Christophe Claret Allegro
Roger Dubuis Blossom Velvet
Architecture and Richard Mille
Richard Mille has chosen to associate with Airbus Corporate Jets (ACJ) in designing the RM 50-02, a tourbillon watch with split-second chronograph housed in a case inspired by the architecture of a Hublot ACJ. It is made from a Titanium-Aluminum 8TiAL) alloy, like the turbine blades of Airbus jets, and is fitted with a secondary bezel in ATZ white ceramic. Torq set® screws replace the Richard Mille signature screws, while the crown engraved with the Airbus logo evokes the design of jet engines. Several components of the openworked movements have been treated with a dedicated coating used in aviation to protect the parts of the engine and chassis against corrosion and environmental conditions. The new caliber is equipped with power-reserve, torque and function indicators.
Sculpture and Roger Dubuis
In its ultra-feminine Velvet collection combining circular and tonneau shapes with a highly decorative ‘third lug’, Roger Dubuis has created a decor of flowers literally sculpted from enamel plates. Featuring a blushing rose shade for the Blossom Velvet Pink or a delicate azure hue for the Blossom Velvet Blue, the flowers rest gently on delicately interwoven gold stems. Fitted with satin-finish fabric straps, these creations are adorned with 154 diamonds : 86 on the bezel and lugs, 48 around the central tonneau shape, six in the center of the flowers and 14 on the buckle. In addition, three even more sophisticated models united within a planewood and white lacquered sycamore presentation box form a bouquet reserved for the Roger Dubuis boutiques.
Richard Mille RM 50-02 ACJ Tourbillon Split Seconds Chronograph
Hautlence Vortex Primary
Painting and Hautlence
For his second collaborative endeavor with Hautlence, former soccer player Eric Cantona has chosen to give a singular interpretation of the Concept d’Exception Vortex launched in July 2015. The Vortex Primary plays on primary colors to create a glass painting resembling stained-glass windows. It is composed of 19 translucent plates revealing the mechanism from all sides: five transparent sapphire crystals and two semi-transparent sapphire crystals, four red ruby glass panels, five blue spinel glass panels and three yellow corundum glass panels. The complex movement powers a dragging-chain hours display, retrograde pointer-type minutes and a power-reserve indication, all framed by a black PVD-coated grade 5 titanium case weighing a mere 48 grams.
Music and Christophe Claret
After Adagio and Soprano, Christophe Claret, the specialist of musical watches, presents Allegro, a creation combining a cathedral gong minute repeater with a GMT function featuring a day/night indication, as well as a large date and small seconds. The caliber has been entirely redesigned, from the baseplate to the bridges, as well as the inertia flywheel that regulates the minute repeater mechanism and the in-house-developed regulating organ. While the movement is equipped with a single barrel, a rare feature in this type of watch, it nonetheless delivers a 60-hour power reserve. One may admire the racks through an opening in the opaque sapphire dial, while the hammers, the four-spoked balance wheel and the inertia flywheel are visible through the back of the white gold and titanium or pink gold and titanium case.
DeWitt Golden Afternoon & Classic
Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Ronde des Papillons
Poetry and DeWitt
In 2016, DeWitt celebrates women by launching a collection of romantic watches that will be successively unveiled throughout the year. The two first models, created in collaboration with a Japanese artist, illustrate springtime on dials composed of precious pigments mixed with Indian ink. It takes 30,000 to 50,000 dots to create the decors. The Golden Afternoon in white gold features a butterfly and flower motif made of powdered diamond, pearl, platinum, gold, lapis lazuli, agate and other stones. Meanwhile, the floral motif of the pink gold Classic watch is lit up by powdered diamond, pearl, platinum, gold tiger’s eye, quartz malachite and other stones. DeWitt combines watchmaking tradition with the age-old art of calligraphy in a quest for pure, unadulterated harmony.
Ballet and Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels highlights one of its favorite themes since the 1920s : butterflies. This new Poetic Complication features three of this dainty creatures that appear in turn and flutter between the clouds at varying speeds to indicate the minutes. Their dance is associated with the retrograde motion of a swallow that points to the hours with the tip of its wing. The Lady Arpels Ronde des Papillons may also be set into motion on demand : pressing the pushbutton makes the butterflies dance around the dial for 10 seconds before returning to their original position while taking account of the time elapsed. The creatures delicately colored using the miniature painting technique flit across a mother-of-pearl sky.
