Issued in a numbered 24-piece limited series, the Arceau Lift tourbillon répétition minutes so black watch by Hermès features a black grand feu enamel dial revealing part of its captivating mechanism.
It combines two magnificent horological complications. The complex mechanism of the double-gong minute repeater can be admired through the horse-shaped dial cut-out. The flying tourbillon is revealed through a round aperture at 6 o’clock.
The double-H tourbillon structure of the ARCEAU Lift Tourbillon Répétition Minutes So Black watch is inspired by an emblematic motif of the Hermès boutique in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. This distinctive design surmounting the carriage and barrel bridge echoes the shape of the wrought iron adorning the entrance, railings, staircase and elevator of the Parisian establishment.
The dial cut-outs and the sapphire case-back reveal the Manufacture Hermès H1924 mechanical hand-wound movement ensuring a crystal-clear chime for the minute repeater. The titanium case measuring 43 mm in diameter is fitted on a matt black alligator strap.
Technical details
Model: Hermès ARCEAU Lift Tourbillon Répétition Minutes So Black
Edition
Numbered 24-piece limited edition
Movement
Manufacture Hermès H1924 movement
Mechanical hand-wound, Swiss made
Diameter: 30 mm (13 ¼ ‘’’)
Thickness: 8.89 mm
Power reserve: 80 hours
Frequency: 21,600 vph (3Hz)
Functions: minute repeater chiming on two gongs, hours, minutes
Distinctive feature: flying tourbillon
Case
Shape/size: round, 43 mm in diameter
Material: titanium
Glass: anti-glare sapphire crystal and case-back
Water resistance: 3 bar
With the Endeavour Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon Aqua Blue, H. Moser & Cie. presents one of the most traditional and romantic watch complications and combines it with a magnificent flying tourbillon.
Drawing attention to the minute repeater mechanism, it has taken the bold decision to position the two shaped gongs and the hammers on the dial side, in a brand-new design. This involved overcoming many technical challenges. In particular, the chimes had to be curved so as not to interfere with the flying tourbillon and keep the design understated.
The H. Moser & Cie. Endeavour Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon Aqua Blue watch features a 40 mm diameter case in red gold or titanium. This specially designed case architecture optimizes the sound and achieves the perfect balance between volume, resonance and harmony. The case middle has been widened to the maximum in order to accommodate the movement while allowing enough space to create a soundbox.
This amplifies the chiming of hours, quarter-hours and minutes by two gongs, onto which fall two hammers that are raised based on information provided by different feeler-spindles.
The Endeavour Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon Aqua Blue has been designed to retain classic, perfectly balanced dimensions and proportions.
At six o’clock, the one-minute flying tourbillon is visible behind a skeletonised bridge. Boldly contemporary, the tourbillon appears to float weightlessly above the “Grand Feu” enamel dial.
Starting with a pattern engrained onto a gold base, as if hammered, four different colour pigments are washed, finely crushed, then applied to create an ombré effect. It took approximately one hour of careful work for the master enameller to painstakingly apply the pigments, adding them one by one so that the colours oxidise and meld together when heated in the furnace, without any pixellation. A translucent “Grand Feu” enamel dial must be fired twelve times in total to create the signature H. Moser & Cie. fumé effect.
Each dial is unique and has a particularly striking texture and an intense Aqua Blue hue. The watch dial comes with no logo or indices. The magnificent HMC 904 hand-wound calibre can be admired through the sapphire crystal case back.
Technical details
Model: H. Moser & Cie. Endeavour Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon Aqua Blue
References
Reference 1904-0400, 18-carat red gold model, Aqua Blue fumé dial, brown alligator leather strap, limited edition of 20 pieces
Reference 1904-0500, titanium model, Aqua Blue fumé dial, black alligator leather strap, limited edition of 20 pieces
Case
18-carat red gold or titanium
Diameter: 40.0 mm/height: 13.5 mm
Sapphire crystal
Sliding bolt with runner made from Teflon
See-through sapphire crystal case back
Crown adorned with an “M”
Dial
Aqua Blue fumé “Grand Feu” enamel with hammered texture
Hammers and chimes on dial side
Leaf-shaped hour and minute hands
Movement
HMC 904 hand-wound calibre, partially skeletonised
Diameter: 33.0 mm/height: 9.62 mm
Frequency: 21,600 Vib/h
35 jewels
Power reserve: 90 hours
Double Moser stripes on the plate and bridges
Movement and components hand-finished and decorated
One-minute flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock with skeletonised bridge
Minute repeater
Functions
Hours and minutes
Minute repeater with hour, quarter-hour and minute chimes
Strap
Hand-stitched alligator leather
Red gold or titanium pin buckle, engraved with the Moser logo
Chopard expands its L.U.C Haute Horlogerie collection by introducing a multi complication timepiece incorporating the brand’s emblematic striking minute repeater mechanism and tourbillon. Limited to 20 pieces, this watch features an ethical 18-carat rose gold case.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the L.U.C collection, the L.U.C Full Strike Tourbillon model is one of the most sophisticated and most innovative Grand Complication watches ever created to date.
It follows in the footsteps of Chopard’s L.U.C Full Strike minute repeater timepieces, of which the first ethical rose gold edition was awarded the “Aiguille d’Or” best-in-show award at the 2017 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. These timepieces feature a unique Chopard-patented system in which the gongs and sapphire crystal form a single entity, which resonates in its entirety to produce the chime.
Dressed in a 42.5 mm diameter and 12.58 mm thick case, the L.U.C Full Strike Tourbillon is distinguished by well-balanced proportions contributing to the characteristic elegance of the L.U.C collection. With its interplay of grey and gold colours between the case and strap, dial and hands, as well as between the movement’s steel and nickel silver components, this watch flaunts its aesthetic perfection at every level.
For the first time in the history of the Full Strike, the L.U.C Full Strike Tourbillon model has an almost entirely solid dial. Instead of broadly revealing the watch’s internal mechanisms, it reserves its openings for the two horological complications that make this piece so special.
The first cut-out between 9 and 11 o’clock, highlights the two mirror-polished steel hammers whose striking generates the chime. The other, at 6 o’clock, reveals the tourbillon of the L.U.C 08.02-L calibre.
Thanks to a cross-through sapphire crystal tourbillon bridge, nothing obscures the view of the spiral-shaped carriage bridge. The final touch, made possible by the use of sapphire with its multiple properties, lies in the four rounded notches. This L.U.C signature tourbillon bridge is derived from a design by the founder of the Maison, Louis-Ulysse Chopard.
The dial is made from a base plate in solid gold and this material remains visible along the openings, featuring mirror-polished edges. It also features a hand-guilloché radiating floral pattern belonging to the collection’s aesthetic repertoire that is then ruthenium grey-coloured by means of a galvanic treatment.
It is complemented by applied Roman numeral hour-markers and hands, all of which are gilded in a rose gold matching the case. The latter, like all Chopard’s watch and jewellery creations since 2018, is crafted from ethical gold.
Chopard Manufacture watchmakers have placed the tourbillon of the L.U.C 08.02-L calibre at 6 o’clock, beneath the seconds hand. Its high-quality steel carriage picks up the distinctive spiral design – a signature of L.U.C tourbillons.
This regulator further enhances the precision of the movement, a subject to which Chopard’s Co-President, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, takes a resolutely uncompromising approach. It combats the adverse effects of gravity on the balance-spring and escapement by placing them in a variety of spatial positions.
The tourbillon placed on the Chopard Manufacture minute repeater mechanism thereby contributes to the extreme precision of L.U.C Calibre 08.02-L as well as to the obtention of chronometer certification from the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute.
The L.U.C Full Strike Tourbillon is not a mere modification of the L.U.C Full Strike. Moving from a calibre comprising 533 components to one with 568 is not an addition, but a revolution. The decision to include a tourbillon regulator required a complete development process that involved rethinking interactions and layouts.
With such a delicate complication subject to as many parameters as the minute repeater, the Chopard Manufacture workshops had to ensure that this tourbillon would not in any way modify the acoustic qualities of the chime.
This equilibrium is preserved by the sapphire gongs that are all-of-a-piece with the watch glass, which acts as a resonator. Moreover, the fact that the minute repeater has its own barrel naturally eliminates any energy-related interference, while the presence of the tourbillon does not alter the striking reserve.
L.U.C Calibre 08.02-L inherits the unprecedented advances featured in the L.U.C 08.01-L: the first minute repeater movement introduced by Chopard Manufacture in 2016. In addition to its resonant structure, whose role is taken on by the sapphire crystal, several innovative technical systems have been added.
It also benefits from the innovations introduced in L.U.C Calibre 02.01-L in 2003. A total of seven are the subject of patents. In a minute repeater mechanism, the energy used by the strikework is provided each time the arming lever is activated.
Here, the energy comes from a separate, dedicated barrel wound directly by the crown. It enables the L.U.C Full Strike Tourbillon to chime a maximum of 12 times the most complex and energy-intensive time: namely 12 hours and 59 minutes.
This exceptional power reserve is due to several factors. Benefiting from a patented clutch-lever device, it ensures that the strikework gear train is blocked to avoid losing power reserve during the information capture that controls the minute repeater.
Keen to preserve the user-friendliness of the minute repeater and to make its operation as secure as possible, Chopard Manufacture has introduced a number of innovative systems. Thus, if the barrel no longer has sufficient force to power the minute repeater, a safety mechanism blocks its release. In addition, Chopard has filed a patent for a new strikework-activation device. As soon as it is activated, the pusher is disengaged, thereby making it impossible to disturb the running of the minute repeater or to damage it.
So as to optimise and perpetuate the acoustic richness of the monobloc sapphire crystal/gong system derived from the L.U.C Full Strike, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele has initiated a new approach. In 2018, while attending a concert given by violinist Renaud Capuçon, he realised that a minute repeater watch should be designed as a musical instrument and should deliver something more – namely emotion.
Renaud Capuçon is a virtuoso of his time as well as a specialist in acoustics and sound – just like his brother, cellist Gautier Capuçon. Both play instruments that are several hundred years old and which embody a perfection and uniqueness that have stood the test of time.
Karl-Friedrich Scheufele decided to call upon the two soloists to join forces with Professor Romain Boulandet – head of the Applied Acoustics Laboratory at Geneva’s HEPIA engineering school – whose work in an anechoic chamber perfectly isolated from noise pollution has demonstrated that the sound of Chopard’s minute repeater is powerful, harmonious and crystal clear.
Together, these experts have combined their skill and knowledge to conduct an analysis that goes beyond the purely measurable criteria of acoustics to enter another dimension: that of sound as perceived by the listener. The L.U.C Full Strike Tourbillon timepiece benefits from their analysis and their contribution, both scientific and emotional.
Thanks to Chopard’s unalterable sapphire gongs, the sound of the L.U.C Full Strike Tourbillon is unchanging, stemming from the orchestration of complementary talents: Karl-Friedrich Scheufele for watchmaking precision; Renaud and Gautier Capuçon for artistic and emotional endorsement; and Romain Boulandet for scientific expertise.
Technical details
Model: Chopard L.U.C Full Strike Tourbillon
Ref. 161987-5001
Edition
Numbered 20-piece limited edition in ethical 18-carat rose gold
Case
Ethical 18-carat rose gold
Total diameter 42.5 mm
Thickness 12.58 mm
Crown with integrated strikework pusher in ethical 18-carat rose gold with L.U.C logo 8.80 mm
Vertical satin-brushed caseband
Polished bezel and case-back, hand-engraved case-back
Exhibition back with sapphire crystal
Movement
Mechanical hand-wound L.U.C 08.02-L
Number of components: 568
Total diameter: 37.20 mm
Thickness: 8.90 mm
Number of jewels: 61
Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz)
Power reserve: 50 hours
Mainplate and bridges in untreated nickel silver
Bridges adorned with Côtes de Genève motif
Chopard-patented one-minute tourbillon regulator equipped with a Chopard-patented monobloc pallet-lever
Minute repeater
Chopard-patented monobloc sapphire crystal and gongs
Chopard-patented variable-inertia balance
Chopard-patented clutch-lever device serving to block the strikework so as to avoid losing power reserve during information capture
Chopard-patented dedicated ratchet-driving mechanism serving to avoid pauses during chiming
Strikework-activation device serving to act on the pusher whether while it is chiming or not, in normal, low, continuous or fast mode (Patent pending)
Balance-spring with Phillips terminal curve
Chronometer-certified by the COSC
Poinçon de Genève quality hallmark
Dial
Dial in ruthenium grey hand-guilloché 18-carat rose gold
Chapter ring with snailed concentric circle pattern
Applied gilded Roman numerals
White transferred power-reserve graduations
Gilded Dauphine fusée-type hours and minutes hands
Gilded baton-type small seconds hand
Gilded baton-type power-reserve and strikework power-reserve hands
Railway-type minutes track engraved on the sapphire crystal
Tourbillon bridge in glare-proofed sapphire crystal
Functions
Minute repeater striking sapphire gongs (Chopard-patented system)
Tourbillon with small seconds display at 6 o’clock
Central display of the hours and minutes
Concentric display of the watch and strikework power reserves at 2 o’clock
Stop-seconds function
Strap
Strap in hand-sewn grey alligator leather with grey alligator lining
Folding clasp in polished and satin-brushed ethical 18-carat rose gold
Vacheron Constantin has created a single-piece edition Les Cabinotiers timepiece evoking the legend of the Flying Dutchman. This unique piece belongs to the newly inducted “Les Royaumes Aquatiques® series inspired by the world of the sea and its accompanying mythology.
