Aptly named
Could there be a more appropriate name for this timepiece? Everything about it is puzzling. Everything except the certainty that it is a marvelously elaborate and beautiful creation. Mysterious, the diamond setting on the dial. Overlapping gems, hundreds of them, arranged side by side, create a seamless, three-dimensional paving so tight, so dense, it feels like a sea of light. And the bracelet, like a ladder leading to the vast dome that covers The Mystery, is sumptuously adorned with hundreds of baguette-cut diamonds. And the two rubies remind us that this is a timepiece. One indicates the hours and the other, the minutes. That’s one mystery solved: they’re hands. And those sapphires? They’re hour markers. They’re all pointing in the same direction, towards the mystery at the heart of The Mystery. At its core lies a pair of tourbillons in a set-up that has never been seen. Instead of standing side by side like brothers, these are Siamese twins. They’re constructed back to back, each with its balance wheel and hairspring but codependent. Rotating on three axes, they create a magnificent double sphere of extreme haute horlogerie. That mystery may have been explained, but its specifics have not been solved yet.
Poetry in Motion
A beautiful day in a gorgeous garden. Wander in it. Look at the flowers moving around. Bask in the multi-colored light and the glow of diamonds, sapphires. Try and touch the green, rounded pistil. It feels alive, it’s magnificently colorful, but Fleurs de Jardin is a stone garden, an entirely mineral creation. A remotely derived version of the Astronomia, its movement rotates as does its flying tourbillon. Flying metaphorically too, as its cage is shaped like butterfly wings Fleurs de Jardin is all about the flowers. In this rainbow version, they’re everywhere and colorful. The three ones anchored on the platform, like a spinning flower bed. The five ones scattered on a bed of baguette cut diamonds, nearest the ground. These flowers are made of six petals, all of them sapphire, all of them cut like kites, a rare type of cut providing them with edges and a sharp point. So don’t try and pick them. Even though they live inside a wide greenhouse made of transparent sapphire and gold, they know how to defend themselves.
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