Lorige is a Franco-Swiss watch brand created in 2018 after two motorsport enthusiasts met at Le Mans. Emeric Paraud and Clément Etienvre, their goal being to use their watches to arouse emotion similar to that felt on the racetrack. They were able to find investments to launch their production and surround themselves with suppliers recognized in the watchmaking industry, such as Timeless SA for the movements and Régence Production for the exterior parts of the watch (bezel, crown, hands...).
Passion at the heart of partnership
Building on its success, it’s only natural that the link created in 2023 between Cool Racing (the endurance team founded by Alexandre Coigny and Nicolas Lapierre) and Lorige should be continue in 2024.
The proximity between Annecy, where Cool Racing is based, and Geneva makes it easy to share this passion. Despite this, challenges remain at the heart of this meaningful collaboration, with challenges to be met every week and at every race. As with the creation of a watch brand, motorsport forces you to work on your resilience: just because you’re first for three quarters of the race doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed a podium finish. It’s these powerful moments of sharing and challenge that bring this union to life.
A 5-piece edition to commemorate the 2023 result
The BL-Endurance «Cool Racing 2024» is unveiled after several months of design and production, with the aim of offering enthusiasts a timepiece that matches the passion of the drivers and the craftsmen who work every day to create these exceptional timepieces.
This new edition, limited to 5 pieces, carries with it the memory of the 2023 Le Mans 24h, as its carbon case is cut from the used brakes of the #37 Cool Racing LMP2. What’s more, these timepieces feature the latest LOR-PR01 movements manufactured by Lorige, which is currently working on new movements offer additional functionalities to its customers.
The LOR-PR01 movement
Lorige and Timeless SA took advantage of the creation of this new series to offer an update on the LOR-PR01 movement.
The brand’s first caliber, it is no less exceptional. Entirely designed, manufactured and assembled in Geneva for the brand, it incorporates several developed exclusively for Lorige, including the power reserve, as well as elements reworked for efficiency, such as the peripheral mass.
Comprising almost 300 parts, the automatic caliber back to the fundamentals of watchmaking. The hands indicate hours and minutes on a carbon/carbon dial featuring only Arabic numerals Arabic numerals, power reserve and date. As the brand’s first model, the BL-Endurance is a simple, everyday watch, refocused on its essence. refocused on its essence.
On this resolutely sporty new series, the details and complexities of the terminations as well as the updated operating principle of the power reserve operating principle, offering less friction thanks to optimizing the number of cogs, make this an exceptional timepiece.
Cut one by one from blocks of Neoralithe®, the numerals then affixed to the carbon dial offer an exceptional depth of color, contrasting perfectly with the marbled carbon of the case made from the brakes used during the 24 hours of Le Mans in 2023 on the #37 LMP2 Cool Racing.
In addition, the needles have no fewer than 3 endings. In fact, in order to give even greater contrast when reading the time, 3 finishes are combined to give this depth of field, ranging from black-treated bead-blasted to satin-finished and hand-beveled. The greatest challenge lies in the use of Maillechort® for the manufacture of these the addition of these terminations while respecting tolerances and needling in this harder, less malleable material.
Carbon/carbon, an extreme material
It took three years of R&D to find a process for reprocessing process to reprocess the material, make it watertight and machine it to a watchmaking finish... a real challenge!
Carbon/carbon reprocessing patented by Lorige. The composition of this resin-poor carbon does not allow it to be used in its original state to manufacture watch cases. Unlike the carbons used in watchmaking (forged, TPT®, etc.), Lorige had to reprocess the material to make it denser and therefore watertight, whereas a forged carbon can be machined directly without any reprocessing step.
Each carbon case produced by Lorige takes more than 30 hours to manufacture, with approximately: 10 different stages, 5 complex machining phases, around 10 tools per phase, including 0.2 mm milling cutters. Each case is unique thanks to two factors. On the one hand, the random weave of the carbon fibers in the brake pads gives each housing its own visual. Secondly, the year in which the brakes were produced varies the type of fiber used (straight, curved, etc.). Carbon’s density makes it a very light material: a Lorige housing weighs just a few grams. It took the two partners over three years to patent these to patent these specific techniques for reprocessing carbon/carbon to transform it into a watch case.
A unique palmarès for the end of a series
This new five-piece series, already sold to the brand’s customers carries with it an exceptional piece of motorsport history, just like Lorige’s latest LOR-PR01 movements.
In fact, the brakes used to manufacture the carbon housings for this series are the same ones that enabled Nicolas Lapierre, Alexandre Coigny and Malthe Jakobsen to take second place in the Pro/Am class Pro/Am category in LMP2 during the centenary of the world’s greatest endurance race in 2023.
