DANCING IN TOTAL FREEDOM
This year, the Villeret collection by Blancpain is joined by a piece with original complications – three in all – around a dial made of “Grand Feu” enamel. A highly graphic aesthetic layout that is very different from the rest of the range.
Jehan-Jacques Blancpain was the founder of a workshop producing watch parts in 1735 and watches from 1815. He was born in 1693 in Villeret, a small town in Bernese Jura. It is now the name of one of the collections of the Blancpain brand. The aesthetic style of Villeret timepieces evokes the pocket watches made in the 18th century in Jehan-Jacques Blancpain’s workshop, with their rounded cases crowned with a double-stepped bezel and classic dials featuring open, sage leaf-shaped hands. The Villeret Tourbillon Volant Heure Sautante Minute Retrograde was launched at Baselworld 2018 and came as a surprise, since although it shares the same overall look as its predecessors, it combines three complications in an original way.
The Villeret Tourbillon Volant Heure Sautante Minute Retrograde is driven by a hand-wound mechanical movement, the calibre 260MR. At the heart of a 42mm-wide pink gold case, it provides a power reserve of 144 hours (6 days) with a reserve indicator shown on a guilloche disc that can be seen on the back of the watch through a sapphire glass.
Price: 139,000 CHF blancpain.com
By Sharmila Bertin