Although among my WIS friends I'm known as a pocket watch nerd with a penchant for V&C, this one is neither - it's a wrist watch from Blancpain.
Someday the right "complicated" pocket watch will enter the cabinet but this piece ticks a lot of boxes for me...a stealthy tool watch in appearance yet an armful of horological complications including flyback chronograph, moon phases, and perpetual calendar.
The heart of this watch is the evergreen Caliber 1185 developed by Frederic Piguet, a specialist movement manufacture in Le Sentier with roots back to 1858 and Louis Elisee Piguet. F. Piguet and Blancpain were married back in 1982 but kept separate identities even after Swatch swallowed them up in 1992. The illusion ended in 2010 when the two were formally merged as Manufacture Blancpain based in Le Brassus.
Edmond Capt led the design team in 1987 to produce what was the world's smallest and slimmest self-winding chronograph. This perpetual calendar version has 395 parts and a height of 5.5 mm, and offers a power reserve of 40 hours. It has become the tractor inside complicated watches of many other brands besides Blancpain.
I'll admit to a previously-held prejudice against Blancpain for their spurious claim to being the oldest watch company, founded in 1735, when a scholarly view would pin the beginnings of the present company to 1858. But that is a discussion best left for cigars and scotch...
What no one can deny is the artful classicism of Blancpain's designs nor the micro-engineering mastery of F. Piguet and, together, they produced some pretty nifty work.
Someday the right "complicated" pocket watch will enter the cabinet but this piece ticks a lot of boxes for me...a stealthy tool watch in appearance yet an armful of horological complications including flyback chronograph, moon phases, and perpetual calendar.
The heart of this watch is the evergreen Caliber 1185 developed by Frederic Piguet, a specialist movement manufacture in Le Sentier with roots back to 1858 and Louis Elisee Piguet. F. Piguet and Blancpain were married back in 1982 but kept separate identities even after Swatch swallowed them up in 1992. The illusion ended in 2010 when the two were formally merged as Manufacture Blancpain based in Le Brassus.
Edmond Capt led the design team in 1987 to produce what was the world's smallest and slimmest self-winding chronograph. This perpetual calendar version has 395 parts and a height of 5.5 mm, and offers a power reserve of 40 hours. It has become the tractor inside complicated watches of many other brands besides Blancpain.
I'll admit to a previously-held prejudice against Blancpain for their spurious claim to being the oldest watch company, founded in 1735, when a scholarly view would pin the beginnings of the present company to 1858. But that is a discussion best left for cigars and scotch...
What no one can deny is the artful classicism of Blancpain's designs nor the micro-engineering mastery of F. Piguet and, together, they produced some pretty nifty work.
