WATCHES & TIMEPIECES 25 of haute horlogerie in vogue with Europe’ s elites during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Champlevé enamel is a technique used in a metal piece in which hollows are carved and then filled with enamel. The piece is then baked in an oven until the enamel fuses.
The technique forms the luminous white backdrop of the time-telling dial, while blue enamel paint is used for the Roman numerals and pure gold powder is painted on in order to create the sun’ s extended rays in the center. Over this dial, a lasermachined 3N-gold supporting ring is laid, creating a decorative framing structure that mimics the polished brass detailing in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. The section framing the tourbillon recreates stainedglass motifs, including the fleur-delys, as found throughout the Royal Chapel of Versailles.
The hands of the time-telling dial are styled like those found on Baroque clocks of the era. However, because the scale of a wristwatch is so reduced, traditional milling techniques are replaced by today’ s laser cutting. The precise detail of this highly decorative yellow gold 750 / 1000( 18 karats) handset invites the viewer to peer through a loupe magnifier to admire the finest details.
Even more impressive, perhaps, is the brass Apollo head that acts as a cap to the central arbor on which the hands are mounted. This figure mimics the Apollonian sun at the center of the large clock above the king’ s chambers at the Marble Court at Versailles. Curiously, this clock was originally not fitted with a mechanical device because it marked the time of the death of kings, first Louis XIV and then Louis XV. However, it would later be fitted with a working mechanism.
To create this fascinating visage, Montblanc’ s designer created a three-dimensional digital scan of the Apollo sun on the door of the Salon de Venus at Versailles.
Credit: Patrice Schreyer
Using multiple camera angles, a complex digital file containing over 1.5 million data points then had to be reduced to a manageable file to direct the laser-etching machines.
THE HAND- ENGRAVED SOLID GOLD CASE TELLS A STORY
A further heightened expression of haute horlogerie arrives with the yellow gold 750 / 1000( 18 karats) case of the Montblanc Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon Château de Versailles.
A hand-engraved laurel wreath— long associated with Apollo in ancient Greece and still used around the world today to symbolise victory— adorns the bezel. Montblanc’ s hand-engravers have also set a different, yet still relevant, narrative into the intricate caseband engraving. In this engraving, we find a recreation of a painting by François Lemoyne from the Salon de la Paix at Versailles in which Louis XV is offering an olive branch to all of Europe, while above him Minerva— the namesake of Montblanc’ s historical manufacture and the Roman goddess of arts, war and justice— instructs Mercury to keep closed the Gates of Janus, a reference to the practice during the Roman Empire of closing the gates of the Janus temple during times of peace, a symbol of stable boundaries. This painting casts Louis XV as a Roman Emperor, something very much in vogue as Neoclassicism asserted itself throughout Europe during the Enlightenment.
THE EXO TOURBILLON MOVEMENT, CALIBRE MB M16.68
First released in 2010, Montblanc’ s Exo Tourbillon is a patented mechanism that took three years to develop, bringing novel watchmaking ideas to the tourbillon.
“ Exo” is Greek for“ outside,” and in this instance the term refers to the balance wheel residing above the tourbillon cage. This unique solution not only minimises the diameter of the tourbillon cage and rotating escapement, but it also allows the balance wheel to be large enough to house 18 adjustment screws( regulating weights), which in turn adds mass to the unit.
Remarkably, the balance wheel mechanism is anchored by a single-
ISSUE 73 2025 THE ART OF LUXURY