are meant to be used in the most extreme of conditions. But it didn’t take our two companies very long to realize that the fit between us was much more than skin-deep.
In fact, you could say it’s symbiotic, because we both share philosophies, values, personalities, and engineering savvy. With this new partnership, we will also share the sort of technical and R&D resources which until now had never been available to traditional Swiss watch companies. Not to mention a combined 200 year legacy of innovation and technical prowess.
That’s because Sub Aviator Systems is actually manufacturing partners with a company called Nuytco. And Nuytco is to underwater exploration what NASA is to the Space Program. In fact, NASA astronauts train at Nuytco’s underwater facilities in Vancouver. Owner Phil Nuytten is a legend in the industry on par with men like Jean-Michel Cousteau, who is a close friend and colleague. (He still maintains ties to the Cousteau family). A commercial diver since the 1960s, Phil spent his life pioneering new underwater technologies and tactics. Few if any people have contributed as much to the world of diving – commercially, militarily, and recreationally – than he has for the past fifty years.
Nuytco has been involved in almost every major underwater operation for science, research, rescue, construction, entertainment, and military application known to man. Phil’s regular clients include the national Navies of virtually every country in the world, the US Navy Seals, NASA, Hollywood moguls (guess how movie classics like Titanic and The Abyss were filmed under water), scientists, researchers, rescuers, and the list goes on. When there’s a problem to solve, a new device or tool to invent, or technical limits to surmount, people call on Nuytco.
For CLERC, the ability to tap into this experience and expertise is an industry game changer. The advantages from a product development, research, manufacturing, and testing perspective are limitless. Improved construction, new materials, greater depths, added safety features, and resilience are some of the key benefits. And no other dive watch companies will be able to test their product for corrosion, legibility, air and water pressure, extreme temperatures, and shock all at the same time and all under real-life extreme depth conditions. Something Nuytco does routinely for all its equipment, and will now do on every new Hydroscaph model starting with the new 2015 GMT model. In many ways, thanks to this partnership, CLERC gets access to the most revered and prestigious “underwater exploration laboratory” in the world.
For Sub Aviator Systems, it’s about accessing 140 years of CLERC experience in the demanding field of luxury, as CLERC will now market and promote the Orcasub personal luxury crafts on a global scale. CLERC will also advise on interior finishing, customization, and comfort features of the cockpit area.
These super-fast, easy-to-use, and maneuverable submersibles will fly two pilots in atmospheric comfort and safety down to 2,000 feet. In all human history until now, people who have personally witnessed life at such depths can be counted on a single hand. But Orcasub will put underwater flight at anyone’s hands – anyone, that is, who can part with the $2 million it takes to custom-build it. But rest assured, that price includes complete Flight Training certification. A lifetime experience no one ever forgets!
CLERC is forging a new era in the history of human exploration machines. And thanks to Sub Aviator Systems and CLERC, deep-sea exploration will soon become as routine as hopping into your exotic car for a quick trip to the local cigar shop.
For a PDF version of this exciting announcement, please click here.
Wand to keep in touch with CLERC? We have a brand new Openwater newsletter on its way out to you from now on. If you’re among our thousands of friends, customers, fans, and supporters all over the world, you probably want to sign up for it. Why might you ask? Because you want to:
And it’s super easy to sign-up too – just send us an email with your first and last name to openwater@clercwatches.wpengine.com or leave a comment below with your name and email address.
Our friendly virtual receptionist will make sure you’re all set up to stay in the CLERC loop 🙂
Take a peek advance look at this article featuring CLERC Explorer-in-Chief Gerald Clerc in the Brazilian magazine Pulso.
Click here to open the article in PDF format.
What’s a Clerciste?
Clerciste – /’klerist/: Owner of a CLERC watch and super-fan of the brand. Typically observed having fun in extreme under or above-water life activities with a Hydroscaph on his wrist. Derived from the French term, the anglicized version is pronounced with a silent ‘c’ as in “claire-ist”.
If you’re reading this, chances are you are already a Cleriste, or at least interested in becoming one. If so, you are part of an exclusive global community of successful, power-driven over-achievers who share the CLERC values:
If you’re an existing Clerciste and have some awesome Hydroscaph pictures to share with the world, why not share them with us on Facebook or Instagram? Use #clercwatches, #hydroscaph, and #clerciste for hashtags.
Want us to publish your cool CLERC pictures? Email them to us at openwater@clercwatches.wpengine.com.
Have a question or comment about your Hydroscaph? Come talk to us on Twitter. If you’d rather contact us directly, just email us at openwater@clercwatches.wpengine.com – we want to hear from you all.
From all of us at CLERC, we welcome you aboard, and we appreciate your support. 2015 will be a year of great innovation and surprises from CLERC, so stay tuned because there’s never been a better time to be a Clerciste!
As always, from our hearts and hands to your wrists.
Your CLERC team.