This single-piece edition Les Cabinotiers minute repeater and tourbillon watch was inspired by the Flying Dutchman and his ghost ship. Interpreted on a dial in miniature enamel painting and grisaille enamel, the ship sails into the heart of the storm on raging waves streaked with lightning. In-house developed and produced Manufacture Calibre 2755 TMR is regulated by a one-minute tourbillon and equipped with a minute repeater mechanism.
Les Cabinotiers Minute Repeater Tourbillon – Flying Dutchman is a watch inspired by this legend of the seas dating back to the 17th century.
The strikingly realistic dial of this unique timepiece offers a spectral vision of the ghost ship, plunging through the waves in the middle of a storm. With the sea raging and the waves threatening, lightning streaking across a full moon sky, the stage is set for a dramatic vision of this vessel. It is as if the minute repeater of the watch has been designed to sound the death knell of any sailor crossing its path, in order to drag him into the swirling depths of a mechanical sea.
The dial is a masterpiece of artistic craftsmanship staging a spectacular show in its own right. To create it, Vacheron Constantin’s master artisan drew on a rarely used technique combining miniature enamel painting and grisaille enamel.
This single-piece edition Les Cabinotiers watch is powered by the 471-component minute repeater and tourbillon Calibre 2755 TMR. Derived from Calibre 2755, Vacheron Constantin’s signature movement for Grand Complication models, this manual-winding version is equipped with a one-minute tourbillon, beating at 18,000 vibrations per hour (2.5 Hz) and endowed with a 58-hour power reserve displayed on the back.
The mechanism is complemented by a minute repeater serving to sound the time on demand. To create this particularly complex chiming mechanism, which is controlled by a sliding bolt on the bezel, Vacheron Constantin’s engineers and master watchmakers drew inspiration from the work done on the 2005 La Tour de l’Île anniversary watch, and its strike governor in particular.
This system enables the duration of the musical sequences to be perfectly timed so as to achieve a distinct and harmonious sound of the notes playing the hours, quarters and minutes by hammers striking two circular gongs. The model is thus equipped with a perfectly silent centripetal flywheel strike governor that avoids any undue wear on the mechanism.
Calibre 2755 TMR features Fine Watchmaking finishes including meticulous hand-bevelling of the bridges adorned with a Côtes de Genève motif, circular-graining of the baseplate and rounding off applied to the tourbillon carriage bars.
The fact that each part composing the movement is hand-finished and decorated – whatever its place within the mechanism and even when hidden from sight –demonstrates the same meticulous care displayed on the dial and representing an integral part of Vacheron Constantin’s signature aesthetic quest in which overall beauty and harmony stems from the attention lavished on even the smallest details.
Calibre 2755 TMR is housed in a 18K white gold case measuring 45 mm in diameter and 13.52 mm thick and fitted with a dark blue alligator leather strap secured by a white gold folding clasp.
“Les Royaumes Aquatiques®” (aquatic kingdoms) evoke the wonderful world of the sea and its accompanying mythology. The Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers represents a department in its own right dedicated to the personalisation of models and to unique creations. For this year, Vacheron Constantin has chosen “Les Royaumes Aquatiques®” as the theme for its single-piece edition Les Cabinotiers timepieces.
Les Cabinotiers Minute Repeater Tourbillon – Flying Dutchman watch perfectly fits Vacheron Constantin’s annual theme “The Anatomy of Beauty®” which celebrates the Maison’s attentiveness to detail. This extraordinarily painstaking care is expressed through the designers’ aesthetic choices and preferences as well as in the meticulous finishing work performed by the artisans.
All the components of the Vacheron Constantin Flying Dutchman watch benefit from this scrupulous attention, even those that remain invisible once the movement has been assembled.
Movement
Caliber 2755 TMR
Developed and manufactured by Vacheron Constantin
Mechanical, manual-winding
33.9 mm diameter, 7.1 mm thick
Approximately 48 hours of power reserve
2.5Hz (18,000 vibrations/hour)
471 components
40 jewels
Hallmark of Geneva
Indications
Hours, minutes
Small second at 6 o’clock on tourbillon carriage
Minute repeater, tourbillon and power-reserve indication on the case-back side
Setting
Hours and minutes adjustment: winding crown (2 positions)
Case
18K white gold with case
45 mm diameter, 13.52 mm thick
Dial
18K gold covered with “Grand Feu” miniature enamelling and grisaille enamelling representing a “Flying Dutchman”
18K white gold hands
Strap
Dark blue Mississippiensis alligator leather, hand-stitched, saddle-finish, large square scales
Buckle
18K white gold folding clasp
Polished half Maltese cross-shaped
A leading specialist in celestial complications, Jaeger-LeCoultre reinterprets its Grande Complication Calibre 945 with two magnificent new interpretations for 2022: Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 945 Galaxia in pink gold and Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 945 Atomium in white gold.
Each offered in a limited edition of five pieces, these new works celebrate La Grande Maison’s artistic creativity and mastery of the decorative crafts while reaffirming its technical ingenuity.
Originally created in 2010, Calibre 945 unites a sky chart with a celestial vault, a zodiacal calendar and a minute repeater, and is further elevated by Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Cosmotourbillon – a celestial flying tourbillon.
Highlighting the astronomical aspect of time measurement, the brand’s watchmakers developed a mechanism able to display the passing of sidereal time, based on the stars. Set at the centre of the dial, the celestial vault maps the Northern Hemisphere night sky as seen from the 46th parallel – the latitude of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s home in the Vallée de Joux – tracking the position of the constellations in real time.
Enhancing this celestial display, the Cosmotourbillon is elevated beyond its purely technical function as a regulating mechanism, measuring the passing of time as it makes a complete, anti-clockwise circuit of the dial in one sidereal day. With a duration of precisely 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds, a sidereal day is defined by Earth’s rotation measured in relation to more distant fixed stars, whereas the 24-hour solar day is measured by Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
A golden sun-shaped pointer set at the edge of the dial indicates the month of the zodiacal calendar and solar time on a 24-hour scale, which is necessary for setting the watch. The Dauphine-shaped hands indicate the minutes and 12-hour cycles of civil time, which are displayed on two concentric rings on the flange of the dial.
Hand-decorated by the artisans in the Métiers Rares® atelier of the Manufacture, the multiple-level dial amplifies the beauty of the celestial theme while also showcasing the Cosmotourbillon.
For the star map, Jaeger-LeCoultre introduces grisaille enamel to its repertoire for the first time. A painterly technique that originated in 16th-century France, grisaille enamel is unique in creating a chiaroscuro effect, with an illusion of three-dimensionality created by half-tones and shading. Thanks to this rarefied technique, the dials of the Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 945 depict with utmost artistry the sky that we see above us at night.
In a subtle allusion to the way the night sky seems to form a dome above us when we look at the stars, the dials are constructed on multiple levels, dominated by a domed structure that also wraps around the Cosmotourbillon.
Visible around the edge of the dome and beneath the tourbillon, the deepest level of the dial is a midnight blue or black disc (for the white gold and pink gold cases, respectively) decorated with translucent lacquer over opaline, with transferred white inscriptions for the names of the months, and the tourbillon seconds.
The dome is formed of two sections. On the black dial of the “Galaxia”, both the outer section of the dome and the inner celestial disc are made of gold, with grisaille enamel depicting the planets, and the star map and names of the constellations transferred over the enamel.
The “Atomium” takes its name from the delicate filigree of silvered metal that forms the outer section of the dome, its shape echoing the lines that link the stars to form constellations. Framed within this, on the domed celestial disc, midnight-blue grisaille enamel and a transferred star map amplify the visual connection to the cosmos.
The dials of the “Galaxia” and “Atomium” are encircled by three concentric rings that carry the indices for solar time. The inner ring, for 24 hours, and outer ring, displaying minutes, are finished in opaline; between them, the hour ring is decorated with enamel over a hand-guilloché base, with applied indexes.
The Master Grande Tradition case is a perfect complement to the artistic dials and mechanical sophistication of these sumptuous pieces.
Comprising more than 80 parts, its convex bezel is complemented by broad bevels on the lugs; the hollowed-out sides of the lugs add dynamic tension, while the repeater slide is tapered to harmonise with the curving case sides. Different surfaces are microblasted, polished and satin-brushed to maximise the play of light and emphasise the details.
This exceptional timepiece also takes Jaeger-LeCoultre’s expertise in chiming watches to new heights by uniting the astronomical complications with a minute repeater – considered to be the most challenging and rewarding of all horological complications for a watchmaker to master.
The technical difficulty of creating one lies in the complexity of the mechanism needed to transcribe the precise time shown by the hands into a series of perfectly programmed strikes, with different sounds for hours, quarters and minutes. The artistic challenge is that, this being a miniaturised musical instrument, the chimes must be pure, harmonious and clearly audible.
At Jaeger-LeCoultre, this continuing quest for the ideal sound has produced several patented innovations, including crystal gongs, trebuchet hammers and a silent governor. In the minute repeater mechanism of Calibre 945, these inventions contribute a special magic that complements the romance of celestial timekeeping.
Case
Pink gold or white gold with micro-blasted, satin and polished finishes; sapphire case-back
Dimensions: 45mm x 16.05mm
Calibre: manual mechanical Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 945
Frequency: 28,800
Power reserve: 40 hours
Functions
Hours, minutes, months, 24-hour indication
Cosmotourbillon indicating sidereal time
Celestial disc with star chart indicating the constellations in the northern hemisphere in real time
Minute repeater
Zodiacal calendar
Dial
Black dial with grisaille enamel (in pink gold case) or blue dial with silvered laser-welded structure (in white gold case)
Water resistance: 5 bar
Vacheron Constantin has created a unique Les Cabinotiers timepiece endowed with a minute repeater equipped with a centripetal flying strike regulator and a split-seconds monopusher chronograph.
Equipped with the new manual-winding in-house Calibre 2757, this unique Les Cabinotiers Minute Repeater Tourbillon Split-Seconds Monopusher Chronograph is in keeping with the grand tradition of Vacheron Constantin’s complicated watches.
The construction of this calibre, which consists of integrating an additional split-seconds chronograph mechanism into a basic minute repeater movement, represents a technical feat. The combination of these functions with a tourbillon has rarely been seen in the world of pocket watches, is almost non-existent in the world of wristwatches, and represents a first for Vacheron Constantin in a wristwatch.
This timepiece is also distinguished by a concern for the purity of the dial and the legibility of its chronograph functions. The tourbillon is visible only through the case back, while the off-centre display of the time and chronograph indications highlights the two central chronograph hands. The presence of a minute repeater is revealed by the slide-piece positioned on the left-hand side of the watch.
As early as 1819, Vacheron Constantin produced a pocket watch with independent deadbeat seconds and quarter repeater, at the time one of the first of its kind, which is now kept in the private collection of the Maison.
The deadbeat seconds mechanism, which allows the central second hand to advance in one-second jumps, played an important role in the measurement of short times. By making this mechanism independent by means of an additional gear train, watchmakers developed what is considered the ancestor of the chronograph towards the end of the 18th century. With such a device, it is now possible to stop the seconds hand without affecting the time indications.
The split-seconds chronograph was first introduced with a single-hand system in 1831, followed by the two-hand configuration in 1838. Vacheron Constantin quickly integrated these developments into the pocket chronographs of the time, as confirmed by an 1889 split-seconds timepiece dispatched to Buenos Aires for a horse racing enthusiast.
Vacheron Constantin’s watchmakers have developed the 698-component manual-winding Calibre 2757. Such a large number of parts denote a rare degree of horological complexity. Even in the world of grand complications, calibres are often of simpler design and made with far fewer components.
Given this intensely technical nature, Vacheron Constantin’s watchmakers have nonetheless risen to the challenge of elegance by successfully arranging the complications of this timepiece within a remarkably slender movement measuring barely 10.4 mm thick and 33.3 mm in diameter.
