INSIDE THE HALL OF MIRRORS
Among the 2300 rooms at the Palace of Versailles, the Hall of Mirrors is not only the most grand, but also the most opulent. Commissioned by Louis the XIV, designed by Jules Hardouin- Mansart, and finally completed in 1684, the 73-meter room boasts columns of marble that reach up nearly 10.4 meters from the parquet oak floor to create 17 grand arches inset with 357 mirrors that reflect the exterior gardens and, when hosting festivities, the mirrors reflect 8 enormous crystal chandeliers( as well as 12 smaller ones), each lit with hundreds of candles. To this day, the Hall of Mirrors serves its intended purpose of dazzling its guests and asserting the undeniable supremacy of The House of Bourbon, as the Louis dynasty was known.
A WRISTWATCH TO CAPTURE IT ALL
Montblanc celebrates the grandeur of Versailles and its most storied ball in the Montblanc Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon Château de Versailles. Every detail of this watch takes its aesthetic cue from Versailles, and the dial recreates the Hall of Mirrors on the night of The Yew Tree Ball. This decorative feat involves traditional enameling, micro-painting and inlaying of marble and oak. Less traditional, though equally exquisite, are the use of sophisticated 3D-modelling and laser-etching into both sapphire and brass.
Precision timing is achieved with Montblanc’ s patented Exo Tourbillon mechanism, a complication developed in-house over three years at the Montblanc Manufacture in Villeret, Switzerland and first released in 2010.
AN INSPIRED DIAL
One of the most lasting impressions of the Palace of Versailles is that, despite housing over 2300 rooms and having been built up across generations, its style is essentially Baroque. As one moves through the palace, one finds true harmony from the grandest architectural gesture to the smallest detail. In a similar gesture, the dial of the Montblanc Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon Château de Versailles brings together a surprising number of decorative motifs using a variety of artistic methods and materials while achieving aesthetic harmony.
The main dial recreates The Yew Tree Ball, using as its inspiration the etching“ Decoration for a Masked Ball at Versailles” by Charles Nicolas Cochin I. First printed in 1746 to memorialise the evening, prints of this work now reside in collections ranging from New York’ s Metropolitan Museum of Art to London’ s British Museum.
ISSUE 73 2025 THE ART OF LUXURY