Arnold & Son DTE (Double Tourbillon Escapement Dual Time Watch – Instrument Collection)
This year, Swiss luxury watchmaker Arnold & Son is celebrating its 250th anniversary of its rich British heritage and watch making elegance. To mark this occasion, the brand is unveiling an exceptional timepiece – The Double Tourbillon Escapement Dual Time watch – a micro mechanical marvel reflects the brand’s famed past as well the quest for innovativeness.
Renowned for its innovative technology and amazing technical prowess Arnold & Son continually brings horological excellence to new heights.
Such is the case with the DTE, which joins the brand’s much-coveted Instrument Collection, whose signature is in-house manufactured movements inspired by the timepieces produced during the second part of John Arnold’s life when he and his son, John Roger, dedicated themselves to the quest for absolute precision.
Arnold & Son can easily be considered the father of modern marine timekeeping. Because of its technical superiority in watchmaking, Arnold & Son developed and produced chronometers that solved the 18th century problem of determining longitude at sea (also, thereby establishing themselves as official suppliers to the Royal Navy).
Clearly one of the greatest watchmakers in history, John Arnold shared his knowledge and passion with Abraham-Louis Breguet. Evidence of their partnership is Breguet’s first ever tourbillon cage (No 169) mounted in John Arnold’s No. 11 movement; now displayed at London’s British Museum.
The DTE is a masterpiece of symmetry, balance and three-dimensional beauty combined with technical foresight and ultimate performance precision.
The watch, powered by the all-new mechanical hand-wound calibre A&S8513, brings the centuries-old tradition of double movements back to life – in 21stcentury style. It features two separate time zone displays – each of which can be set independently from the other thanks to dedicated setting mechanisms. Each has its own gear train and its own tourbillon escapement.
In addition to the double tourbillon escapement and the dual dial/dual time indication, the watch is incredibly efficient in that it not only offers local time in hours and minutes, but also offers hours and minutes of a second time zone to be set separately – thereby enabling the wearer to have precise time in zones that differ from Greenwich Mean Time by quarter- or half-hour increments. The double barrels of the watch offer a superb 90 hours of power reserve.
In typical Arnold & Son style, the watch is incredibly detailed and features superlative Haute Horlogerie finishing.
The dial side of the timepiece offers symmetry and depth. It features two white lacquered domed dials – one each at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock – for the dual time displays. The two tourbillon escapements are harmoniously balanced at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock and seem to float over the dial thanks to their alluring raised 18-carat red gold bridges.
The backdrop for these double lacquered dials and double tourbillon escapements is a magnificently decorated vertical Côtes de Genève stripes plate. The two crowns – one each for setting the local and the home time – are located at 2 o’clock and 8 o’clock, and the two mainsprings are wound using the crown at 2 o’clock.
DTE comes in an 18-carat red gold case measuring 43.5 mm in diameter. The white dials (with Roman numerals in one and Arabic numerals in the other) are accented with blued hour and minute hands. The back of the watch features a transparent sapphire crystal for viewing the splendidly decorated nickel-silver movement.
Technical details
Model: DTE (Double Tourbillon Escapement Dual Time Watch)
Limited edition: 250th Anniversary, 28 timepieces
Reference: 1DTAR.L01A.C120A
Movement
Calibre: A&S8513
Exclusive Arnold & Son mechanical double tourbillon movement, hand-wound, 42 jewels, diameter 37.3 mm, thickness 8.35 mm, power reserve 90 h, double barrel, 21,600 vibrations/h
Movement decoration: nickel-silver movement, rhodium treated with superlative Haute Horlogerie finishing: hand-chamfered bridges and polished edges, fine circular graining and Côtes de Genève rayonnantes, plate dial side with Côtes de Genève, circular satin-finished wheels with hand-chamfered and polished edges, blued screws with bevelled and mirror-polished heads
Tourbillon: 18-carat red gold bridges, satin-finished and mirror polished surfaces with hand-chamfered and polished edges; Hand-chamfered and mirror-polished tourbillon cages
Functions
Local hours and minutes, GMT hours and minutes, double tourbillon
Case, dial and strap
Case: 18-carat red gold, diameter 43.5 mm, cambered sapphire with antireflective coating on both sides, case back see-through sapphire, water-resistant to 30 m
Dial: domed and white lacquered
Strap: Hand-stitched brown or black alligator leather