Calibre 2757, operating at a rate of 18,000 vibrations per hour (2.5 Hz) and endowed with an approximately 60-hour power reserve, enables short time measurement with 1/5th of a second precision appearing on the graduated minute-track. The unusual configuration of the dark grey dial has been designed to ensure optimum visibility of the split-seconds chronograph.
The hours and minutes are displayed on an offset subdial, leaving room for the 30-minute chronograph counter prominently placed at 2 o’clock. The layout is complemented by small seconds at 6 o’clock, indicating that the watch is in operation, thereby leaving plenty of space for the two central chronograph hands.
The very construction of the movement, particularly in terms of its chronographic functions, is based on the imperative of performance. In the watchmaking world, where many great inventions belong to the past, innovation often consists in optimising the operation of a calibre.
This approach begins with the development of the movement and continues with the use of new materials. This same approach is reflected in Calibre 2757, whose additional split-seconds chronograph plate has been specially designed to ensure efficiency thanks to the in-depth arrangement of its components.
This optimisation of volumes, despite the thinness of the calibre, is also accompanied by new materials. Some of the wheels in the going train have been made of titanium or electroformed in nickel- phosphorus with a toothing profile specific to Vacheron Constantin, the goal being to ensure better gear penetration so as to avoid any jerking of the seconds hand. Silicon, an ultra-light material that requires no lubrication, is also used for one of the split-seconds levers and its insulator.
These savings in component weight and friction thus reduce the loss of energy amplitude from the barrel, thereby maintaining a comfortable power reserve of up to 50 hours with the chronograph activated.
For short-time measurements, a function demanding extreme regularity in terms of precision, Vacheron Constantin watchmakers have opted for a construction with two column wheels: the first devoted to the chronograph and the other to the split-seconds mechanism. This chronograph is thus controlled by a single pusher at 2 o’clock for the basic functions (start/stop/reset) and by the one at 4 o’clock for the split-seconds (stop/reset).
Pressing the latter stops the seconds hand on an intermediate time while the first hand continues running. Pressing it again enables the split-seconds hand to join the first seconds hand in counting off time. Two scales further enhance the technical nature of this timepiece.
The tachymeter scale, screen-printed in white on a 1,000-metre base, enables the average speed in km/h to be calculated over the first minute of timekeeping; the telemeter scale in red is used to calculate distances of up to 20 km according to the speed of sound (340 metres/second).
The chronograph functions are complemented by a minute repeater, activated by the lever on the left-hand side of the case. An essential complication for musical watches, the minute repeater has been part of Vacheron Constantin’s watchmaking vocabulary for more than two centuries, sounding the hours, quarters and minutes on demand.
The first known mention of a Vacheron Constantin chiming watch in the production records dates back to 1806, with a gold quarter-repeater pocket watch. Since that date, chiming and repeater watches have been part of the Maison’s heritage that has continued to grow over the decades.
Calibre 2757 is the direct heir to this tradition, benefiting from the technical developments perfected within the Manufacture. These include an ingenious centripetal flying strike regulator.
In a minute repeater watch, this mechanism regulates the duration of the musical sequence so that the notes can be heard distinctly and harmoniously. This system is distinguished by its two weights whose very special shape has been optimised to act as a brake by means of centripetal force acting on the governor’s rotating shaft, thereby evening out the energy released by the barrel and regulated by the tourbillon. This original device is also perfectly silent. Visible exclusively through the caseback, the tourbillon is distinguished by a carriage whose shape is inspired by the Maison’s Maltese cross emblem. Held by a delicately hand-chamfered bridge, this regulator carriage performs one complete rotation per minute.
Presented in a 45 mm-diameter 750/1000 5N pink gold case with an exhibition back and on an alligator leather strap with gold folding clasp, this watch represents a technical feat as well as epitomising extraordinary mastery in the field of watchmaking finishing.
A signature feature of Vacheron Constantin watches is that each component is finely decorated with hand-made finishes before being assembled, even when destined to remain hidden. These surfaces that is alternately bevelled, polished, satin-finished, frosted, circular-grained or engraved and beadblasted create a play of light that brings out all the magic of Vacheron Constantin’s calibres and contributes to the brand’s intrinsic anatomy of beauty.
The assembly, setting into operation and casing-up of this Les Cabinotiers Minute repeater split-seconds monopusher chronograph movement thus represents only one third of the time devoted to the watch, as opposed to two thirds devoted to the calibre finishing.
The contrast between the bridges and maintaining plate with Vacheron Constantin’s signature black coating and the “metallic” moving parts already acts as a revelation of this kinetic art, which takes shape thanks to the meticulous attention lavished on details.
On the dial side, the skeletonised bridges, with their hand-chamfered and straight-grained flanks feature a circular satin finish. The wheels, with their chamfered arms, are burnished and polished, a complex operation that requires special tools for the titanium wheels.
On the caseback side of the movement, the watchmaker in charge of the timepiece – who carries out all the assembly and finishing operations right the way through to timing and casing-up in the manner of 18th century cabinotiers – has created an original decoration, in keeping with this remarkable timepiece.
The blackened bridges featured a hollowed-out surface that has been sandblasted to a very fine grain by hand, topped by a mirror-polished sink. This magnificent execution, which plays on the reflections of light between the matt and the shiny, brings out the “musical” components of the movement. The strike governor is notably engraved with the initials J.M.C. in tribute to Jean-Marc Vacheron and features a bar whose delicate rounding off involves 12 hours of meticulous hand craftsmanship. The Tourbillon Bridge is engraved with Vacheron Constantin’s Maltese cross emblem.
The single-piece watch Les Cabinotiers Minute Repeater Tourbillon Split-Seconds Monopusher Chronograph features a concern for impeccable finishing and meticulous decoration of all watch components, even those that remain invisible, vividly illustrating Vacheron Constantin’s theme for 2022:”The Anatomy of Beauty®”.
Technical details
Model: Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Minute Repeater Tourbillon Split-Seconds Monopusher Chronograph
Reference: 9750C/000R-002C
Movement
Calibre 2757
Developed and manufactured by Vacheron Constantin
Mechanical, manual-winding
33.30 mm diameter, 10.40 mm thick
Approximately 60 hours of power reserve
2.5Hz (18,000 vibrations/hour)
698 components
59 jewels
Poinçon de Genève
Functions
Off-centred/Offset hours and minutes
Chronograph
Split-seconds chronograph
Small seconds
30-minute counter
Minute repeater
Tourbillon
Case
18K 5N pink gold
45 mm diameter, 16.4 mm thick
Dial
Dark grey dial
Hours, minutes and seconds hands: 18K 5N pink gold, polished
Chronograph and split-seconds chronograph hands: gold-toned aluminium, matt
Strap
Black Mississippiensis alligator leather, hand-stitched, saddle-finish, large square scales
Buckle 18K 5N pink gold folding clasp, Half Maltese cross-shaped
Vacheron Constantin’s Les Cabinotiers department has been renowned for bespoke mechanical timepieces that represent the pinnacle of fine watchmaking and artisanal skills of the Geneva Maison.
Among the recent masterpieces from the Les Cabinotiers department, the the Les Cabinotiers Westminster Sonnerie – Tribute to Johannes Vermeer is a stand-out horological marvel. A project first undertaken in 2013, this bespoke pocket watch was made according to an esteemed client’s wish. This timepiece embodies art and beauty, exceptional mechanics and technical mastery.
This magnificent micromechanical wonder is equipped with a new in-house movement, Calibre 3761 with Grande Sonnerie and tourbillon, specially developed by the team of watchmakers who designed the Reference 57260 watch.
The craftsmanship adorning this timepiece is equally extraordinary. The case is hand-engraved on its bezel, back and sides using various artisanal techniques, as well as topped by a bow adorned with two hand-sculpted lion heads. The officer-type caseback is stunningly enhanced by a miniature enamel reproduction of Vermeer’s famous painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, created by enameller Anita Porchet.
Vacheron Constantin Reference 9910C/000J-B413 Pocket watch, Les Cabinotiers Westminster Sonnerie – Tribute to Johannes Vermeer
Les Cabinotiers is a department in its own right within the Manufacture Vacheron Constantin, dedicated to creating single-piece editions. Following in the footsteps of the Geneva master-watchmakers known as cabinotiers in the Age of Enlightenment, the team took up the challenge of giving substance to the dream of a passionate collector who wanted a pocket watch that was technically and aesthetically exceptional, reflecting the noblest traditions of 18th century Haute Horlogerie. To create this highly complex mechanical pocket watch, it took approximately eight years.
The Les Cabinotiers Westminster Sonnerie – Tribute to Johannes Vermeer pocket watch is powered by a new 806-part manual winding calibre, regulated by a tourbillon and comprising Grande and Petite Sonnerie Westminster chimes, coupled with a minute repeater. Within the range of watchmaking complications, Grande Sonnerie models have always enjoyed a special aura, not only because of the inherent complexity of these mechanisms striking several gongs, but also because of the musical qualities required.
Grande Sonnerie watches have a centuries-old tradition within the Maison. Among the oldest timepieces preserved to date, the first travel clock housing such a complication dates back to 1820. When it comes to pocket watches, the oldest model with Grande and Petite Sonnerie in the Vacheron Constantin private collection is dated 1827.
It was followed by several timepieces equipped with such mechanisms, some of them representing landmark creations endowed with an array of extremely sophisticated complications, such as the “Packard” presented in 1918 or the King Fouad I watch completed in 1929.
More recently, the world’s most complicated pocket watch, Reference 57260, was presented in 2015 on the occasion of the Maison’s 260th anniversary, affirming the expertise of the Maison in the realm of exceptional watchmaking.
The client who commissioned this model wanted a real Westminster chime pocket watch with striking five gongs with five hammers, featuring a Grande and Petite Sonnerie and adorned with miniature enamel. The Calibre 3761 measures 71 mm in diameter and 17 mm thick. It is regulated by a tourbillon majestically enthroned on the lower part of the movement, visible through the caseback and performing one full revolution per minute.
The tourbillon is driven by a 2.5Hz balance (18,000 vibrations per hour). The Westminster chime with which the movement is equipped with one of the most complicated striking mechanism to build, as it requires a sequence of five gongs struck in perfect harmony by their respective hammers controlled by four racks.
In wristwatches, Grande Sonnerie (grand strike) mechanisms are usually operated by a single rack, mainly for reasons of miniaturisation. The four rack and snail solution, with four racks for the hour and quarter chimes and one rack for the minute repeater, enhances the sequencing of the melodies and, as an added subtlety, enables different melodies to be played when passing the quarters.
The term ‘Westminster chime’ refers to the world-famous bells of Big Ben, the British Tower of Parliament in London: a four-bar melody consisting of four notes played at different frequencies. In “Grande Sonnerie” mode, the watch chimes the quarters in passing, with the hour repeated at each quarter, meaning three bars of the Westminster melody followed by five single notes for 5.45 am.
In “Petite Sonnerie” mode, it strikes the quarters at each change of quarter without repeating the hours; and at each change of hour, it strikes the fourth quarter – “the carillon” – as well as the hours. The strikework can be activated at any time by means of the slide on the side of the watch. The watch then functions as a minute repeater that chimes the quarters, minutes and hours in sequence. The selector switch positioned at 9 o’clock thus offers three possible modes.
In “Sonnerie” (strike) mode, the watch is automatically activated each time the quarters change, like a clock. In “Night Silence” mode, a special feature specifically developed and adapted to this 3761 calibre according to the time zone chosen by the customer, the alarm is deactivated between 11 pm and 9 am, thus saving energy as well as ensuring peace and quiet at night. The third and last “Silence” mode completely suspends the striking mechanism.
A second selector, positioned between 10 and 11 o’clock, serves to switch from Grande Sonnerie to Petite Sonnerie as preferred. The two barrels ensure an autonomy of approximately 16 hours for the musical mechanism in “Grande Sonnerie” mode and 80 hours for the time indications, with stable torque guaranteed until the end of the power reserve.
Calibre 3761 is equipped with a centripetal strike governor ensuring perfect regularity of the musical sequences, of which the notes must be both distinctly audible and pleasing to the ear. The system is characterised by a pair of weights whose very special shape has been optimised so as to generate a kind of “engine-braking effect” – by centripetal force – on the regulator’s pivot axis, thereby evening-out the energy released by the barrel.
This unique and original device is also perfectly silent. In another special feature regarding the flow of time, the calibre houses a double-wheel system with clearance adjustment. Given the size of the hands, in order to avoid any potential jerking of the seconds hand positioned at 6 o’clock, such a mechanism ensures its smooth flow thanks to a system based on two coaxial toothed wheels linked by a spring serving to eliminate gear play.
This Les Cabinotiers model demonstrates high standards and attention to detail in terms of movement finishing. All the components are thus hand-finished – from the completely engraved balance bridge to the bridges buffed with diamond paste to achieve a mirror-polished finish, as well as the galvanic treatment of the plates adorned with Côtes de Genève and featuring a soft champagne colour – creating an overall effect evoking the noblest watchmaking traditions.
