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Louis Erard Reprises Enamel Dial Limited Edition

Louis Erard adds a new model, the Enamel Grand Feu II, to its Excellence series of limited edition watches created with hand-made grand feu enamel dials.

The new Louis Erard Excellence Enamel Grand Feu II.

The latest model, with a dial that echoes a slightly larger version released last year, is a steel-cased 39mm time-only watch with a white dial that features the existing design’s blue markers, but adds a red XII and a few red lines of the small seconds display at six o’clock.

The watch’s rich dial and its deep colors are the result of a firing process in a kiln set at more than 800°C. The colors result from deposits of small layers of silica, oxides and potassium that, after firing, are fixed forever and permanently bonded to their metal base.

This grand feu technique is usually utilized for watches priced higher than those offered by this small independent watchmaker. However Louis Erard has found success offering a series of moderately priced limited editions that boast partnerships with watchmakers (including Vianney Halter and Alain Silberstein), notable designers and with small-batch grand feu dials.

With this strategy, the Le Noirmont watchmaker continues to raise its profile among collectors in search of relatively affordable watches with truly original, eye-catching designs.

The dials are made by Donzé Cadran, an art enameller based in Le Locle and purchased in 2011 by Ulysse Nardin. Inside Louis Erard places a Sellita automatic movement, visible through a clear sapphire caseback.

The watch boasts the brand’s signature ‘fir tree’ hands in blued steel and comes on an brilliant red grained calf leather strap with blue stitching and lined in Louis Erard’s signature blue grained calf leather.

Price: CHF 3,900, limited to 99 pieces.

 

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The Watches

Watches and Wonders 2022: The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante

Parmigiani Fleurier debuts a terrific world-first complication within the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante that conveys flyback capability to a subtle GMT hand, all powered by a new in-house PF051 caliber with a 48-hour power reserve.

The Parmigiani Fleurier the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante with a world-first flyback complication re-engineered solely for a second time zone display.

As the watchmaker’s Watches and Wonders 2022 highlight, the new watch nicely extends the sartorial approach to dial and case design embodied within the entire Tonda PF collection, which Parmigiani Fleurier debuted last year to much acclaim.

The new complication makes it a simple task to set and read two time zones. With two hour hands initially superimposed, the wearer need only press the pusher at 8 o’clock to advance the upper rhodium-plated gold hand dedicated to local time. Each press moves the hand one hour forward. This action reveals the rose gold hour hand, which displays time in the wearer’s home time. The watch is then set, and both hour hands will convey the time in both locations with no additional intervention.

Once the wearer returns home, he or she simply presses the crown-integrated rose gold push button to instantly ‘fly’ the gold hand back underneath the rhodium-plated hand.

These simple gestures engage a sophisticated flyback mechanism that on most watches operates a chronograph seconds hand, which here does not exist. Instead of timing two separate events, the job of traditional flyback complications, this patented Parmigiani Fleurier invention is employed to clear the dial of its third hand.

This enables an even clearer view of the hand-wrought barleycorn guilloché pattern blue dial framed with a sandblasted minutes track. As with every steel-cased watch within the Tonda PF collection, this GMT is also further framed with a finely knurled single-piece platinum bezel.

For many at Watches and Wonders 2022, this Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante was among the show’s highlights. It is certainly the purest GMT we’ve seen and a welcome display of restraint amid a torrent of grander world-timers and dual-timers displayed across Geneva this week. Price: $26,800.

 

Also new from Parmigiani Fleurier at Watches and Wonders 2022:

Alongside the Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, Parmigiani Fleurier presented four more novelties. Two, the Tonda PF Skeleton and the Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon, display the same knurled bezel, teardrop-shaped lugs and clean Grain d’Orge guilloché pattern dial. The two others are the sporty Tonda GT Chronograph in Big Date and Annual Calendar in two new appealing new colors.

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Skeleton, two new 40mm models in rose gold and steel/platinum (above), set with black rubies. Prices: $97,400 (steel with platinum bezel) and $63,300 (rose gold, pictured below).

