Watchmaker John McGonigle founded his independent brand Oileán – pronounced ‘il-awn’ and meaning island in Irish – in 2020. This was almost 21 years after he came back to his native Ireland after a career in Switzerland where he and his brother Stephen McGonigle became known for their work creating complicated minute repeaters, many with tourbillon regulators at their heart. While the brothers went on to create McGonigle watches, for the last several years John worked from his workshop outside Athlone, Ireland, while Stephen remained in Switzerland. It was a desire to further explore his own watchmaking philosophy and aesthetic that led John to go independent. The name Oileán reflects not just the watchmaker’s heritage but the fact that he works by himself.
His first watch under the Oileán name is the HB-1, a triple calendar chronograph with a fabled vintage calibre underneath. This is because McGonigle’s admiration for the Valjoux family of chronograph calibres – such as the 22, 72 and 88 – was rewarded when he happened to come upon a batch of unfinished examples of the 88. “These were of course industrially produced calibres made at scale. I wanted to elevate the mechanics and finishing to the standard expected from haute horlogerie,” says McGonigle.
That began a process of redesign, modification and improvement. “My background creating more than 150 minute repeaters and tourbillon watches informs my philosophy. This requires working to tight tolerances to ensure efficient use of energy from the mainspring but also making sure parts interact well with each other. This is an area where I have made considerable improvements to the Valjoux 88,” McGonigle says.
The mechanics underpinning the wearer’s interaction with the calendar complication was an area of particular focus. The watchmaker designed and fashioned new levers to ensure that correction was smoother and more precise. When seen through the sapphire caseback, the most obvious redesign is that of the chronograph bridge – it is harp-shaped and open-worked, serving as an area for McGonigle to showcase his skills with fine finishing. It wears vertical brushing on top with wide bevelled edges that have been mirror polished. The other brass brides wear circular brushing, while the stainless-steel ones wear the same finish in a vertical pattern. This serves to provide visual variety.
The chronograph bridge, thanks to its open-worked form, wears sharp and precise interior angles that hold up under magnification. The baseplate is decorated with perlage. The parts of the calibre crafted from brass are gold polished. The screw heads are black polished, as is the column wheel. The screws on the brass bridges also feature countersinks that have been mirror-polished. A plaque on the baseplate wears the serial number of the watch.
The manually wound calibre offers 40 hours of reserve. It beats at 21,600 vibrations per hour.
It is perhaps understandable for a watchmaker such as McGonigle that the HB-1 was conceived from the movement up. “That part came immediately to me. I then had to spend some time considering the case and dial to best reflect the era the calibre is from, but also be suited to the modern era,” he says. This is reflected not just in the choice of lightweight titanium case material but in the concave form of the bezel and lugs. The aim was for these aspects to work together to minimise the 40mm diameter and 14mm height, partly a result of the depth of the Valjoux 88.
The bezel is mirror polished, while the midcase is satinated. The short and curved lugs feature a hollowed detail. Seen in profile, the lugs frame the midcase in a trapezoidal form that further serves to diminish the watch’s dimensions. The knurled crown wears a relief of the harp motif while the chronograph pushers are squared and polished. The correctors on the other side of the midcase serve to manipulate the calendar complication – the one at 10 o’clock is for the day and month and the one at 8 o’clock sets the pointer date. The watch comes with a pusher tool for this interaction.
The dial is thoroughly modern and makes efficient use of its real estate. The outer rim, created on a brass base, is finished in an eggshell shade. It wears, in black printing, the scale for the pointer style date on the rehaut followed by a scale for the chronograph seconds. The applied hour batons, filled with luminous material, are also found on this section of the dial. At 6 o’clock is the brand mark.
The central portion is occupied by a smoky, translucent sapphire disk that offers a glimpse of the underlying movement without compromising time-reading legibility. It is home to the twin windows of the calendar complication – plied by two black disks with the months and days printed in white – as well as the three-register layout. Notably absent from this part of the dial is the golden harp, a detail withheld at the request of the original buyer.
Each of the three registers is framed by a white rim with scales printed in black, echoing the layout of the dial. The register at 9 o’clock houses the running seconds, while the one at 3 o’clock displays 30-minutes of elapsed time while the chronograph is engaged. The one at 9 o’clock shows 12 hours of elapsed time and also houses the moonphase display. It also proudly bears the country of origin – Ireland.
The hours and minutes hands are open-worked and end in pointers, filled with luminous material. The pointer date has a simpler form, while its arrow tip is skeletonised and white to distinguish it. The hands in the registers are simple with arrow tips filled with luminous material. The hands are all heat blued.
The watch comes on a grey bolstered leather strap with a titanium pin buckle. Accompanying it is its outer and inner box as well as its bill of sale and warranty paperwork.
McGonigle has made 21 examples of the HB-1 at a rate of around eight pieces a year. The current wait list for the watch is three years. This HB-1 represents a rare proposition – a watch powered by a historically important calibre, finely finished by one of most technically able watchmakers from Ireland.