The work on the ratchet wheel and the two barrel wheels is an excellent example of these meticulous tasks. The wheels first underwent surface treatment in the form of sandblasting and then sunburst finishing, before the teeth were glazed on all five gear portions. This type of finishing consists of chamfering the teeth and giving them a mirror-polished finish on the flat parts, a skill formerly used in watchmaking and that the Maison is committed to preserving. A week of patience and meticulous care was needed to decorate these three components.
The tuning of the gongs also requires a perfectionist’s spirit. First tested before being cased-up, they are shaped in such a way as to obtain the right note for each of them. This inevitably requires touching up with a file to achieve a perfect sound. There can however be surprises once the chiming mechanism is cased up. On this model, two of the five original gongs had to be replaced for the sake of harmony. By modifying the steel alloys, the sound of the two new gongs acquired a more crystal-clear entirely in tune with the other three.
This “tuning” of the Grande Sonnerie thus requires several successive casing-up procedures, since the mechanism has to be removed for any adjustments during the “trial runs” of the mechanism. These are indeed not the only elements of the assembled movement that undergo retouching during these various phases, which is why the latter take place even before the case is decorated. An additional difficulty with this single-piece edition was that it was impossible to case up the entire finished movement and part of the final assembly had to be done directly inside the case.
Given the level of finishing and decoration of each component, including the case, as well as the fact that any handling manipulation could potentially impair the quality, the ten operations involved in fitting the calibre – which had to be removed the same number of times for retouching – followed by the final assembly required an uncommonly deft touch. In the end, a very small team of specialised watchmakers conducted the making of this Calibre 3761, from the development, manufacturing and finishing of the various components to the final assembly and casing-up of the movement.
The client expressed the wish that the cover of the officer-type caseback should feature a miniature enamel painting by enameller Anita Porchet. The work chosen was Girl with a Pearl Earring, painted circa 1665 by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer.
Above and beyond the challenge of reproducing the work of a great master, the size of the 98 mm-diameter surface implied additional difficulties. This size of watch, corresponding more to that of historical carriage watches than to a pocket model, requires a degree of dexterity all the more accurate in that the slightest irregularity is glaringly obvious.
The result is reminiscent of the grand miniature enamel painting tradition in which Geneva came to specialise. Acknowledged since the late 16th century for its production of high-quality enamels, Geneva in fact lent its name to several terms referring to the quality of the work of its craftsmen. “Geneva enamels”, a term commonly used since that time, refers to painted enamels covered with a flux known as the “Fondant de Genève”.
This technique consists of adding a final transparent and colourless protective coating to the layers of vitrified enamel, thereby giving brilliance and depth to the artist’s work. This invention greatly benefited the timepieces of the period, which were subjected to repeated friction as pocket watches.
Only a few rare master enamellers still master these techniques. One need only think of the fact that a single layer of enamel on the young girl’s oriental turban requires at least two weeks of work given the size of the model.
The colour palette is similarly complex, notably including a composition of seven shades to obtain black, as well as 20 or so firings in the kiln required to stabilise the colours. In all, seven months of intermittent work were necessary to bring this portrait to life. The research and development work – notably relating to the pigments and enamels to be used – began in 2018 and the final result was completed in 2020.
While the decoration of watches and clocks using the various enamelling techniques strongly contributed to the reputation of the Fabrique de Genève which encompassed all the watchmaking and jewellery trades in the 18th century, the term “Geneva enamels” refers above all to enamel miniature painting.
This process consists of painting colours – based on metallic oxides ground to powder and then mixed with an oil-based binder – onto a layer of white enamel coating a copper or gold leaf base. Much like in gouache or oil painting, the master artisan then applies colours to a canvas, enabling a meticulous depiction – these days under a binocular microscope – of even the smallest details. After each phase, the colours are stabilised by successive firings in the kiln, with no chance of touch ups.
The main watch dial is Grand Feu enamelled in an eggshell colour with blue enamelled Roman numerals.
The style of the engravings adorning the case was carefully studied by Vacheron Constantin’s engraver in order to blend harmoniously with Vermeer’s painting. After several proposals and discussions with the client, she chose a main ornamental theme composed of acanthus leaves running along scrolls and flowers with a pearl heart. This motif echoes the theme of The Girl with the Pearl Earring with its classical and feminine decoration.
The talents of Vacheron Constantin’s master-engraver have created a visually striking result. Her work began by outlining the décor using a scriber. She then proceeded to create a champlevé effect by flat-hollowing around the motifs, creating volume and depth by carving them with a burin.
Observation and analysis of the pattern is essential to understand the volumes before cutting into the metal. To keep the rhythm and flexibility of the acanthus leaves along the accompanying line, the curves must be stretched. The facets and stripes are then cleaned and polished. This work requires time and patience.
Polishing is indeed a delicate operation to find the right balance between the shimmer of the metal and the volumes of the sculpture which lose their dynamic appeal if they are too rounded. In order to accentuate the shadows and to add details to the leaves and flowers, slender hollow lines are made on each of them using the fine line engraving technique involving incising or hollowing out the material.
The last operation, the point-by-point hand-chasing of the background, accentuates the contrast between the matt chased champlevé surface and the polished motifs. This operation improves legibility and highlights the decoration by its shimmering appearance. Chasing creates a decoration or a texture by striking the material, unlike engraving and sculpture which involving removing material.
The adornment of the case middle is further emphasised by a double ‘pearl’ border, a reference to the painting by Johannes Vermeer. The creation of this border begins with an even distribution of engraved squares running around the bezel and caseback. Then the engraver transforms these squares into half-beads using a beading tool with a spherically hollowed tip leaving an imprint serving to form the half-beads of metal.
Handling this instrument requires a steady, rhythmical touch. The small 0.8 mm beads are then polished by hand using a brush coated with diamond paste. The effect must be regular, while maintaining the personal deft touch that gives life to the result thanks to similar yet unique reflections. This beaded or ‘pearl’ decoration that was particularly in vogue in the early 20th century requires peerless mastery and dexterity.
Like an extension of this delicate craftsmanship performed on the case middle, the bow is a work of art in itself with its two roaring lions. At the client’s request, these three-dimensional ronde bosse sculptures are inspired by classical statues. Incredibly realistic, sculpted in a block of gold, they embody a rare degree of mastery.
Before working the material in its raw state, the Vacheron Constantin engraver made several 3D prints to determine the right volumes that would enable her to express her art. To craft the lions’ heads, which are similar yet not identical in terms of their manes, she drew with a tracing point the outlines of the two profiles, from the front and from above. It is above all a question of understanding the volumes of the head in three dimensions, before starting the sculpture, which gradually makes her lose the previously traced reference points.
The head of the animal must be imprinted in her mind as an infallible reference point throughout the process in order to give it life and character. Observation and precision are essential in creating such an animal sculpture whose expression can be totally distorted by an excessively strong touch.
The engraver first used a milling cutter to rough out the material and then several burins for increasingly fine and accurate work. The details of the satin-brushed, matt and polished textures were obtained using specific tools, some created for the occasion. A total of five months of extremely meticulous craftsmanship was required to engrave and sculpt the various elements of the pocket watch.
In the interests of safety, particular attention was paid to the design of the hinged officer-type caseback. An internal mechanism inside the case facilitates access by enabling the user to half-open the caseback by pressing the crown-integrated pusher. A cone-shaped titanium pin serves as the hinge, concealed by gold screws, while a spring using approximately 90° of the case angle slows down the closing of the enamelled and engraved caseback.
The extraordinary length of the hands – the minutes hand is 35 mm long – is also a challenge, particularly when it comes to finishing the polished surfaces and ensuring an even surface. To enhance lightness, they are made of pfinodal, an alloy of copper, nickel and tin, and then gilded.
Technical details
Model: Les Cabinotiers Westminster Sonnerie –Tribute to Johannes Vermeer
Reference 9910C/000J-B413
Movement
Calibre 3761
Developed and crafted by Vacheron Constantin
Mechanical manual winding
71 mm (31 ½’’’) diameter, 17.05 mm thick
Movement power reserve: approximately 80h
Strikework power reserve (Grande Sonnerie mode): approximately 16 hours
2.5 Hz (18,000 vibrations/hour)
806 components
58 jewels
Hallmark of Geneva certified timepiece
Indications
Hours, minutes, small seconds
Tourbillon, minute repeater, Westminster carillon
Case
18K 3N yellow gold, engraved with acanthus leaves on the case sides and with tulips and “pearl” decor on the bezel and the caseback
Bow sculpted with two lion heads
Officer-type cover, Grand Feu miniature enamelling depicting Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring painting, handmade by Anita Porchet
98 mm diameter, 32.60 mm thick
Dial
Grand Feu eggshell-coloured enamelling
Blue enamelled numerals
Golden pfinodal hands
Presentation Box
Les Cabinotiers model exclusively developed for this timepiece
Independent Swiss luxury watch manufacture Christophe Claret pays homage to Napoleon Bonaparte on the occasion of the bicentenary of his death by producing an exceptional watch. The «Napoleon» is a Westminster flying tourbillon minute repeater provided with a jaquemart automata featuring Napoleon with his soldiers.
To pay tribute to the genius military strategist, a military campaign, entirely handmade miniature painting, is staged in the first painting of this series of unique pieces. The animated characters are embossed and enhanced with colors.
Napoleon, to reward his bravest soldiers, created, from the start of his reign, the Legion of Honor and his famous medal. Christophe Claret decided to put the exceptional symbol on the tourbillon cage of this timepiece.
The Westminster minute repeater mechanism plays a musical tune when the quarters ring. Each quarters has a different ringtone «C D E G; G D E C; E G D C. » This ringtone, resulting from a collaboration between Christophe Claret and a virtuoso violinist, offers notes with optimal quality.
This musical tone is accompanied by the animation of the stage automatons. The «Napoleon» is available in two limited editions of 8 pieces, an edition in Red Gold and an edition in Titanium. All unique, they are each differentiated by their decor.
Driven by NBC98 caliber, the Christophe Claret Napoleon sets the tone in the family of traditional complications watches, the first of the four collections of the brand. It is inspired by previous creations by the master watchmaker, while once again pushing the limits of what is possible in this area.
With a frequency of 3 hertz (21,600 vibrations per hour) by means of its flying tourbillon, the NBC98caliber comes to life thanks to a single barrel. The mechanism has a power reserve of around 60 hours. The activation of the minute repeater is traditionally made through a sliding pusher on the left side of the case. We can therefore contemplate the animation of the Jaquemart automata, while listening the melodious sound of time by the Westminster cathedral ringing.
Christophe Claret is the designer of this four-branch balance wheel which offers an inertia / weight ratio close to the ideal balance: although very complex to manufacture, this aerodynamic balance is easy to adjust and balance.
The «cathedral» stamps of Napoleon’s «Westminster» ringing have been the subject of special care -as always with Christophe Claret. This type of bell has the particularity of going around the movement twice in order to express sounds that are longer, clearer and more powerful. Excellence is required for their manufacture in drawn steel, for their assembly and tuning. They benefit from a patented in-house invention which blocks significant vibrations despite their exceptional lengths and thus prohibits all parasitic noises.
The case harmoniously combines the polished and satin finishes of 5N red gold or titanium, highlighting the play of lights.
Grade 5 titanium is hard and very difficult to machine, it has the advantage of being extremely light and above all of sublimating the transmission of the ringing sound. The dial also magnifies the light and dark, with its unique nuances of hues and personalized materials.
The Napoleon watch displays a handmade miniature painting of a different battle setting on each of the 8 unique pieces.
Technical details
Model: Christophe Claret Napoleon
Movement
Caliber NBC98, mechanical, hand-wound movement
Diameter: 37.00 mm
Height: 9.03mm (without hands)
Components: 511
Jewels: 36
Barrel: Single mainspring barrel
Power reserve: Approximately 60 hours
Escapement: Swiss lever
Frequency: 3 Hz (21’600 vph)
Flying tourbillon with cage bridge decorated with the Legion of Honor
Tourbillon rotates once every 60 seconds
Functions
Hours, minutes
Hours, quarters and minutes repeater on demand
Inertia wheel
4-note minute repeater playing Westminster chime
4-jaquemart automata animated when ringing
Operating devices
Slide to activate the minute repeater function
2-position crown
– Drawn: time setting
– Thrust: winding the movement
Case
Diameter: 47mm
Height: 15 mm
Water resistance: 3 ATM / 30 m / 100 ft
During the Watches and Wonders 2021 digital event, Jaeger-LeCoultre unveiled Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 (Quadriptyque), the world’s first watch with four faces. This grand complication watch incorporates a total of 11 complications, including perpetual calendar, minute repeater, indications of the synodic, draconic and anomalistic cycles (never before presented together in a wristwatch), requiring 12 patents.
