The world is constructed with duality. The world is a mixture of beauty, vastness, freedom, and, at the same time, its opposite: constraint, limitation, and everything imperfect. One would certainly wish that the sublime elements were much more strongly represented and that the negative was not present. but unfortunately, that’s not how it works in our universe. Here, everything is defined by its opposite. We would not know what life is if there were no death. and we would not know what death is if there were no life. 4 billion years ago, before life manifested itself on our planet, everything was, according to our current view, “dead” matter. but to classify these as “dead” without having the contrast of life in mind would have been neither possible nor meaningful. It was just what existed. Only with life did death enter our world. As long as there is no opposition to something, the specific characteristics of that thing do not appear. Warm only exists because there is cold; light only exists as the opposite of dark; and “good” only exists as long as there is “bad.”If we remove the “bad” from our universe, we also remove the “good” at the same time.
We have to come to terms with the fact that our creation is built on duality. We cannot separate the negative part from something that is dual-structured, so only the positive part remains. What would remain would still be dual-structured and would again have a “good” and a “bad.” We all try to change the weights of the scales somewhat in the direction of the positive. but whether this really has any impact is not said. Ultimately, we are in a kind of “hamster wheel,” and the more we run forward, the more we give impetus to that which we have already left behind. Perhaps the relationship between light and dark and between good and evil is even more overdimensionally fixed! Moreover, good and evil are not absolutely definable concepts but are only sensations and thus relative. Whether something is good or bad is in the eye of the beholder. and so we always find ourselves in the situation of running away from the dark side of our lives, towards the light, but never reaching that light. If we ever got to where we wanted to go, duality would be there too, driving us on.

In order to find inner peace, we would have to understand that there is no duality per se; there is no “good” and no “bad.” Our consciousness perceives everything as only dual, just as our universe is not a three-dimensional universe but is only perceived by us in three dimensions. In reality, our universe has not only three dimensions, but many more. Only we are in the third dimension in terms of consciousness.

We will never find our peace as long as we run on the outside, on a treadmill, towards “beautiful.” We should get off the band and find the state of “having arrived” on the inside instead of looking for it on the outside.

The bottom line, however, remains that we are all embedded in an “inner environment” where we would so much like all our problems to disappear and we could enjoy those sublime expanses of consciousness that we all long for. Access to that “unclouded joy” that we currently believe is blocked by the shadow of certain external circumstances, however, does not lie in our external lives at all. It needs neither an occasion nor a state of problemlessness to feel joy. Why should we grant a problem the claim of sole dominance over our consciousness? If we are not able to make our consciousness available to problems and joy at the same time, then we had better choose joy and deal with our problems in the spotlight of inner joy rather than the other way around.

The constellation of circumstances that we hold responsible for inner stress and anxiety probably originates, in most cases, from our own attitude toward life. Perhaps with a different attitude, our situation would be quite different.
Niveau Eléve is not just a watch brand. It is an attempt to resolve the contradiction of our being caught in duality through the passage of time.

The relativity of time is a scientific, often proven fact that states that time is not a measure of all processes and things that rest in themselves but a property of each individual process. This property, namely the duration of a thing or an event, changes depending on whether something is in motion or at rest, how strongly something is subjected to gravity, and so on.

but time has two aspects for us. One is the mathematical-technical one, which allows us to synchronize processes and order our actions in time. On the other hand, time also contains the consciousness aspect. and even this time, the “inner time,”  is relative. Our life is our time, no more and no less. If we are not aware of our time, we are not aware of our life. We all complain that we have so little time and that our lives are too short. At the same time, however, we give away our time simply by letting it pass unnoticed. The main mistake we all make is probably that most of the time we don’t have our own selves in focus. We are so focused on external circumstances, on our problems, on our compulsions, and on what we want to achieve at all costs that we no longer notice ourselves. Our lives take place without us most of the time. Although the memory somehow runs with us, so that we do not have the feeling of a break in the continuity of our lives, we often no longer feel ourselves. We only perceive the action that goes its own way, with or without our conscious self-being.

This is where the core of the Niveau Eléve philosophy comes into play. Time and life are the same. Our life is our time. Our lives and ourselves are also the same. Ohne unser Leben würden wir nicht existieren. Thus, we ourselves are ultimately our time. If we spend our time without ourselves because we are so fixated on the course of events around us that we no longer even notice ourselves, then this unconscious time is not only

wasted time, but we are wasting a part of ourselves. a mistake we all make. We are only ourselves for a very small part of our time. Most of the time, we are our problems, our projects, our desires, our fears, our possessions, our reputation—all kinds of things, but not ourselves.

To stand in the full sensation of ourselves in every second of our time and to banish the problems, the plans, and the circumstances to the background, to where we normally shut off our sense of self, this would be the revolutionary change in our lives that would make us ourselves in the first place.
The classical clock has two levels that represent time. In the background, i.e., on the “dial,”  is the division of time. Either the time division is represented by numbers or by indexes, dashes, dots, diamonds, whatever. The dial indicates the order of time, the system, and the resting. Above it, in the foreground, the hands run. They stand for the action, the movement. They indicate in which position we are (in terms of time) in the system. They stand for the outside, for change, and for the current state within the system.

The action, the exterior, and the movement are in the foreground of the classic watch. The essentials, ourselves, are in the background. This reflects very precisely the consciousness situation of all of us. We shall have the courage to turn this ratio around. We shall focus on the essential, the classification, the order, the valuation, and the relationship to the self. the action, the movement, and the position of ourselves in the system, we should banish to the background.
The watches from Niveau Eléve do just that. They place the division of time, the valuation, and the self above the level of the hands and thus symbolically reverse the attitude toward time. Every time we look at our watch, it reminds us that time is our time. We ourselves are no longer slaves to our external circumstances, our intentions, our compulsions, and our obligations; we are the entity that calmly observes and enjoys what is happening. In the foreground of our time is the immovable, the self; in the background is the moving, the change, the external. We ourselves decide what value we attach to the event, not the event.
in order to really implement this revolutionary change of mindset, a fair amount of courage and pioneering spirit is needed. to realise that we are ourselves and not our projects, our prestige and possessions is already a huge step. but to allow this awareness to realign our lives according to this realization is something that very few people fully succeed in doing. but even a small step, a resolution and a little consistency in this direction now and then, will change our lives.

a watch of élevé level wants to be a partner in this endeavour. time, its handling and our attitude towards it, are an ideal instrument to take up and implement the process of self-discovery and self-realisation. when we choose a Niveau Eléve watch, we should not do so just to own a great new watch. it should be an inner decision, accompanied by a firm resolution to shape our lives more consciously, to live differently, to set new priorities. our Niveau Eléve will be a faithful companion on this journey into new inner worlds, reminding us of our resolutions at every possible opportunity. our goal in this journey is a higher level of consciousness from which we stand elevated above the events of everyday life and are no longer subject to them. it is an elevated level, a “Niveau Eléve”!

Time is mine!