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Haute Horlogerie Discussion

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sistem_32
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Haute Horlogerie Discussion

Post by sistem_32 »

Haute horlogerie, or "high watchmaking," describes a watch exhibiting a maximum level of care and artistry in its engineering and design. Such a piece commonly features many or exotic complications such as a minute repeater, jumping hours/minutes, or the added functionality of the tourbillon (though not technically a complication). Here's an interesting description from Chrono24. While almost every field of watchmaking has extremely interesting features, in my opinion haute horlogerie represents the absolute best of the hobby, watchmaking in its "purest form." Therefore, I believe that any watch forum lacking a thread devoted to the discussion of the latest and greatest in haute horlogerie is sadly stunted, not unlike the tragic state of a bowl of ice cream without the cherry on top. I'm happy to avert this calamity in the form of this thread. Discuss away!

If you're new to the field of haute horlogerie, I recommend the Youtube channel TheWATCHES.tv. They provide some of the best content available. I also recommend browsing the websites of brands such as Greubel Forsey, Ferdinand Berthoud, Romain Gauthier, and F. P. Journe. These brands produce some, but certainly not all, of the best haute horlogerie pieces. A more complete list of brands is available here. Happy hunting!
Last edited by sistem_32 on Wed Mar 03, 2021 5:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Kerbedanz Maximus

Post by sistem_32 »

One often sees the tourbillon in haute horlogerie, but never on a scale such as this. The aptly named Kerbedanz Maximus showcases an enormous version (27mm according to ABTW) of the renowned mechanism. The watch itself is built on proportions to match, measuring in at a hefty 49mm. The tourbillon requires so much power that four barrels are only able to keep it spinning for a little over 50 hours.
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A good writeup: https://www.ablogtowatch.com/kerbedanz- ... lon-watch/
Video of the tourbillon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA0xc3s0uN8&t=181s
Last edited by sistem_32 on Mon May 27, 2019 4:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Haute Horlogerie Discussion

Post by MoT »

I doubt I'll ever be able to afford haute horlogerie, but I certainly do enjoy reading about it.

Thanks for this thread.
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Lange Lumen

Post by sistem_32 »

I've come into the possession of a new keyboard and I'm keen to try it out, so I'll keep the ball rolling. A. Lange & Söhne produces some of the finest dress watches (and watches in general, depending on who you ask) there are. However, in a departure from their usual conservative style, they occasionally produce a limited "Lumen" edition of one of their existing models. These feature lume on almost every component possible and replace normally opaque components with grey translucent sapphireto better show off the light show. In the past they've given their Grand Lange 1 Moonphase and Zeitwerk models the Lumen treatment, but just recently (October) they've announced the Datograph Lumen, which seems to be the brightest yet. The chronograph subdials, big date numerals, and even the tachymeter scale round the edge of the dial now emit a gentle green glow for your pleasure.
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More great pictures here: https://www.fratellowatches.com/datogra ... nge-sohne/
I think the modifications compromise rather too much on the looks of the watch in daylight, which is of course the way it will be viewed the vast majority of the time, but that's a matter of opinion. And who knows? The trade-off could be worth it. In any case, you can always flip it over an admire that stunning movement.
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Hautlence

Post by sistem_32 »

Hautlence is a very unique brand, founded in 2004. Their peculiar name is apparently an anagram of Neuchâtel, the famous seat of such important towns as La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle. Their watches feature unique styling and (especially those in their Concepts d’exception line) unique complications. Their specialty seems to be a floating escapement attached to what they call a "half-trailing hours" system, which causes the escapement to rotate a full 60 degrees with the change of the hour. Here's a video animating the working of the movement:

One can only wonder what, if any, the practical benefit of such a complication is.

