Friday, February 3, 2012

Ludovic Ballouard A Twist on Time

Although Ludovic Ballouard Upside Down Watch was unveiled sometime in 2011, I felt I had to blog about its brilliant manipulation of the hour markers.  Ludovic Ballouard  uses a traditional analog dial with a twist.  All hour indices are upside down except for the current hour marker indicated with a single dot.  The minute hand and the small seconds hand at the 6 'o'clock maintains the staus quo.

The whiteness of the titanium dial; the deep blued steel of Arabic numerals  and hands;  a bezel of blinding platinum and solid platinum case exudes a flawless simple elegance.  However turning the watch over and viewing the case back, one is thrust into a complex world of gears and components shedding light on the actual complexity underlying the perception of simplicity. The manual winding movement is a modified Perseux 7001 caliber comprised of 228 pieces including the 12 Maltese crosses and the snail.

  The movement has a slight jumping hour feel to it, since the relevant hour jumps upright whilst the prior hour turns on its head; however in most jumping hour timepieces, only the relevant hour is displayed  via an aperture whilst in this patented Calibre B01 “Upside Down” complication all the hours are visible.  Since the watch is not automatic (self-winding) there is no rotor to mask the function of the brilliant mechanism on the back of the watch.  One must wind the hand engraved crown.

Other specifications include a power reserve of 40 hours; water resistance of 3ATM; hand stitched alligator strap with 950 platinum buckle and matching hand stitched travel pouch.


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