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon (above), a 40mm platinum-cased model with platinum micro-rotor. Price: $157,000.

 

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda GT Chronograph with Big Date adds two dial options: Silver/grey (above) and pomegranate (below). Price: CHF 43,100.

 

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda GT Chronograph with Big Date and annual calendar, also with same color options as above. Both are pictured below. Price: CHF 19,400.

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The Watches

Watches and Wonders 2022: The Chopard Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon

Chopard adds the first complication to its Alpine Eagle collection with the new Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon, the watchmaker’s highlight debut from Watches & Wonders 2022.

The 41mm steel watch, with a high-frequency (25,200 vph) flying tourbillon, also dips the sporty Alpine Eagle collection into the luxury category, as it is Chopard’s first complication watch bearing the Geneva Seal quality hallmark.

The Chopard Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon, new at Watches & Wonders 2022.

Chopard builds the watch’s flying tourbillon without an upper bridge, which gives the regulating component its ‘flying’ moniker. That transparency in this L.U.C 96.24-L movement is based on the development of Chopard Manufacture’s first caliber (L.U.C 96.01-L from 1997). Like that caliber, the new movement also thin, measuring 3.3mm.

Thanks to this internal thinness, Chopard also built a thinner case than is typically found within the Alpine Eagle collection. The case on his new model measures 8mm thick, with a thinner bezel and lug set when compared to a classic Alpine Eagle Large model.

Chopard also equipped this new movement with a stop-seconds function that is backed up with a chronometer certification by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute. (Note the “Chronometer” inscription on the dial below the logo.)

This double certification (COSC and Geneva Seal) places the Chopard Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon alone on the market (according to Chopard) as the only flying tourbillon watch receive both certifications.

The impressive new Chopard caliber L.U.C 96.24-L earns Geneva Seal and COSC certifications.

The Chopard L.U.C caliber, like so many of Chopard’s excellent in-house movements, offers a much-welcomed long power reserve of sixty-five hours thanks to its two stacked barrels based on Chopard Twin technology.

While Chopard has embedded unique characteristics into the new watch, the Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon still echoes all the Alpine Eagle collection’s overall profile, including a round case with stylized sides, a crown engraved with the compass rose, a bezel with eight functional screws set at a tangent, a stamped dial featuring a deep color (here textured blue on a gold base), luminescent indications, and a proprietary Lucent Steel A233 bracelet and case.

Price: Upon request.

Also new from Chopard at Watches & Wonders 2022

The Chopard Happy Sport Chrono, a 40mm COSC-certified automatic chronograph with an ethical 18-karat rose gold case, and gold dial hosting seven ‘dancing’ diamonds. Price: $28,600.

The Chopard Happy Sport 33 mm, an ethical rose gold (case and bracelet) three-hand watch with five ‘dancing’ diamonds spinning around its gilded satin-brushed dial. Price: $29,700.

 

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The Watches

Watches and Wonders 2022: The Ulysse Nardin Freak S

Ulysse Nardin updates its already legendary hands-free, dial-free and crown-free Freak with a double oscillator, a technical flourish that deepens its three-dimensional effect while strengthening its efficiency and precision.

The new Ulysse Nardin Freak S.

As Ulysse Nardin’s highlight debut at Watches & Wonders 2022, the new Freak S marks the premiere of new UN-251 Manufacture movement. The new caliber dramatically hosts a new blued “DiamonSIL” (diamond-coated silicon) double oscillator with each balance wheel inclined at a 20-degree angle and linked by a differential.

Ulysse Nardin explains that the multi-gear differential, clearly visible between the balance wheels, evenly distributes the barrel’s energy to the two regulating organs, so that the Freak S’ amplitude remains stable.

The visual effect, centered with a pair of rose gold bridges holding the two blue oscillators, recalls a rocket wing.

Remember, as a carousel the Freak’s entire movement makes a complete rotation in one hour. A broad arrow on the watch’s aventurine movement plate shows the hour while the longer nose cone of the rocket with the balance wheels and the escapement indicates the minutes. The Freak S’ time is set by rotating the bezel in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.