They are also the only brand I'm aware of to produce wrist-mounted toys, namely, a maze and a pachinko machine.
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Both exhibit exemplary craftsmanship, but I simply can't see any occasion for wearing one. The question must be asked: are they actually meant to be worn? I believe not, though one might, when faced with that answer, question the reasoning behind making them wearable in the first place. Quite the conundrum.
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H. Moser Swiss Alp Watch

Post by sistem_32 »

H. Moser & Cie., founded in 1828, describes itself as "very rare." They specialize in stunning sunburst dials, but that's certainly not their only claim to greatness. They have horological chops as keen as any other company, and they exercise them wonderfully in their Swiss Alp line. This line came into being as a reply to the Apple watch, stating that while electronic convenience and fashion had taken over a part of the hobby, those people still exist who look for more in a timepiece than mere function. The first model in the line was a simple two-hander, but since then several haute horlogerie pieces have been released. One of them, coincidentally, uses the same "half-trailing hours" movement from the Hautlence HL2.0 that I wrote about earlier. The current model, however, is equipped with a minute repeater and flying tourbillon. From their website: "H. Moser & Cie. returns to the fundamentals of traditional watchmaking, when timepieces clocked hours instead of notifications."

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Vianney Halter Deep Space Tourbillon

Post by sistem_32 »

I seem to be using the word "tourbillon" a lot the past few days. Oh well. It's a good word. Vianney Halter has produced several classic pieces over the years, like the Antiqua in 1998 and the Harry Winston Opus 3 in 2003. However, my favorite piece of his might be his most recent work, the Deep Space tourbillon, a triple axis tourbillon which won the prize for innovation at the GPHG in 2013. One can see where it gets its name: it looks like something out of Star Trek.
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As if the amazing tourbillon wasn't enough, the watch is also equipped with a jumping minutes hand. Sort of like the opposite of "insult to injury"?
Here's a good video of the watch in action, and here's Halter himself discussing the watch.
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Dominique Renaud Blade Resonator

Post by sistem_32 »

2018 was a good year for innovation in watchmaking. The most important advance (in my opinion) is the Zenith Defy Lab with its hyper accurate 108,000 vph caliber ZO 342 (good write-up here). But we were introduced to another new regulating organ this year by Dominique Renaud in the form of his "blade resonator," which was debuted earlier this year in a limited run of a very unique watch retailing at 1,000,000 CHF.
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The sapphire case around the movement rotates to better show it off. It appears that every watch produced used different colors and/or materials for the case and sapphire. The core idea of the blade resonator is to reduce the friction typically associated with the escapement and thus allow more accurate timekeeping (and apparently a longer power reserve). The traditional balance wheel, of course, is equipped with two pivots that ride in jewels. The blade resonator uses the extremely thin edges of its "blade," which pivot on spherical jewels. This kind of escapement, being rather large, seems to limit the aesthetic style of any watch using it to something outside of the ordinary, but who knows? Maybe it opens up great new opportunities. I don't anticipate this technology will ever filter down to more economical watches, or perhaps even to the likes of Rolex and Omega, but it's nevertheless exciting to witness the birth of a possibly superior technology. I hope in the next few years we may hear more from M. Renaud.

A good article from ABTW here, and film of the escapement plus a few words from M. Renaud himself here.
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Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire

Post by sistem_32 »

Grönefeld produces the only modern remontoire watch I know of. The remontoire, as I understand it, fulfills the same purpose as the fusee and chain. It consists of a very small power reserve which powers the movement, and is itself periodically recharged (every eight seconds in the case of the Grönefeld) by the mainspring. This avoids the problem of the mainspring decreasing the level of power it provides the movement as it unwinds. It also makes a little whirligig on the dial spin, which might be the best thing about it.

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Apparently the "spring remontoire," as opposed to the "gravity remontoire," was invented by Harrison in 1739 while he was developing his H2 chronometer, but that's from Wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt. He also integrated a remontoire into his H4, which is a watch, rather than a clock.

Another neat thing about the Grönefeld piece is that the dial is engine turned, meaning that it's produced by hand in a painstaking process on a traditional machine. A very nice touch.
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Armin Strom Mirrored Force

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Armin Strom is a small brand located in Biel, Switzerland (fun fact: Nicholas Hayek, co-founder and CEO of Swatch group, is an "honored citizen" of Biel). Most of their watches are fairly standard luxury pieces, but they have a haute horlogerie specialty. Their "mirrored force" technology is a mechanism by which they put two balance wheels in a state of "resonance." They describe resonance as "the two balances finding a concurrent rhythm in opposite directions so as to continuously average out errors for maximum accuracy." I know of several watches from other brands that utilize multiple balance wheels, but I haven't seen any that use the same system as Armin Strom. They appear to have a spring attached to pins on both of the balance wheels, the motion if which is controlled by a pin between the two wheels (I'm sure that's a drastic oversimplification, but it's what it looks like from the outside). Unfortunately I couldn't find any particularly official accuracy stats, but the one Hodinkee got to review consistently lost 6.5 seconds per day (full article here). That doesn't seem so hot to me, but it could be that theirs was an anomaly. In any case it's a darn good looking watch.
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AS produces another model using their resonance system that looks like effectively two watches combined into one. The use of it is beyond me.
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Re: Dead-beat Seconds