The most complicated timepiece ever presented in the Reverso collection, the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 is the result of over six years of development, combining key areas of expertise at Jaeger-LeCoultre with innovative new astronomical indications.
Uniting the brand’s unchallenged mastery of chiming watches, precision mechanisms, astronomical complications and ultra-compact watchmaking, it is the world’s first wristwatch with four functioning display faces. It incorporates three displays of lunar information on the interior face of the iconic Reverso cradle: the synodic cycle, the draconic cycle and the anomalistic cycle.
With these functions, the Hybris Mechanica Quadriptyque can predict the next global incidence of astronomical events such as supermoons and eclipses — the world’s first wristwatch to provide such astronomical indications.
Having a multitude of complications in a watch is pointless unless they can be legibly and comprehensibly displayed, and the watch can be reasonably worn. Liberated by the unique design of the iconic Reverso, Jaeger-LeCoultre has created a world’s first: a double-faced case continuously driven by the in-house Calibre 185, and a double-faced cradle with indications synced and updated by the primary movement every day at the stroke of midnight by an ingenious mechanical system proprietary to Jaeger-LeCoultre.
If accomplished through conventional mechanical means, the 11 complications of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 Quadriptyque would result in a timepiece far more suited for a desk than a wrist. Thanks to nearly two centuries of expertise and a thoroughly modern approach to innovation, the Maison has accommodated the extremely complex mechanism in a wristwatch with a 51mm x 31mm x 15mm case.
The history of Jaeger-LeCoultre is rooted in the pursuit and attainment of precision. One of the earliest inventions of founder Antoine LeCoultre was the millionometer, the first instrument able to measure the micron.
Today, Jaeger-LeCoultre is an undisputed pioneer and leader in creating exceptional executions of the tourbillon, a mechanism designed to enhance the chronometric performance of a timepiece. The Reverso Hybris Mechanica Gyrotourbillon 2 (2008) stunned audiences and won chronometry awards with its multi-axial revolving balance, and the Reverso Hybris Mechanica à Triptyque (2006) remains unique in its use of a tourbillon with a high-precision ellipse isometer escapement.
Occupying the 7 o’clock position on the recto face of the case, a flying tourbillon makes one rotation a minute, continuously varying the position of the balance in order to achieve a single corrected average time measurement.
The balance beats in regular cadences of 4Hz (28,800vph), every eight beats mark the passing of one second. The seconds accumulate into minutes, into hours, days, weeks, months and years. The recto face of the Quadriptyque case shows the indications of a perpetual calendar. It also takes leap years into account, displaying a 29th day in the month of February every four years.
Highlighting the precision of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 185 construction, the perpetual calendar indications are instantaneous, changing at the stroke of midnight. In addition, the complexities of the Calibre 185 construction required the date to be displayed at the 5 o’clock position on the dial. At Jaeger-LeCoultre, only the perfect legibility of a grande date was considered acceptable for a watch of such prestige, which necessitated the creation of a new system of date display discs in order to accommodate the dimensions of the flying tourbillon at 7 o’clock.
There are extremely few watchmaking manufactures that possess in-house expertise in sonnerie wristwatches. Jaeger-LeCoultre is the only one watchmaking manufacture that has over 200 chiming watch calibres in its historical and modern inventory. The verso face of the Quadriptyque case is a virtuoso tour de force of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s patrimony as a master and innovator of chiming watches.
With the slide of a lever located just above the crown, the Quadriptyque unleashes its melody. First, a series of low notes, correlating to the number of hours. Second, an alternating couplet of high and low notes, corresponding to the quarter-hours. And concluding the melody, a succession of high notes, indicating the number of minutes to be added to the elapsed quarters. In concert, the hours-quarters-minutes chime plays the current time in musical code.
The striking works of the Reverso Quadriptyque are completely exposed alongside a secondary time display, indicating the same time as the recto dial, but in a jumping-hours and peripheral-minutes format. As the Quadriptyque strikes the time, setting a symphony of springs, cams, hammers and gongs into motion, their acoustic report confirms the visual display of the secondary dial.
Visible through apertures on the movement plate hand-decorated with the guillochage motif known as clous de Paris are elements of the chiming mechanism uniquely associated with the sonnerie expertise of Jaeger-LeCoultre. These include the silent chime governor, patented by the manufacture in 1895 to eliminate the buzzing noise created by the older anchor system.
More recent in-house innovations showcased in the Quadriptyque are the crystal gongs (first seen in the Master Minute Repeater Antoine LeCoultre of 2005) that attach the repeater gongs directly to the sapphire crystal to exploit the material’s optimal acoustic properties, the square cross-sectional profile of the gongs themselves that maximise contact and energy transmission between the hammers and gongs (a mainstay of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s repeating watches since 2006), and the articulated trebuchet hammers (developed for the 2009 Hybris Mechanica Duomètre à Grande Sonnerie) that deliver a clean and strong strike to the gongs. In totality, these innovations allow Jaeger-LeCoultre minute repeaters to produce some of the loudest and clearest chiming wristwatches today.
Debuting in the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 is a completely novel engineering of the chiming components to create a seamless chime with no pauses in between the hours, quarters and minutes. The conventional minute repeater mechanism utilises special pivoting racks that read the time off a series of cams and then proceed to activate each group of chimed notes in turn. This often results in silent gaps between the groups of chimed notes, especially when there are only hours and minutes to be struck, with no intervening quarters.
The Hybris Mechanica Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon (2014) and Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel (2019) made exceptional strides in chiming know-how by reducing these silent gaps, but the Reverso Quadriptyque has reached the ultimate stage of expertise in this area. By refining and inverting specific steps in this mechanical sequence, the Quadriptyque has succeeded in eliminating these gaps entirely.
As a watch manufacture with close to two centuries of fine watchmaking expertise, Jaeger-LeCoultre has mastered all aspects of time expression, from the quotidian to the esoteric. One of the hallmark complications of Jaeger-LeCoultre is the display of sidereal time, time that is determined with reference to the stars instead of the Sun, first presented in the Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication (2010).
This year, for the first time ever in the history of mechanical horology, Jaeger-LeCoultre unites three displays of lunar information — the synodic cycle, the draconic cycle and the anomalistic cycle — in a single wristwatch. This unique micromechanical combination of indications, located on the interior face of the cradle of the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185, allows the determination of eclipse events (both solar and lunar) and rare lunar phenomena such as supermoons.
Occupying the top half of the interior face of the cradle of the Reverso Quadriptyque is a massive representation of the phases of the moon in the Northern Hemisphere. A laser-engraved moon is progressively covered and revealed by a mobile blue lacquer disc with gold glitter décor, corresponding to the age of the moon in the synodic cycle. While conventional displays of the moon phase accumulate one day of error after 32.5 months, the moon phase display of the Quadriptyque requires only one adjustment after 1,111 years.
Just below the moon phase display, on the left, is a counter with a three-dimensional micro-sculpted pink-gold sun orbited by a tiny hemispherical moon. This counter shows the draconic cycle, showing when the path of the Moon intersects with the orbit of the Earth around the Sun (known as the ecliptic). Such an intersection takes place twice in each cycle, indicated by the horizontal alignment on the counter of the moon and the sun.
At this time, the Moon, Earth and Sun are all on the same plane; however, they may not be aligned. For them to be aligned, a phenomenon known as syzygy, an additional condition must be fulfilled — the Moon must be either in its new or full phase. When that happens, an eclipse event happens on Earth, either a lunar eclipse if the Moon is in its full phase, or a solar eclipse if the Moon is in its new phase. However, the actual visibility of the eclipse is dependent on various factors such as the geographical position of the viewer.
To the right of the draconic cycle counter is a domed representation of the Earth, micro-painted in enamel, with a hemispherical moon in eccentric orbit around it. This counter represents the anomalistic cycle, showing the varying distance between the Earth and Moon. At its apogee, the Moon is at its furthest distance from the Earth and is closest at its perigee. When the Moon is in its full phase near or at the perigee, an event known as a supermoon occurs, in which the Moon can appear to be up to 14 percent larger than usual in the sky.
The display of the synodic, draconic and anomalistic cycle together in a wristwatch is unprecedented in horology, with the latter two indications protected by patent, making the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 the only watch ever made to provide such depth of information about astronomical phenomena.
The Hybris Mechanica family of timepieces at Jaeger-LeCoultre began with the 2003 Atmos Mystérieuse and has since grown to encompass close to 20 groundbreaking horological creations, including the Master Hybris Mechanica Gyrotourbillon 1 (2004), the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Grande Complication à Triptyque (2006), the Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon (2014) and the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel (2019).
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso was born in 1931. The original Reverso bore a single time-telling face, with a mobile case that could be turned over within its cradle, revealing a solid caseback. The next generation of the Reverso featured another dial on its caseback, either in a different design to accommodate the wearer’s aesthetic preference (Duetto) or displaying a second time zone (Duoface) to offer additional functionality when travelling. The Reverso Hybris Mechanica à Triptyque (2006) represented an evolutionary leap in horological innovation, with a third display positioned on the interior face of the Reverso cradle.
This year, the world’s first wristwatch with four faces premieres in the form of the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 (Quadriptyque), the ultimate expression of the Reverso concept. On the last face of the Quadriptyque, the exterior face of the cradle, a representation of the phases of the Moon in the Southern Hemisphere is shown.
Most indications of the moon phase are of the Northern Hemisphere perspective, and the Quadriptyque’s display of the Southern Hemisphere moon phase on its fourth face is the fulfilment of the Reverso’s fundamental dualism. A star-flecked sky chart, engraved and lacquered in a gradient of blue shades forms the backdrop to the pink-gold moon, all of which are created in the Atelier des Métiers Rares® of Jaeger-LeCoultre.
The secret to the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Quadriptyque’s four functioning display faces lies in a solution first used in the 2006 Reverso Hybris Mechanca Grande Complication à Triptyque. Every day at midnight, a pin extends out of the main case movement to activate a mechanical corrector in the cradle, which then advances the cradle displays.
The mechanism driving the cradle displays is set directly into the cradle itself, without any additional movement plates that would increase the thickness of the watch. Jaeger-LeCoultre’s expertise in ultra-compact watchmaking makes the Quadriptyque, despite its multiple indications and complications, one of the most wearable high-complication watches of our time.
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 comes in an exceptional presentation box with a built-in mechanism that allows the wearer to quickly and intuitively set all the calendar and astronomical displays of the watch after a period of being unworn.
A two-position crown on the side of the box is used to first set the number of days that have elapsed since the watch was last worn. With the Quadriptyque set within the correction support frame, the box corrector crown can then be extended to its second position and wound to rapidly bring the watch to the current date for all calendar and astronomical indications. There is no risk of overcorrecting the watch or damaging the movement, since the entire process is controlled by the box corrector mechanism.
Case
Material: White gold
Case dimensions: 51.2 x 31 mm
Thickness: 15.15 mm
Water resistance: 30 metres
Movement
Manually wound Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 185
Power reserve: 50 hours
Functions
Face 1: Hour – Minute, Tourbillon (indicating the Second), Instantaneous Perpetual Calendar, Grande Date, Day, Month, Leap Year, Night & Day
Face 2: Jumping Digital Hour, Minute, Minute Repeater (with system avoiding dead time)
Face 3: Northern Hemisphere Moon Phase, Draconic Lunar Cycle (height of the moon), Anomalistic Lunar Cycle (apogee and perigee), Month, Year
Face 4: Southern Hemisphere Moon Phase
Vacheron Constantin presents the Les Cabinotiers minute repeater tourbillon sky chart Leo constellation Jewellery watch, a single-piece edition adding an artistic dimension to the technical prowess of its Calibre 2755 TMRCC. The Manufacture’s craftsmen, gemsetters and guilloché specialists have adorned an extraordinarily complex timepiece with a creative and original evocation of the Leo constellation.
This new model, presented at Watches & Wonders 2021, is part of the theme of the Maison for 2021: entitled Classic with a Twist, it highlights Vacheron Constantin’s creative energy, guided by an identity that celebrates a heritage and dares to deliver the unexpected.
Early astronomers’ observations led them to recognise animal forms in the configuration of the constellations, including that of a lion. Vacheron Constantin’s artisan drew inspiration from this to highlight the astronomical complication of this single-piece edition Les Cabinotiers watch.
Hand-guilloché and set with diamonds forming the Leo constellation, the noble creature stands majestically on the dial, framed by a case set with baguette-cut sapphires. This artistic and artisanal interpretation adds an artistic dimension to the technical prowess of Calibre 2755 TMRCC, which combines a tourbillon regulating device, a minute repeater in the grand tradition of the Maison’s striking watches, as well as a rotating sky chart.
