Swiss independent watch brand Louis Moinet, founded in 2004 in Neuchatel, pays homage to history of Louis Moinet, master watchmaker in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. Inventor of the chronograph, (in 1816), Louis Moinet was not only a watchmaker, but also a scholar, artist and teacher.
Today, the Louis Moinet brand, run by Jean-Marie Schaller, pays homage to Moinet’s ideas and artistic side. The brand creates only limited editions, often using some of the rarest materials in the world, including fossils and meteorites, and regularly offering métiers d’ arts hand painted dials. The newest Louis Moinet Memoris Red Eclipse watch deftly underscores the breadth of the brand’s artistic and technical prowess in watchmaking.
Last year marked the 200th anniversary of the brand’s invention of the chronograph and to mark that occasion, Louis Moinet unveiled the first Memoris Red Eclipse watch. The watch is a tribute to the astronomical observations made by Louis Moinet in his day, and, more importantly, to the chronograph invention.
The first watches were introduced in white gold, but now the brand has unveiled a stunning new 18-karat rose gold case with 18-karat gold wheels, gears and other components visible on the dial side. The monopusher chronograph houses an automatic movement that was actually newly designed to showcase the column wheel chronograph function. Because the chronograph is the star of the show in this watch, Louis Moinet shifts the entire chronograph portion of the movement so that it is visible on the dial side. Utilizing sapphire disks for the continuously running seconds and for the hour counter ensures further visibility of the chronograph’s workings. When the chronograph pusher is activated, a dance of the chronograph’s wheels and gears takes place on the dial side in beautiful harmony.
The rich blue enamel portions of the dial include an outer minute track for the chronograph seconds, and an upper portion of rich blue enamel with a stunning starry sky pattern in it that draws the eye inward. The hours and minutes indication, almost secondary to the watch design, is read off of an off-center dial at 6:00 that is midnight blue Grand Feu enamel.
Every part of the watch is meticulously finished so that a closer look at any component reveals beautiful new artistry. Even the case is finely finished and elaborately engraved. The case sides, lugs and bezel feature a scrollwork engraving with swirling star motif that requires hundreds of hours of painstaking workmanship. The Louis Moinet signature is etched into the case sides.
The visual tour does not stop there, however. Turn the watch over and another artistic and technical masterpiece waits thanks to a sapphire caseback. The remainder of the automatic movement components – richly finished – tells the rest of the story. The caliber LM54, which beats at 8,800 vibrations per hour, boasts a total of 302 individually finished components. More than 60 of those parts were designed and manufactured strictly to allow the chronograph to be visible on the dial side – and separating it form the movement beneath.
The rotor, with a specially made engine-turned motif in black, features a small red moon in its center. The red gold-leaf enamel moon is in lunar eclipse mode – offering a fiery beauty. The watch offers 48 hours of power reserve. The black background is created using a rose engine and a handheld graver.
Also via the caseback one can view the brand’s exclusive “Energie Plus” automatic pawl winding system with a spring and crab-claw design. The system enables the watch to be wound in both directions, optimizing the movement of the rotor and winding the movement more efficiently. The stunning masterpiece that is the rose gold Red Eclipse Memoris will only be made in a limited edition of 12 pieces, each retailing for $115,000.
