Running a small, fully independent workshop has its advantages as well as drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is having to master everything in-house. One of the advantages is also having to master everything in-house! No doubt this explains why brands such as MB&F, Urwerk, Kari Voutilainen, Ressence and Louis Moinet are so dynamic. The men leading these companies are present at every level, from management to finance, human resources, customer relations and product design.
Jean-Marie Schaller, at the head of Louis Moinet, has always been upfront about his multiple roles in the business, emphatically signing each of his emails “CEO & Creative Director”. Meaning he has input into every watch that comes out of the Ateliers in Saint-Blaise, at the very least contributing ideas and in many cases conceiving of the watch from scratch.
The obvious choice
The cosmic connections of the brand’s recent launches are a continuation of Louis Moinet the man’s personal interest in observational astronomy. The watch made for Only Watch tells a different story. One that is so obvious, no-one had thought of it… until now.
Most of the watches offered at the charity auction revolve around themes of childhood and generosity, or simply roll out that particular year’s colour scheme. Louis Moinet, on the other hand, went in search of the unexpected: a direct link with medical technology.
The money raised by Only Watch funds research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy, hence medtech is vital to the success of the mission it has set itself – a fact highlighted by Louis Moinet’s Art-Tech watch. As Jean-Marie Schaller writes in the press release, “Microelectronics enables fundamental advancements in medical research, which is the ultimate goal of Only Watch. I felt it was relevant to establish a connection between innovative technology and high watchmaking in order to fully embrace Only Watch's mission.”
Wafer dial
For the dial, the brand has laser-engraved a silicon wafer: the same substrate used to make the microelectronic circuit boards that are omnipresent in today’s digital devices as well as medical imaging systems. Silicon is also a crucial material for the escapement components in modern watches. In a word, silicon is everywhere.
By creating this supremely modern wafer dial, Louis Moinet has connected the different aspects of Only Watch - technology, watchmaking, creativity, beauty, uniqueness and colour - in the most ingenious, imaginative and apposite way. It also sheds a new light on watchmaking’s decorative arts.
At the same time, it takes a philosophical view of watchmaking’s love/hate relationship with tech: concealed and glossed over when in reality every brand makes use of CAD, CNC machines, 3D modelling, even 3D printing, and silicon has earned a pedigree on a par with that of German silver.
It’s an open secret that no-one wants to admit. No-one except Louis Moinet. The message could not be clearer: stop hiding behind tradition and pretending technology doesn’t exist. There is no future without the past, and vice versa. Where the two meet is called the present. And that present is the Art-Tech.
Visionary
It takes you out of your visual comfort zone, which is precisely the aim. Rather than a traditional haute horlogerie dial, Louis Moinet has created something more akin to a smartwatch. Yet there, at 6 o’clock, sits a flying tourbillon, below the brand’s Fleur de Lys logo at noon. Turning the Art-Tech over reveals a traditionally crafted and finished movement inside a 40.7mm titanium case. In all, a visionary, avant-garde creation for an enlightened collector.