The watch flaunts its elegance in an 18K white gold case measuring 45 mm in diameter and barely 15.1 mm thick, fitted with a dark blue alligator strap secured by a gemset gold buckle.
Already accentuated by the presence of a tourbillon, the complexity of the Les Cabinotiers minute repeater tourbillon sky chart Leo constellation Jewellery watch is further heightened by the mobile representation of the sky chart on the back of the watch. This vision of the constellations inspired the motif adorning the guilloche opaline dark blue dial, itself enhanced by the sparkling case adorned with 100 baguette-cut sapphires bezel-set on the lugs, crown and bezel.
The Leo constellation is staged to great effect on the dial. A masterpiece of hand guilloché craftsmanship created in the Vacheron Constantin workshops, the feline’s silhouette is composed of a multitude of triangles bearing their own motifs.
Since the rose engines operated by skilled artisans with an artist’s touch are designed to engrave decorative elements that are generally circular and geometric, it is easy to grasp the difficulties implied by depicting a lion in the form of a combination of polygons whose linear engravings provide striking depth effects. The stars composing the constellation are represented by brilliant-cut diamonds adorning the great cat’s tawny coat.
The 413-component Calibre 2755 TMRCC of the Les Cabinotiers minute repeater tourbillon sky chart Leo constellation Jewellery watch combines three horological complications in the technical, astronomical and musical categories.
This manual-winding movement with a 58-hour power reserve is equipped with a one-minute tourbillon bearing the small seconds hand. Invented at the beginning of the 19th century, this device – which incorporates the escapement as well as the balance-and-spring assembly within a mobile carriage – is designed to compensate for the effects of the Earth’s gravity on the regulator’s isochronism, thereby enhancing its precision.
This tourbillon is distinguished by its carriage shaped like a Maltese cross – Vacheron Constantin’s signature emblem since 1880 – and featuring a bar on which the delicate finishing operations involving manual chamfering and polishing require a full 36 hours of work.
Displayed through the back of the watch on a concave dial designed to accentuate the depth effect, the sky chart offers a striking view of the Milky Way and the constellations that appear in real time, as if through a telescope.
For the sake of accuracy, this sky chart performs a complete rotation in one sidereal day. Taking a fixed star in the sky as a reference point, the time required by the Earth to complete a full 360° rotation, or sidereal day, is exactly 23 h 56 min 4 s. Since the Earth rotates both within itself and around the Sun, it takes about four minutes less than on a calendar day to find its point of origin in relation to the given star.
This sidereal time can be read off counter-clockwise on the 24-hour circle, graduated in 10-minute increments, opposite the current date appearing on a rotating disc with a five by five-day scale. This display is essential for correctly adjusting the sky chart moving beneath the sapphire crystal. The sapphire crystal also bears an off-centred ellipse serving to highlight the exact position of the constellations in the Northern hemisphere at the moment the watch is consulted.
The watch is also equipped with a minute repeater enabling the hours, quarters and minutes to be chimed on demand. To create this particularly complex striking mechanism, controlled by a slide-piece housed in the case middle, Vacheron Constantin’s engineers and watchmakers were inspired by the work carried out on the 2005 La Tour de l’Île watch, and in particular its centripetal strike governor.
This silent system makes it possible to perfectly regulate the duration of musical sequences in order to obtain a distinct and harmonious sound of the notes played for the hours, quarters and minutes by the hammers striking two circular gongs.
Each year, the Les Cabinotiers department unveils a range of single-piece editions relating to a theme cherished by Vacheron Constantin. The year 2021 is dedicated to “Celestial Time”, with timepieces referring to the astronomical origins of time measurement.
In the Vacheron Constantin universe, Les Cabinotiers represents a department in its own right dedicated to the personalisation of Grand Complication models and single-piece editions. This tradition dates back to the 18th century, an age when master-watchmakers were called “cabinotiers” and worked in ateliers bathed in natural light, known as cabinets and located on the top floors of Geneva’s buildings.
In the hands of these learned artisans, open to the new ideas of the Enlightenment, exceptional timepieces were born, inspired by astronomy, mechanical engineering and the arts. This expertise, which constitutes the great Geneva watchmaking tradition, has been flowing through Vacheron Constantin’s veins since 1755.
Technical details
Model: Les Cabinotiers Minute repeater tourbillon sky chart Leo constellation Jewellery
Reference 9737C/000G-005C
Movement
Calibre 2755 TMRCC
Developed and manufactured by Vacheron Constantin
Mechanical manual winding
33.90 mm (14¾’’’) diameter, 9.40 mm thick
Movement power reserve: approximately 58h
2.5 Hz (18,000 vibrations/hour)
413 components
38 jewels
Hallmark of Geneva certified timepiece
Indications
Hours, minutes
Small seconds at 6 o’clock on tourbillon carriage
Tourbillon
Minute repeater
Sky chart
Case
18K white gold, set with 60 baguette-cut sapphires on the bezel (approx. 3.8 cts), 24 baguette-cut sapphires on case sides (approx. 1.9 cts) and 16 baguette-cut sapphires on lugs (approx. 0.3 ct.)
45 mm diameter, 15.10 mm thick
Dials (front & back)
18K white gold, opaline dark blue dial, Leo constellation hand-guilloché
9 brilliant-cut diamonds as hour-markers (approx. 0.03 ct)
18k white gold hands
Strap
Dark blue Mississippiensis alligator leather with alligator leather inner shell, hand-stitched, saddle-finish, large square scales
18K white gold pin buckle set with 16 baguette-cut sapphires (approx. 1 ct)
18k white gold folding clasp set with 16 baguette-cut sapphires (approx. 1.10 cts)
Premiered during Watches and Wonders 2021, the Manero Minute Repeater Symphony is the most extraordinary timepiece Carl F. Bucherer has created in a long and impressive history that can be traced back to 1888.
The COSC-certified chronometer takes peripheral technology to places no watch brand has ever been before, with three peripheral movement elements – the rotor, the regulator, and a remarkable tourbillon that appears to float freely – developed in-house and patented by Carl F. Bucherer.
Not only does the Manero Minute Repeater Symphony´s MR3000 manufacture movement have a peripheral winding system and a peripherally suspended floating tourbillon, it also features a minute repeater with a peripherally mounted regulator.
This regulator, along with the peripheral winding system and the floating tourbillon, are patented by Carl F. Bucherer, and, together, these peripheral innovations combine to create a true horological symphony – a composition which, in fact, inspired the renowned Lucerne Festival Orchestra to honor it with a brilliant new opus.
The peripheral technology premiered with the peripheral rotor, patented by the brand in 2008, when this in-house manufactured caliber became the first movement ever to implement this principle successfully in series production.
Not only does the bidirectional automatic winding movement draw its energy from a peripherally rotating oscillating weight, its slim rotor also reveals the beauty of the movement. With the T3000 movement, which premiered in 2018, the manufacturer further extended its lead in peripheral technology when peripheral winding was combined with a groundbreaking Carl. F. Bucherer–patented transparent peripherally mounted tourbillon that appears to float.
As the heart of the Manero Minute Repeater Symphony, the elaborately finished and COSC-certified MR3000 manufacture movement with a power reserve of 65 hours has ushered in an exciting new era of peripheral technology.
The Manero Minute Repeater Symphony takes the classic minute repeater technique and puts this innovation to use in true Carl F. Bucherer style. Its mechanism is finely orchestrated to produce two different tones on two gongs which, along with the sculpted hammers, can be admired, most unusually, through cut-outs at the edge of the dial.
They are complemented by openings at 5 and 7 o’clock, through which the work of the striking hammers can be observed. A window above 6 o’clock showcases the watch’s innovative regulator, which sets the beat of the chimes. This patented regulator is mounted peripherally via three low-friction ceramic ball bearings.
However, the minute repeater from Carl F. Bucherer scores not only with outstanding technology, but also with genuine functionality. A protective mechanism built into the movement prevents inadvertent misuse: visible via the discrete display at 9 o’clock, it indicates the current mode of the watch – a blue dot shows that the crown is pulled out, and a musical note lets the wearer know that the minute repeater function is activated.
Another safety measure further ensures the protection of the watch: the crown cannot be pulled out when the repeater mechanism is running – it locks. Conversely, when the crown is pulled out, the repeater mechanism is locked.
The tourbillon – the classic complication originally designed by Abraham-Louis Breguet in the eighteenth century to offset the effects of gravity on the accuracy of the watch – is another sublime expression of the art and craft of watchmaking. And the watchmakers at Carl F. Bucherer have made this epitome of their craft float: the cage of their minute tourbillon is supported peripherally – and invisibly to the observer – by three ball bearings.
These frictionless ceramic ball bearings ensure stability and precise guidance. It is another ingenious technical feature on which Carl F. Bucherer also holds a patent. The tourbillon in the Manero Minute Repeater Symphony, which is proudly and prominently displayed at 12 o’clock, not only “floats”, but also stops on command: thanks to the stop-seconds function, the rotating cage is locked when the crown is pulled, allowing the time to be set to the second.
The Manero Minute Repeater Symphony has a 43.8 mm diameter case of 18-karat rose gold. Its open-worked and hand-angled lugs seductively follow the silhouette of the wrist.
These spoke-shaped horns reduce the mass of the case and thus amplify the watch’s melodious sound. The 18-karat white gold dial is hand-galvanized and features a fine grainé texture. 18-karat rose gold hands and hour markers reflect the warm hue of the case.
Connoisseurs of sophisticated watchmaking will appreciate the elaborate finishing: the carefully diamond-beveled and highly polished chamfers, the sandblasted crown, the hand-angled dial edges and windows, or the Geneva-striped, angled, and diamond-beveled bridges that can be seen through the sapphire crystal case back.
The individual numbering of the model, limited to 88 pieces, is engraved by hand on a small plaque in 18-karat gold at the 6 o’clock position on the dial. The watch is presented on a hand-stitched alligator leather strap whose every individual scale has been finished by hand. It is secured with an 18-karat rose gold folding clasp.
For those who wish to accentuate the unique character of this limited-edition masterpiece to create their very own symphony, Carl F. Bucherer offers further customization options. There are opportunities for the customer to choose from different designs and finishes, creating a personilsed timepiece.
Inside the Manero Minute Repeater Symphony´s luxury box is a stunning, specially designed resonator that will allow proud owners of this remarkable watch to share its unique music with their friends. The ingenious amplification system is meticulously crafted from spruce harvested from the forests in Switzerland’s Jura Mountains.
This spruce has long been regarded for its qualities as a tone wood and has been used for the tops of some of the world’s finest guitars, violins, and other stringed instruments. This unusual amplification system doubles the volume of the Manero Minute Repeater Symphony minute repetitions, making it easy to let others enjoy the phenomenon.
Not only do the celebrated Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Carl F. Bucherer share a hometown, but also a rich history and the common pursuit of excellence. Through the Manero Minute Repeater Symphony, these two prominent Lucerne natives have now found each other: inspired by the unmistakable sound of the minute repeater, the young Swedish composer Lisa Streich wrote the piece “PERIPHERY”, commissioned by Lucerne Festival. In addition to the watch’s unique striking mechanism, its three peripheral elements also play an important role in this intriguing musical composition.
Lisa Streich’s inspired piece takes core elements of the watch’s design and gives them voice for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The Manero Minute Repeater Symphony is distinguished by its minute repeater and triple peripheral technology, so these components are represented musically by an imaginative combination of instruments and techniques. For example, the repeater function’s extremely mobile beat generator – its peripherally-mounted regulator – is reproduced by the striking and stroking of a triangle positioned vertically on a timpani.
The sounds of a violin bow drawn against the length the strings, breathing noises from the wind instruments, and the quirky drone of an instrument called a buzzing bow combine to express the complexity of the peripheral rotor. The floating tourbillon and its delicate cage find their counterpart in the brass section, whose players tap the bells of their horns with a pencil, triggering the wiping motion among the strings.
In doing so, the trumpet stimulates a response from the higher strings, and the trombone the lower ones; the exquisite choreography of the hands is recreated with a distinctive tick, tock, tick, tock.
Movement
Automatic with a 22 k rose gold oscillating weight, CFB MR3000 manufacture caliber, COSC-certified chronometer, diameter 35.70 mm, height 8.59 mm, 47 rubies, power reserve 65 hours
Functions
Minute repeater with two gongs, floating tourbillon, hour, minute, small seconds on tourbillon cage, stop-second, protection function for the mechanism
Case
18 k rose gold, domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides, case back with sapphire crystal and anti-reflecting coating on both sides, water resistant to 10 m (1 bar), diameter 43.8 mm, height 12.47 mm.
