This morning I thought we’d take a quick break from the Baselworld previews and instead have a closer look at a wonderfully complex new timepiece from Roger Dubuis. The first in a new series of limited edition timepieces that pay tribute to the brand’s namesake founder, the Hommage Minute Repeater is a breathtaking mix of technical complexity and aesthetic beauty.
Yvan Arpa is a man of many talents it would seem. To most he is best known as the man behind unique watchmaker Romain Jerome, a brand he founded and commandeered before moving on to new challenges in 2009. His next move was to establish the niche brand ArtyA Watch, which focuses on incorporating elements of modern art into its designs. We actually featured one of their new pieces for 2013, the guitar-inspired Son of Sound, on the site a few weeks ago.
This year Arpa is getting set to do it all again, with the official launch of his new brand, Spero Lucem, at Baselworld 2013.To celebrate the brand will also be unveiling their inaugural timepiece, the wonderfully complex (both in function and in name) La Clemence Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon.
Well it’s Friday and thank goodness for that, so let’s finish the week right with a closer look at one of the newest offerings from an old favorite, the Tradition Tourbillon Minute Repeater Chronograph from Audemars Piguet.
Piaget, the brand best known for creating ultra-thin mechanical timepieces will be back again at SIHH this year, to unveil – not surprisingly – yet another ultra-thin mechanical timepiece. Of course, there a few minor details that set this particular piece apart from any that have come before it. Say for example the mind-blowing fact that the new Emperador Coussin Ultra-Thin Minute Repeater not only houses the world’s slimmest mechanical minute repeater movement, it is also the world’s slimmest timepiece at just 9.4mm thick.
Regular readers of TWL (and watch lovers in general) will already be familiar with the name Grieb & Benzinger. Masters of their art, this small outfit has produced some truly stunning timepiece creations over the last few years, and their latest installment is no exception.
Animated by an extremely rare Patek Philippe Caliber RTO 27 PS movement, complete with tourbillion and minute-repeater, the Blue Whirlwind is the result of over 15-months of painstaking labor. The extremely complicated movement comprising some 336 individual components was completely disassembled and serviced before receiving G&B’s trademark special treatment, including full skeletonization, guilloche and hand-engraving.
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