The Freak S minute hand.

The new Freak S also marks an update to the efficiency of Ulysse Nardin’s already highly efficient Grinder automatic winding system. Using slight wrist movements, Grinder operates using four blades that connect to the oscillating weight, which gives the self-winding system twice the angular stroke and limits friction. (See additional technical specifications below.) And with the Grinder, the movement is (as far as we’re aware) the first automatically wound double-oscillator caliber available.

The Freak S differential, flanked by two inclined silicon balance wheels.

Ulysse Nardin will make the Freak S as a limited edition of seventy-five pieces, of which forty will be made this year. Every watch is fitted with an alligator strap decorated with a Sport cutout in rose gold color. The timepiece is fitted with a self-folding clasp system in titanium with black DLC.

Price: $137,200

The new movement is (as far as we’re aware) the first automatically wound double-oscillator caliber available.

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Freak S

(75-piece limited edition)

Movement: UN-251 Caliber with hours and minutes indicated by the movement’s rotation. 
Flying carousel baguette movement: one rotation per hour. 
Grinder automatic winding with blades, flexible guidance and shock absorber. Extra-large inclined double balance wheel in silicon with inertia-blocks, vertical differential. Power reserve is 72 hours
 (2 x 2.5 Hz) (2x 18,000 vph).

Case: 45mm black ceramic, titanium with black DLC and rose gold. 
Time set with the front bezel, lever lock. 
Manual winding possible with the back bezel.

Decorative movement plate in black aventurine. 
30 meters water resistance, sapphire domed box with anti-reflective treatment on both sides. Back: Titanium with black DLC, 6 screws, visible “Grinder” through open sapphire caseback.

Strap: Bi-material black alligator & golden calf strap or black alligator strap.

Price: $137,200

 

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The Watches

Watches and Wonders 2022: Zenith Chronomaster Open

Zenith modernizes its Chronomaster Open collection with a new El Primero movement, a hesalite seconds counter and a smaller case diameter.

The newest Zenith Chronomaster Open.

Veteran collectors might remember the Chronomaster Open’s 2003 debut, which featured a larger case and a multi-aperture view into an earlier El Primero movement. The new watch, which is Zenith’s Watches and Wonders 2022 highlight, is lighter in several ways when compared to its forebears and the previous Chronomaster Open collection.

Now presented in a more wrist-friendly 39.5mm steel or rose gold case, the new Chronomaster Open revisits the well-known three-color Zenith Chronomaster layout but with several new elements added.

Here, Zenith retains the small seconds counter at 9 o’clock (which was absent in the original Chronomaster Open), remaking it with a clear hesalite crystal. The transparency of the crystal allows the viewer to see into purple silicon star-shaped escape wheel.

In addition, Zenith has altered the shape of the dial opening, adding circular openings with chamfered edges instead of the former version’s applied metallic frame with blued screws. The results expose the new El Primero 3604 in its more contemporary grey hue.

Zenith wisely based the new caliber on the recently debuted El Primero 3600 1/10th of a second automatic high-frequency caliber. The new design, which replaces the existing Chronomaster Open collection,  is a nice mid-way point between Zenith’s Chronomaster Sport and its vintage-tinged Chronomaster Original.

Zenith’s El Primero 3604, front view.

With its new diameter (current collection models are 42mm), cleaner dial and explicit 1/10th of a second display, the new Chronomaster Open hits all the updates required for a truly contemporary collection.

Price: $10,000 (steel on bracelet) and $21,300 (rose gold on strap).

 

Gold Chronomaster Sport

In addition, Zenith adds a gold edition of its very hot Chronomaster Sport, which has become a top seller for the brand since its introduction last year. Zenith now offers the Chronomaster Sport in rose gold (including the bracelet and engraved bezel with 1/10th of a second scale.)

Available with either a black or white dial with the signature El Primero three-color counters, golden hands and applied markers. Price: $38,200.

A boutique-only steel version sports a unique, three-color bezel (see below, $11,900).

Also look for a two-tone Chronomaster Sport  (below) in rose gold and steel ($17,000).

 

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