This AHCI member and specialist for orbital-style tourbillons has spent the last year creating a tourbillon wristwatch that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic flight into space.
WORLDTEMPUS – 12 April 2011
Elizabeth Doerr
Exactly fifty years ago, on the morning of April 12, 1961, 27-year-old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin entered the Vostok-1 rocket and was strapped into its pressurized nose capsule. In just 108 minutes after taking off, the first man in space had fully orbited the earth – thereby making history.
Russian whirlwind
Today, Bernhard Lederer launches a highly limited edition tourbillon wristwatch of 50 pieces celebrating this incredible feat. The Gagarin Tourbillon's focal point, which is simultaneously the point of technical interest, is the one-minute flying tourbillon that orbits the dial in a counterclockwise manner, symbolizing east. Further symbolization is found in the fact that the tourbillon, which is followed around the perimeter of the dial by an integrated magnifying glass, makes one complete revolution in exactly 108 minutes. Lederer finds that looking through this magnifying glass, or loupe, to better appreciate dial details is highly reminiscent of what it would be like to stare out from the confines of the Vostok space capsule toward earth.
Lederer, perhaps best known in recent years for his unique BLU brand, made a large, sweeping bridge inspired by the 25-meter commemorative statue at Gagarin's landing site near Engels, Russia to hold the orbiting whirlwind. The tourbillon cage vertically spells out the word VOSTOK curved around the tourbillon's perimeter. The loupe is locked in place by a catch inspired by a hatch on the Vostok capsule.
Personal time
For Lederer, time is personal and intimate, and his goal in founding BLU in 2000 was to express this belief. “Time passes as quickly as the mood I am currently in. With my timepieces, I try to restore a piece of this beauty for others,” he said. The Gagarin Tourbillon, which is housed in a 46.5 mm platinum case, is about as personal as it gets for collectors of both memorabilia and horology. The hand-finished manually wound movement Lederer created especially for this celebratory timepiece contains 264 individual components, including three spring barrels working together for 80 hours of power reserve. A nostalgically domed sapphire crystal adding to the space capsule illusion floats over the expressive dial showing the landmarks Gagarin passed over during his historic orbit, and at which time over the course of the 108 minutes.