Dial
18 k white gold Pd210 electroplated and grained pattern with 18 k rose gold hands and indexes
Strap
Dark brown Louisiana alligator leather, lining in dark brown Louisiana alligator leather, hand-stitched, 18k rose gold pin-lock folding clasp
Roger Dubuis presents two new editions of its high complication watch, the Excalibur Diabolus in Machina. Now available in pink gold and DLC-coated titanium, this hyper horology creation incorporates a minute repeater, alongside the Geneva Maison’s signature flying tourbillon, as well as a double micro-rotor automatic system.
Its minute repeater chimes the tritone, the “Diabolus in Musica” chord outlawed in medieval religious music. The Excalibur Diabolus in Machina also features two other functions: a tone playback disc indicator and an “all or nothing” safety device.
The Excalibur Diabolus in Machina was introduced in 2020. The inaugural model features CarTech Micro-Melt BioDur CCMTM case.
The Excalibur Diabolus in Machina has a push-piece for activating a chime. The information on each cam is mechanically read off by the Minute Repeater’s main feeler-spindle system, which passes it on to the racks enabling the hammers to strike the gongs. The latter sounds a low pitch for the hours, a high pitch for the minutes, and two tones for the quarter hours, allowing the wearer to check the time at will. Consisting of three tones, or six semitones, the tritone – also known as the triad or the flatted fifth – an unsettling interval that does not conform to listeners’ expectations.
This distinctive dissonance was referred to in medieval times as “the devil’s chord” or diabolus in musica and strictly prohibited in religious compositions. It has nonetheless continued to play a crucial role in complex melodic harmony, notably appearing in Camille Saint-Saëns’ symphonic poem Danse Macabre and in the signature tune of the Black Sabbath metal band.
Cleverly shaking up the world of minute repeaters, Roger Dubuis has chosen the sound of the tritone as the chime of its Minute Repeater in the Diabolus in Machina. Pressing the minute repeater button between 9 and 10 o’clock activates the dissonant tonality – tuned to C and G flat – resounding through noble materials and providing a fascinating listening experience.
Various key technical advances featured in the Excalibur Diabolus in Machina include the Tone Playback Disc Indicator at 11 o’clock. Activating the Minute Repeater sets off the rotation of this disc – merged with a Roman numeral and bearing the words Hours, Quarters and Minutes. The result is a visually striking depiction of the time intervals being chimed.
An additional functional indicator further simplifies usage by showing whether the watch is in “manual winding” or “time setting” position. As well as enhancing the design through its artful integration at 4 o’clock, it plays a useful safety role in avoiding potential damage by warning the wearer not to adjust the watch while the Minute Repeater is chiming.
The “all or nothing” mechanism offers additional security by ensuring the minute repeater can be activated only once the pusher has been pressed all the way in. This eliminates the risk of harming the mechanism by inadvertent triggering, as well as facilitating comprehension of the chime by avoiding any partial and potentially confusing indications of time.
RD0107 Calibre, Pink Gold Version
The intricate complexities of this model are naturally heightened by Roger Dubuis’ typically bold decision to combine this fresh approach to the minute repeater with its signature flying tourbillon. Each of these two horological complications involves its own technical challenges and associating them within the same model is the kind of endeavour reserved for the most skilled and experienced master-watchmakers.
RD0107 Calibre, Black DLC Titanium Version
This Hallmark of Geneva-certified series powered by Calibre RD 107 is housed in an imposing 45 mm pink gold or DLC titanium-coated case and fitted with a calf leather strap designed for maximum comfort.
Technical details
Model: Excalibur Diabolus in Machina, RDDBEX0840
Case
Skeletonized, Ø45 mm, case, bezel and crown in pink gold
Case back in pink gold with sapphire crystal and anti-reflective treatment
Thickness: 16.8 mm
Water resistance: 5 BAR (50 m)
Dial
Grey double surface flange with engraved minute track, transfered texts
Polished and pink gold plated hour markers filled with SLN in the center
Movement
RD0107 Calibre: Mechanical automatic with minute repeater and single flying tourbillon
Features: Minute repeater and single flying tourbillon
Decorations: circular-grained or trued-up or shot-blasted or Cotes de Genève and NAC coated bridges and plate
Number of parts: 558 components
Jewels: 54 rubis
Diameter: 14 ¾’’’
Thickness: 10 mm
Frequency: 3 Hz (21’600 vph)
Power-reserve: 72 hours
Functions
Hours, Minutes, Minute repeater, function indicator, chiming indicator
Strap
Interchangeable 3D calf leather strap
Buckle: Interchangeable titanium cover with titanium triple folding buckle
Production
Unique series 1 of 1
Model: Excalibur Diabolus in Machina, RDDBEX0841
Case
Skeletonized, Ø45 mm, case, bezel and crown in black DLC Titanium
Case back in black DLC titanium with sapphire crystal and anti-reflective treatment
Thickness: 16.8 mm
Water resistance: 5 BAR (50 m)
Dial
Black double surface flange with engraved minute track, transfered texts
Polished and rhodium plated hour markers filled with SLN in the center
Movement
RD0107 Calibre: Mechanical automatic with minute repeater and single flying tourbillon
Features: Minute repeater and single flying tourbillon
Decorations: circular-grained or trued-up or shot-blasted or Cotes de Genève and NAC coated bridges and plate
Number of parts: 558 components
Jewels: 54 rubis
Diameter: 14 ¾’’’
Thickness: 10 mm
Frequency: 3 Hz (21’600 vph)
Power-reserve: 72 hours
Functions
Hours, Minutes, Minute repeater, function indicator, chiming indicator
Strap
Interchangeable 3D calf leather strap
Buckle: Interchangeable black DLC titanium cover, titanium blades, triple folding buckle
For the Endeavour Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon, H. Moser & Cie. presents one of the most traditional watch complications and combines it with a magnificent flying tourbillon performing a spinning waltz. Two shaped chimes and the minute repeater hammers are resplendent against a dial featuring the newest colour in the H. Moser & Cie. catalogue, Electric Blue, intertwining with the tourbillon at 6 o’clock.
To develop the Endeavour Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon, H. Moser & Cie. drew on the expertise of Timeless SA, a specialist in minute repeaters. Together, the two manufactures created a brand-new design, showcasing the beauty of the complication by positioning the chimes and the hammers on the dial side. This involved overcoming many technical challenges. In particular, the chimes (which are placed on one level to preserve the finesse of the piece) had to be curved so as not to interfere with the flying tourbillon and to respect H. Moser & Cie.’s main focus to keep the design understated.
In creating the movement and the case, significant effort has gone into ensuring elegant proportions. The sliding bolt, fitted on a Teflon runner to ensure it slides perfectly smoothly, is built into the main plate to save space. The case middle has been widened to the maximum in order to accommodate the movement while allowing enough space to create a soundbox. This amplifies the chiming of hours, quarter-hours and minutes by two gongs, onto which fall two hammers that are raised based on information provided by different feeler-spindles.
The geometry of the case has been meticulously designed, developed and adapted to maximise the properties of titanium and enhance its impact, amplifying the resonance chamber whilst allowing the essential walls to form part of the resonance. Titanium has a high elastic modulus, which means that this material deforms very little under stress and is consequently more rigid; its low density ensures that it is also lightweight, and it retains the vibratory energy from sound well, rather than allowing it to dissipate thanks to its low damping effect.
While ensuring the functioning of the minute repeater mechanism was already a complex technical feat, it also required perfect understanding of the subject to achieve a beautiful sound that combines amplitude, a certain length and a pure note.
Visible behind a skeletonised bridge, the dazzling one-minute flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock is fitted to a ball bearing that improves the accuracy and chronometry. The tourbillon appears to float weightlessly on the Electric Blue dial stripped of both logo and indices.
The strap, made from black alligator leather, adds the final touch of elegance to this high-complication timepiece.
Technical details
Model: Endeavour Concept Minute Repeater Tourbillon Reference: 1903-0500, titanium model, Electric Blue dial, black alligator leather strap, limited edition of 20 pieces
Case
Titanium
Diameter: 43.0 mm/height: 14.0 mm
Sapphire crystal
Sliding bolt with runner made from Teflon
See-through sapphire crystal case back
Crown adorned with an “M”
Dial
Electric Blue with sunburst pattern
Hammers and chimes on dial side
Leaf-shaped hour and minute hands
Movement
Hand-wound HMC 903 calibre
Diameter: 33.0 mm/height: 9.62 mm
Frequency: 21,600 Vib/h
35 jewels
Power reserve: 90 hours
Double Moser stripes on the plate and bridges
Movement and components hand-finished and decorated
One-minute flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock with skeletonised bridge
Minute repeater
Functions
Hours and minutes
Minute repeater with hour, quarter-hour and minute chimes
Strap
Hand-stitched black alligator leather with red lining
Titanium pin buckle, engraved with the Moser logo
The Geneva based Luxury Swiss watch maker Roger Dubuis has unveiled two new watch models Mexico’s Salón Internacional Alta Relojería México (SIAR) horlogerie exhibition, which opened its doors on 20th October for a two day event.
The new two technically elaborate and extravagant pieces are the Excalibur Diabolus in Machina and the diamond-studded Excalibur Automatic Skeleton. Both timepieces are in pink gold.
Roger Dubuis Excalibur Diabolus in Machina
Styled in the iconic Excalibur case and flaunting a fascinating combination of matte and polished finishes, the 45 mm, one-off limited edition Excalibur Diabolus in Machina features two highly sophisticated complications: a Flying tourbillon with a minute repeater, accompanied by tone playback function indicators.
The epitome of the expressive singularity on which Roger Dubuis prides itself, the single tourbillon and the specific tritone sound of the minute repeater represent the highest standards of Haute Horlogerie and contemporary design.
The movement powering this high-complication timepiece is the RD0107 Calibre. It beats at 3 Hz (21’600 vph). Fitted with 54 rubies, this movement incorporates fine watchmaking finishes and decorations. This self-winding movement has a power reserve of 60 hours.
Excalibur Automatic Skeleton Diamond Set 42mm
With its trademark skeleton calibre flaunting the Maison’s unchallenged expertise in the realms of technical skill and creativity, the 42 mm Excalibur Automatic Skeleton is the quintessence of Roger Dubuis’ identity. In this latest ultra-contemporary reinterpretation of the iconic 820SQ calibre, sparkling diamonds adorn the case, lugs and the case middle.
The 820SQ calibre is a Poinçon de Genève certified, self-winding mechanical skeleton movement driven by a micro-rotor. This meticulously finished calibre features 35 jewels and beats at 4 Hz (28’800 vph). It has a power reserve of approximately 60 hours.
The watch is topped with a sapphire crystal glass. It also has a sapphire crystal caseback to observe the movement. Fitted with a 3D Pixel Camo rubber strap, this timepiece is available in a limited edition of 28 pieces.
Technical details
Model: Excalibur Diabolus in Machina
Reference RDDBEX0840
Case
Ø45 mm, case, bezel and crown in pink gold
Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment
Case back in pink gold with sapphire crystal and anti-reflective treatment
Thickness: 16.8 mm
Water resistance: 3 BAR (30 m)
Dial
Double surface flange with engraved minute track, transferred texts
Hour markers filled with SLN
Strap
Interchangeable 3D calf leather strap
Buckle: Interchangeable pink gold cover with titanium triple folding buckle
Movement
RD0107 Calibre: Mechanical automatic with minute repeater and single flying tourbillon
Features: Minute repeater and single flying tourbillon
Decorations: circular-grained or trued-up or shot-blasted or Cotes de Genève bridges and plate with Rhodium or NAC coating
Number of parts: 558 components
Jewels: 54 rubies
Diameter: 14 ¾’’’
Thickness: 10 mm
Frequency: 3 Hz (21’600 vph)
Power-reserve: 60 hours
Poinçon de Genève certified
Functions
Hours, Minutes, Minute repeater, function indicator, chiming indicator
Case
Ø42 mm, pink gold case set with round diamonds on the lugs and on the side
Glass in sapphire crystal
Case back in pink gold
Thickness: 11.5 mm
Dial
Flange set with two rows of round diamonds
Total diamonds: 523 diamonds for 4.1 cts
Water resistance: 3 BAR (30 m)
Strap
3D Pixel Camo rubber strap
Buckle: Pink gold and cover set with round diamonds, double folding
Movement
RD820SQ Calibre automatic with micro-rotor
Features: Skeleton automatic with micro-rotor
Decorations: circular grained or trued-up plate and bridges with 5N gold coating
Number of parts: 166 components
Jewels: 35
Diameter: 37
Thickness: 6 mm
Frequency: 4 Hz (28’800 vph)
Power-reserve: 60 hours
Poinçon de Genève certified
Hermès presents the Arceau Pocket Aaaaaargh!, a high-complication pocket watch created in co-operation with English artist Alice Shirley. It is the third timepiece born from the collaboration between the Swiss luxury watch brand and Alice Shirley. First two creations were the Slim of Hermes Grrrrr! & the Arceau Awooooo.
