Something From Nothing

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Something From Nothing - New Transparency
2 minutes read
By taking away from their timepieces, watchmakers focus our attention on… well, what exactly?

The machine tools used in the watch industry have improved exponentially. 3D simulations calculate maximum tolerances, enabling components to be openworked to their functional and physical limits. CNC machines shape pieces with remarkable speed and dexterity. Wire erosion cuts through metal with diabolical precision. The human hand polishes and finishes, for a few microns less. At the end of this lengthy, part-mechanical, part-manual process we have… empty space. Really? Only empty space?

Sweet nothings

Sometimes, yes, as seen at Watches and Wonders. The most beautiful watches have never relied solely on their movements and even go to remarkable lengths to have them disappear altogether. Making its return to the fair, Hysek again presented its IO Skeleton Tourbillon. Skeletonised to the extreme, it is little more than a barely-there movement. Meanwhile, in downtown Geneva, indie brand Artime was showing its equally minimalist ART01. There is no main plate; instead, the movement is tethered to the case. A barrel, a gear train, a tourbillon, nothing more!

Nudité horlogère : pourquoi tant de vide ?

King sapphire

Transparency isn’t only a question of mind (or engineering) over matter to create skeletonised movements. As surprising as it may sound, transparency can be achieved not by removing but by adding material. Counterintuitive? No, replies Hublot, not if the material itself is transparent, like sapphire. Enter the Square Bang Sapphire. Yes, it has a case but it’s almost invisible. As is the bracelet. The slightly disconcerting impression is that of a calibre sitting directly on the wrist.

Nudité horlogère : pourquoi tant de vide ?

Just as astonishing, Chanel has not only given its Première Camélia X-Ray a sapphire case; it has also skeletonised the delicate movement. What remains of this elegant, graceful calibre has been set with diamonds. Precious stones floating in space, concealing the movement below.

Nudité horlogère : pourquoi tant de vide ?

Look this way

Alongside this radical approach that consists of having the movement or case disappear from view, some brands occupy a middle ground and openwork certain areas in order to draw attention to a specific part of the composition. Cartier is a prime example. The surface under the micro-rotor of its surprising Santos-Dumont Skeleton Micro-Rotor has been openworked between 6 and 9 o’clock, thus drawing the gaze to the aircraft hovering over it.

Nudité horlogère : pourquoi tant de vide ?

Louis Moinet takes a similar approach. As the inventor of the chronograph, it has every reason to focus attention on this eminent complication. Hence the Saint-Blaise watchmaker has removed the upper section of the dial on its recent Time To Race, between 8 and 4 o’clock. The ambitious mechanism is revealed, hypnotic, with the column wheel astutely positioned at 12 as the unmistakable focal point. Look away now. Except you can’t!

Nudité horlogère : pourquoi tant de vide ?

The composition of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso Hybris Artistica Calibre 179 is the mirror image of Louis Moinet’s: the upper part of the dial is solid while the lower section has been cut away to provide a generous space for the multi-axis rotations of the stunning semi-spherical tourbillon (whose balance spring develops horizontally rather than vertically, as in a cylindrical tourbillon, hence its name). Impossible to resist.

Nudité horlogère : pourquoi tant de vide ?

The same is true of Vacheron Constantin’s new Traditionnelle Tourbillon: however superb the olive green sunburst dial, the eye is instinctively, irresistibly drawn to the tourbillon, in the form of a Maltese Cross, that hangs in the air at 6 o’clock. The entire watch is designed with the very purpose of creating space for a gravity-defying complication that commands our attention.

Nudité horlogère : pourquoi tant de vide ?

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