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The dead-beat seconds complication is probably one of the unluckiest complications in existence. It causes the seconds hand of a mechanical watch to jump to each second like that of a quartz watch. It was invented, of course, before the quartz watch, and I imagine that at the time it was quite a novelty, as well as an impressive show-offish mechanical feat. Even Rolex produced a dead-beat watch (the Tru-Beat)! But then along came quartz technology, the veritable hall-mark of cheap inferior watches. And what's the point of paying for an expensive mechanical watch when it behaves just like its ne'er-do-well quartz brother? So the dead-beat complication, abandoned by all, retreated into the mists of obscurity. But the "purists," the people who appreciate watchmaking as an art, still seek out the dead-beat seconds complication. Thanks to them, some exclusive brands like F. P. Journe, Lange, and Jaquet Droz still produce dead-beat watches. I'd love to see dead-beat watches return to the more "mainstream" luxury market, but I highly doubt that that will ever happen as long as the quartz stigma remains.

Here's a very interesting video from Lange modeling the dead-beat mechanism.
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Re: Haute Horlogerie Discussion

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I just want to say thank you for posting these. Absolutely mind blowing. Just so you know, just because the thread hasn't been responded to a lot doesn't mean people aren't enjoying it. This is incredible watch pr0n and borderline arousing (don't tell the woman, she wont get it!) This picture especially blew my mind. It somehow captures a space station in deep space on your wrist! Keep it coming bud, I am eating this up right now!Image

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Re: Haute Horlogerie Discussion

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Dub Rubb wrote: Tue Jan 01, 2019 11:43 pm I just want to say thank you for posting these. Absolutely mind blowing. Just so you know, just because the thread hasn't been responded to a lot doesn't mean people aren't enjoying it.
Exactly.

I am really liking reading these posts. The posted Grönefeld is very attractive to my eye. I'd love to be able to see one in person.
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Re: Dominique Renaud Blade Resonator

Post by PetWatch »

sistem_32 wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 6:43 pm 2018 was a good year for innovation in watchmaking. The most important advance (in my opinion) is the Zenith Defy Lab with its hyper accurate 108,000 vph caliber ZO 342 (good write-up here).

(edited)
Thank you for taking the time to write this up. Fascinating timepieces to anyone interested in watch mechanisms.

In terms of new technological advances I could see that if this technology proves successful it could eventually easily become widespread all the way into affordable watches. It appears to be the same manufacturing process a IC circuits, which is now very affordable on a mass scale even though the manufacturing facilities cost billions last time I looked. This is not practical for the manufacturing of mechanical watches but all this tech is rapidly advancing and prices keep coming down.

I wonder if the vibrating oscillator would be widely welcomed, or perhaps face stiff resistance by non haute horology watch enthusiasts. No doubt at least some would appreciate a significantly more accurate non quartz movement, but it is quite a departure from the traditional balance spring we are so used to.

The watch case itself is stunning and the manufacturing technique may be adaptable to highly personalized designs.

Too bad I missed out on one of these, in my dreams :) Do you know what they sold for?
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Re: Haute Horlogerie Discussion

Post by sistem_32 »

Dub Rubb wrote: Tue Jan 01, 2019 11:43 pm I just want to say thank you for posting these. Absolutely mind blowing. Just so you know, just because the thread hasn't been responded to a lot doesn't mean people aren't enjoying it. This is incredible watch pr0n and borderline arousing (don't tell the woman, she wont get it!) This picture especially blew my mind. It somehow captures a space station in deep space on your wrist! Keep it coming bud, I am eating this up right now!
I'm glad you're enjoying reading the posts as much as I enjoy writing them! I'm only too glad to continue feeding the addiction.
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