After the gruff bear of the Slim of Hermes Grrrrr! and the wolf howling in the moonlight of the Arceau Awooooo, the Arceau Pocket Aaaaaargh! Watch highlights a tyrannosaurus aka T-Rex. On this new watch model, the «king of the tyrant lizards» with half-open jaws and an attentive eye comes to life under the expert guidance of Hermès watchmakers, after a month of meticulous work using exclusive techniques developed in its leather workshops.
The design of the tyrannosaurus, which appears to be peeking through a porthole, stands out against the cover and involves a combination of several demanding skills. The head and scales are made in leather mosaic: thousands of finely hand-cut multi-coloured leather fragments are applied one by one to faithfully reproduce the original pattern.
The domed eye of the dinosaur, visible on both sides of the cover, is made of cabochon-cut Grand Feu enamel. Finally, the jaw and tongue are crafted in leather marquetry: fine tesserae are cut from various coloured leathers, previously thinned to just 0.5 mm, before being juxtaposed on the enamel base. Setting the final touch to this miniaturized leather artwork, a matt green alligator leather cord-strap is secured to the rectangular stirrup and accentuates the overall design.
This 48mm white gold pocket watch houses the Hermès H1924 manufacture self-winding movement equipped with minute repeater and flying tourbillion complications. Beats at 3Hz, it has a power reserve of 90 hours.
Case
Shape/size: Round, 48 mm in diameter
Material: White gold case and cover
Watch glass: Anti-glare sapphire crystal and caseback
Caseback engraved with the inscription “Pièce unique”
Water resistance: 3 bar
Dial
White enamel on a white gold base
Cover
“Aaaaargh” marquetry and leather mosaic motif
Grand Feu enamel eye
Leather cord-strap
Medium – green alligator leather
Hermès expands its iconic Arceau watch family by revealing a high-complication watch with flying tourbillon and minute repeater mechanisms.
The timeless silhouette of this Arceau watch takes the form of a round case with stirrup-like asymmetrical lugs. A one-of-a-kind model in rose or white gold, the Arceau Lift tourbillon répétition minutes features a white or Abyss blue-lacquered dial. A horse-shaped cut-out in the lacquered dial reveals the Hermès tourbillon and minute-repeater movement.
Framed by the equestrian profile cut-out hugging the curves of the case, the complexity of the double-gong minute-repeater mechanism is captivating. This traditional horological complication is combined here with another horological exception – the flying tourbillon – coiled inside the horse’s neck and visible through a round aperture at 6 o’clock.
Forming a double H, the architecture of the tourbillon is inspired by mot emblematic of the Hermès boutique on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. This design crowning the tourbillon carriage and barrel bridge picks up the pattern of the artistic wrought ironwork adorning the entrance, railings, staircase and lift at the Parisian establishment.
The pleasing overall effect is swept over by slim open-worked hands and punctuated by the Arceau line’s characteristic sloping numerals that evoke a galloping horse.
Visible through the dial cut-outs and the sapphire crystal case-back, the new mechanical hand-wound movement H1924 from Manufacture Hermès emits the clear chime of its minute repeater from a white or rose gold case measuring 43 mm in diameter. Re-designed to incorporate two major Haute Horlogerie complications, this precious case was designed in the Hermès Horloger workshops, as were the lacquered dial and matt black alligator strap.
Movement
Manufacture Hermès H1924 movement
Mechanical hand-wound, crafted in Switzerland
Diameter: 30 mm (13 ¼ ‘’’)
Thickness: 6.1 mm
Power reserve: 90 hours
Frequency: 21,600 vph (3Hz)
Functions: Double gong, minute repeater, hours, minutes
Decoration: Mirror-polished tourbillon carriage topped with the Lift motif. Hand-chamfered and polished bridges
Distinctive feature: flying tourbillon
Case
Shape / dimensions: Round, 43 mm in diameter
Material: Rose gold
Crystal: Sapphire crystal and case-back with anti-glare treatment
Water resistance: 3 bar
Movement
Manufacture Hermès H1924 movement
Mechanical hand-wound, crafted in Switzerland
Diameter: 30 mm (13 ¼ ‘’’)
Thickness: 6.1 mm
Power reserve: 90 hours
Frequency: 21,600 vph (3Hz)
Functions: Double gong, minute repeater, hours, minutes
Decoration: Mirror-polished tourbillon carriage topped with the Lift motif. Hand-chamfered and polished bridges
Distinctive feature: flying tourbillon
Case
Shape / dimensions: Round, 43 mm in diameter
Material: White gold
Crystal: Sapphire crystal and case-back with anti-glare treatment
Water resistance: 3 bar
Introduced this year as a new member of the prestigious Geneva watch brand’s Grand Complications family, the new Ref. 5303 is the first Patek Philippe minute repeater with visible striking mechanism on the dial side.
The Ref. 5303 was unveiled in 2019 in a limited edition of 12 watches as a world debut on the occasion of the “Watch Art Grand Exhibition Singapore 2019”. The new slightly modified version of the Ref. 5303 Minute Repeater Tourbillon stands out with an eye-catching open-worked dial.
The repeater mechanism – for the first time with the hammers and gongs – can be admired in action without removing the watch from the wrist. Further, the back side of the tourbillon cage can be seen beneath the seconds sub-dial at 6 o’clock. In this wonderful work of art, the filigreed steel parts glisten against the backdrop of the rose gilt plate.
The aesthetic of the manually wound caliber R TO 27 PS was subtly reworked to emphasize its appeal. For instance, certain components were pierced, as is common for skeletonized movements. This movement also highlights Patek Philippe’s rich heritage in the manual finissage. The manufacture decorated the movement plate with Genevan circular graining, applied a delicate perlage to the recesses, and decorated the hammers with a circular satin finish.
The matchless rose-gold case sports a wide, cambered and polished bezel as well as white gold inlays with foliage engravings that grace the caseband and the strap lugs. The white-gold slide in the left-hand case flank that activates the minute repeater features the same motif.
The hour circle is black-lacquered sapphire-crystal rim with powdered rose-gold markers. The movement can be admired through the sapphire-crystal case back and is framed by a white gold rim. Its open-worked decoration echoes the case inlays and the repeater slide.
This finest example of the traditional watchmaking artistry is complemented with the unique sound that is typical of Patek Philippe repeater timepieces. As is the case for every Patek Philippe minute repeater, this melody of time is personally rated with great care by manufacture president Thierry Stern.
Movement
Caliber R TO 27 PS
Manually wound mechanical movement, minute repeater, tourbillon and subsidiary seconds
Diameter: 31.6 mm
Height: 8.35 mm
Number of parts: 356
Number of jewels: 29
Power reserve: Min. 40 hours, max. 48 hours
Frequency: 21,600 semi-oscillations per hour (3 Hz)
Balance: Gyromax®
Balance spring: Breguet
Balance spring stud: Adjustable
Functions: Two-position crown:
• Pushed in: To wind the watch
• Pulled out: To set the time
Displays: Center hour and minute hands; Subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock
Activation of minute repeater: Slide in left-hand case flank
Hallmark: Patek Philippe Seal
Case
18K rose gold 5N with inlays in 18K white gold
Sapphire-crystal case back
Case protected against moisture and dust, not water-resistant
Case dimensions: Diameter: 42 mm
Height: 12.13 mm
Width between lugs: 20 mm
Dial
Hour circle in black-lacquered sapphire-crystal with white printed minute scale and powdered rose-gold markers
Leaf-shaped hour and minute hands in 18K white gold, pierced and lacquered in black
Subsidiary seconds with leaf-shaped hand in 18K rose gold 5N
Strap
Alligator leather with large square scales, hand-stitched, shiny black, fold-over clasp in 18K rose gold 5N
Speake-Marin launches its new Haute Horlogerie masterpiece: the Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon “Légèreté”, the first Minute Repeater Carillon in the world assembled in a case which is fabricated in 100% sapphire crystal.
The new Speake-Marin Haute Horlogerie masterpiece is called “Légèreté”, which means “Lightness” in English, to highlight the sapphire-crystal case, which allows to literally dive into the movement from the top, the sides or the case back.
The case is made up of three parts: the bezel, the case back and the middle section. The process by which the sapphire is made into a finished watch case is extraordinarily difficult, involving many hours of machining and polishing. The most difficult part is the case finishing where one must avoid any scratches during manufacture: the case must be perfectly transparent.
At 6pm, a 60 seconds Flying Tourbillon is held by a cage shaped into the Speake-Marin symbol. In addition, the movement conceals a Minute Repeater Carillon. When the slider on the left hand side is activated, the Minute Repeater Carillon starts to ring and launches the dial animation: the XII index disintegration.
From a technical point of view, it is interesting to note that there is a double safety module, which enables the setting of the time while the watch chimes thanks to the Carillon, and vice-versa. In addition, a regulator wheel regulates the Carillon speed… not too fast, not too slow… This wheel is almost silent so as not to distort the Carillon sound. The energy comes from a specific barrel dedicated to the Carillon and the dial animation so as not to disturb the watch chronometry.
Moreover, the hammers have been welded to a block which creates a sound box with the case to get a nice Carillon sound.
The Minute Repeater Carillon gives the time thanks to three hammers:
– One hammer for the hours
– The three hammers all together for the quarters
– One hammer for the minutes
Once the time is given by the 3 hammers, the XII Roman numeral comes back to its initial position.
On this piece, the finishing and decoration are very refined, which demonstrates Speake-Marin’s Haute-Horlogerie know-how: all the surfaces are reworked, corrected and decorated. So, the Tourbillon at 6 o’clock features a hand-finished 60-second cage that can be fully appreciated through the display back when the tourbillon is over.
The lower tourbillon cage is supported by a striking paddle-shaped bridge offering clear visual access to the surrounding gears below. The bridges and main plate are circular-grained with polished screw heads and polished countersinks.
Last but not least, the entire watch is engraved with words: on the casing girdle, on the sides and on the case back.
Confirming its reputation of Master of Complications, Swiss luxury watch manufacture Franck Muller presents an extraordinary open-worked minute repeater. The combination of Haute Horlogerie craftsmanship and high expertise allowed Franck Muller to manufacture this incredibly complicated movement.
Powered by a manual mechanical movement of 389 components and 33 jewels that is wholly designed in-house, the timepiece features an impressive power reserve of 60 hours. Furthermore, the Franck Muller Vanguard Tourbillon Minute Repeater watch features a large case built to accommodate the space needed by the complex movement.
The Minute Repeater mechanism can be activated at will by means of a slide-bottom situated at 8 o’clock. The hammers chime two gongs, sounding the hours, quarters and minutes.
This newly skeletonized timepiece showcases the incredible Franck Muller savoir-faire in one of the most complex feats of watchmaking. It embodies the fantastic match between innovation, modern design and the respect of the Haute Horlogerie traditions.
Technical details
Model: Franck Muller Vanguard™ Tourbillon Minute Repeater
Reference V 50 L RM T SQT (NR)
Case
18K white gold
Width: 46 mm x Length: 55.90 mm x Height: 13.70 mm
Functions
Hours, minutes and seconds at 6 o’clock with the tourbillon
Minute repeater
Movement
Manual mechanical movement
Ø 36.5 mm x Height: 6.91 mm
389 components
33 jewels
60 hours of power reserve
18’000 vibrations/hour
Hand chamfered, circular graining, rhodium-plating
Dial
Openwork movement with beveled bridges
Strap
Hand-sewn alligator strap with rubber inside
Incorporating three major horological complications – minute repeater, tourbillon and sky chart – this one-of-a-kind timepiece was created by the watchmakers of the dedicated Les Cabinotiers department of Vacheron Constantin.
Following the footsteps of the Celestia Astronomical Grand Complication 3600 and the Symphonia Grande Sonnerie 1860 created by the Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers department in 2017, this high technical complication watch successfully associates three high horology complications: the minute repeater function, a tourbillon and a depiction of the starry heavens. Showcasing the technical art of horology along with the aesthetic values of the Manufacture, this new creation echoes the consummate skills that have given rise to the Vacheron Constantin most emblematic and technical models.
Driven by NBC98 caliber, the Christophe Claret Napoleon sets the tone in the family of traditional complications watches, the first of the four collections of the brand. It is inspired by previous creations by the master watchmaker, while once again pushing the limits of what is possible in this area.
Christophe Claret is the designer of this four-branch balance wheel which offers an inertia / weight ratio close to the ideal balance: although very complex to manufacture, this aerodynamic balance is easy to adjust and balance.
The case harmoniously combines the polished and satin finishes of 5N red gold or titanium, highlighting the play of lights.
The Napoleon watch displays a handmade miniature painting of a different battle setting on each of the 8 unique pieces.
