HE WHO CAN DO MORE CAN DO LESS

We are now used to seeing the Louis Moinet workshops produce exceptional timepieces, and they have surprised us once again with the Metropolis, a model with a small second.

Through his career, inventions and achievements Louis Moinet became a major figure in watchmaking history. Since 2004, the company of the same name headed by Jean-Marie Schaller, like its illustrious founding figure, has never ceased to enchant us with watches featuring impressive complications, materials and finishes.

If its price seems to have been – and this is a first for the brand – one of the key points in the watch’s specifications, the Metropolis has kept the DNA and the production quality of its older siblings.

The 43.2 mm watch case, baptised Neo, is available in pink gold or steel, and features remarkable finishes, as ever in the work of the manufacturing workshops in Saint-Blaise, in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. The extra-large Roman numerals set in three groups, the decentred second hand and transparent dial between 8 and 12 o’clock give the Metropolis a strong visual signature and make a clear link with the rest of the prodigious Louis Moinet range and, above all, provide an incredible look.

The depth of the dial and its geometry on several levels means light dances across the anti-reflection sapphire face.

The Metropolis is powered by the LM45 calibre, with a frequency of 28,800 vph, specially developed for the watch and providing a comfortable power reserve of 45 hours.

Diamond anglage, perlage, Côtes de Genève and Clous de Paris patterns… the standards of superior watchmaking are all present and correct in this model, which opens up a new direction for the Louis Moinet range.

A detail with a certain importance is that the crocodile leather strap on the Metropolis closes with a folding clasp decorated with fleur-de-lis, the brand’s symbol.

Price: from 10,500 CHF www.louismoinet.com

By Yannick Ortolan