Sapphire is the second hardest material on earth, after diamonds. Almost impossible to scratch. Cutting a watch case from a solid block of sapphire is an extremely long and difficult process. It takes tens and tens of hours of machining, then polishing, to produce a single case. The BR-X1 Tourbillon Sapphire case is actually cut out of 9 blocks of sapphire: middle piece, back, top, crystal and four bumpers, assembled with screws. The complexity of the case construction is not only a technical mastership challenge but also a way to enhance the protection of the watch.
Constructed around the grande complication Flying Tourbillon, we added a mono-pusher chronograph. It’s a unique and exclusive caliber, named BR CAL 285. This caliber is now built on a main plate, of which pillars are cut directly in the same block of metal as the plate. On the front side, the chronograph complication is highly visible, with the column wheel, the instant jumping minute and the function whips. On the back side, many openings let see the power reserve differential as well as the barrel. The flying tourbillon cage is seeable from everywhere: top, side, back.
