The letter that landed on Jean-Marie Schaller’s desk a few months ago was one the founder of Les Ateliers Louis Moinet had been waiting for. It confirmed the brand was now a partner to the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie. Not long after, it was joining exhibitors at Watches and Wonders.
The brand certainly has some exciting announcements for its first participation at the fair, starting with the news that Les Ateliers Louis Moinet has been awarded a new Guinness World Record.
One man, one timepiece, two records
The first was in 2016, exactly 200 years after Louis Moinet created his Compteur de Tierces, officially making him the inventor of the chronograph. And now the same Louis Moinet has been declared the official inventor of high frequency.
The Compteur de Tierces is again at the centre of this new distinction, thanks to what is now recognised as an unprecedented high frequency of 216,000 vibrations per hour. That one watchmaker and one timepiece should be awarded two Guinness World Records for two such fundamental inventions as the chronograph and high frequency is a unique occurrence in the history of Haute Horlogerie.
Eight wonders
And there is more! Les Ateliers Louis Moinet is also presenting two novel box sets. The first contains eight one-of-a-kind watches dedicated to eight wonders of the world. But wait: these are not the well-known wonders of the ancient world nor UNESCO’s natural wonders. These eight landmarks were personally chosen by Jean-Marie Schaller as “representing human genius and as symbols of humanity.” Accordingly, the Colosseum, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Petra, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, the Statue of Christ the Redeemer and Machu Picchu have served as inspiration for these eight unique tourbillon watches.
This remarkable ensemble is the collective work of fifteen craftsmen and women. Micro-painter, engraver, chaser, enameller and grisaille enameller took turns to bring all eight pieces to life in an impressively short time – just a few months. Each is in gold and regulated by a tourbillon. The movement, Calibre LM35, won the 2015 Le Locle Chronometry Competition. These eight watches will not be offered separately but sold as a set, presented in a purpose-made travel case.
Four lunar watches
From Earth to the Moon for the second set, it too made up of watches fitted with the LM35 tourbillon movement. Going by the name of Moon Race, it narrates the competition between nations to reach the Moon in four one-of-a-kind creations.
The first watch portrays the first Moon landing in 1966 by the Soviet Union’s Luna 9 space probe. The second, the Apollo 11 mission and the first man on the Moon in 1969. The third, the Apollo 13 mission, its mid-space rescue and its orbit of the Moon in 1970. The fourth and final piece depicts the Luna 24 mission of 1976, the last probe of the Soviet Luna programme to land on the Moon.
Each of these four watches incorporates fragments from the original missions, some with pieces of moon rock and all with authentic elements from spacecraft in service during this glorious era. Again, the four watches will be sold as a set.
