Frédéric Jouvenot Helios Timepiece Wins GTE First Super Watch Award

I recently blogged about Geneva Time Exhibition First Ever Super Watch Award - An Award given to an independent watch company, which displays extreme technical innovation and craftsmanship, a time telling application quite unique to the watch making world, and supreme creativity.

So... here it is... Frédéric Jouvenot wins for his Helios timepiece featuring an intriguing time display without the use of hands, numbers or discs.
It surely is a marvel in time telling, but how does it work? The dial of the watch is fashioned like a sun with 12 sunbeams or moonbeams fanning out from the center and meeting the bezel in the 12 hour markers of classic analogue display. Hence the name , Helios, who in Greek Mythology personified the sun. As for the minutes, they are displayed in a central moon, and make one revolution per hour.

The dial follows the passage of the sun, and at noon all the rays are ablaze, then as the sun moves lower in the sky, sunbeams are replaced by moonbeams. By midnight the dial is dark, as all 12 segments are moonbeams. It is at that moment of midnight when a small opening appears in the center of the dial displaying a moon.

Dawn arrives as the rays of light begin to replace the rays of the moon. (see video below)

It is not surprising this variation of time display Wins the GTE Super Watch Award. The idea is unique; the final product displaying the three dimensional dial is exquisitely crafted with PVD color black, rhodium plated or pink. The bold yet enigmatic case is crafted in either white or pink gold or highly resilient TITANIUM DLC. The balance is crafted from black gold.

This watch seems like a mechanical sun dial without the need for sun. A brilliant idea conceptualizing the very passage of the sun.

Frédéric Jouvenot wins a free spot at GTE 2012 plus media coverage in Plaza Watch Magazines.