The Race Is On

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The Race Is On - Louis Moinet
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It’s down to the wire in the Chronograph category…

The problem with being an avid consumer of horological information is that it becomes very difficult to choose a favourite. People ask me all the time what my favourite watch is, or what my favourite brand is, and these are impossible questions to answer. I suspect this is the case for anyone who has developed a complex and wide-ranging passion in any subject — absolute pronouncements like “favourite” or “best” or “all-time” just become less relevant (and harder to justify) as the topography of your knowledge increases in breadth and nuance. That said, I have always had a soft spot for one particular complication, and I might even venture to say that the chronograph is my favourite horological mechanism of all time. 

In fact, saying I have a “soft spot” for chronographs might be downplaying it slightly. When I encounter a truly stunning example of this complication, I’ve been known to regress to adolescent bouts of giddy infatuation. You can imagine, then, that at each edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), my attention is entirely captured by the Chronograph category. 

The Race Is On

The thing that fascinates me most about chronographs are their movements, and I am as omnivorous in this aspect as I am in all others. I could be looking at a Valjoux 7750 (possibly the most prolific and influential industrial chronograph of the last 50 years) or the spectacularly elegant and powerful Patek Philippe cal. CHR 29-535 PS, they are both beautiful to me, albeit in different ways. My weakness is simply that I frequently find the movement far more attractive than the actual time-telling display of the watch itself. And it is obviously silly to acquire a watch and spend more time staring at the movement than at its dial. If you bought a perfectly functional car and, instead of actually driving it, just popped open the hood and gazed at its engine all day, people would (quite justifiably) think you might benefit from the services of a mental health professional.

I don’t know of any cars that allow you to view the engine whilst driving — I’m certainly not any kind of automotive expert, but I think it’s generally frowned upon to focus your attention anywhere else but the road while you’re at the wheel. Luckily for us movement nerds, there is a way to have your cake and eat it too. Chronographs with a dial-free or deconstructed-dial approach have become more and more prevalent, and when this is combined with a movement configuration that places the chronograph mechanism on the front (rather than the back, as per convention)… that, my dear WorldTempus family, is the winning combination, in my humble opinion. 

The Race Is On

Half of the Chronograph category’s finalists in this year’s edition of the GPHG have deliberately chosen this approach, a testament to its undeniable appeal. One of them, the Louis Moinet Time To Race, goes with a dial that is two-thirds uncovered, displaying the main elements of the chronograph mechanism — the pivoted driving wheel that defines the traditional lateral-clutch chronograph, the prestigious monopoussoir column wheel, and the intricate nest of jumper springs, levers and hammers that allow the watch to measure elapsed time. 

The Louis Moinet Time To Race may be based on the original 19th-century Compteur de Tierces of the brand’s eponymous watchmaker, but it has been updated with high-performance materials such as carbon-fibre composite and Neoralithe, a durable and aesthetically refined heat-cured epoxy resin. One final thread ties the Louis Moinet Time To Race to the era of its 200-year-old predecessor. The watch is customisable, with a choice of dial décor (a “lucky number” sub-dial) and colour scheme to be selected by the wearer, ensuring that his or her watch will be something that truly sets them apart.

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