Blancpain add a new piece to the elegant Villeret collection – the Villeret Phase de Lune Demi-Savonnette.

Blancpain, acknowledged as a manufacture for the connoisseur  owe recent success largely to the vision of Jean-Claude Biver who in the early 1980’s despite the down-turn in demand for complicated mechanical watches set his master watchmakers the challenge of producing the “Six Masterpieces”. In 1983 Blancpain launched their now iconic Calibre 6395 Moon Phase.  The brand are now viewed by many as manufacturers of the quintessential moon phase and their charming little crescent-set golden “man in the moon” has become the perfect way to time the phases of each lunation.

Villeret Phase de Lune Half Hunter - Click to enlarge, again to supersize

The latest piece features the Blancpain 6654 Calibre movement with an extremely capable 72 hours power reserve and consists of more  than 300  beautifully finished components which are viewable through the exhibition case back when the hinged “Savonnette” or “Hunter” case back cover is opened.

The 40mm rounded case crafted from red gold is completely harmonious with the lustrous guilloche of the dial.  Discreet positioning of the correctors – under the lugs, ensures ease of adjustment by digits rather than watch tools and adds to the overall clean classical appearance of this splendid piece.

With two new releases, the The Longines Column-Wheel Chronograph and The Longines Column-Wheel Sports Chronograph the brand continues to consolidate its historical position as creators of classical and sporty timekeepers.

Longines Column Wheel Chronograph

Both pieces use the L688.2 self-winding movement developed with ETA which was launched in 2009.  For many traditionalists the presence of a column-wheel (in this case blued steel) to control the chronograph function is an indicator of a “true chronograph” as most modern chronographs use cams attached to a base calibre movement to start, stop and return to zero the chronograph, rather than the column-wheel which achieves the same purpose but which is an integral part of the movement. Whatever your opinions on this however the L688.2 is certainly a contemporary interpretation of a column-wheel chronograph movement using up to date technology and one which Longines state is “exceptionally user-friendly” and requires “only the finest touch to start and stop the mechanism”.

The L688.2 movement has a power reserve of 54 hours and both pieces feature small seconds at 9 o’clock, date aperture a 4.30, 30-minute counter at 3 0’clock and 12 hour counter at 6 o’clock.  The dauphine shaped hands are coated with Super-LumiNova®.  Water resistance is to 30m for the Column Wheel Chronograph and 100m for the Column Wheel Sports Chronograph thanks to its screwed-in case back.

L688.2 Column Wheel Chronograph movement

The Column-Wheel Chronograph is the more elegant of the two with a  39mm steel or rose gold case, featuring classical detailing such as a silvered dial on dark brown alligator strap and the Column-Wheel Sports Chronograph slightly larger at 41mm features more striking choices of steel with black lacquered or brushed grey dial and steel bracelet or steel with contrasting black or grey ceramic central links or rubber strap.

Although I am familiar with the name of Beat Haldimann, the much-revered master watchmaker from Thun, I will confess to never actually having taken time to explore what goes on in his own atelier – and what comes out of it too. Well, having read a press release received today, I decided that it was time to put that right.

Beat Haldimann’s fascination with watchmaking began as a youngster and thankfully this interest would evolve into a career, first as a teenaged apprentice in the workshop of a local watchmaker where he became versed in the repair and restoration of ‘new and old masterpieces’ while simultaneously studying to complete his watchmaking training at college and eventually as proprietor of Haldimann Horology, established in 1991 specializing in commissions and restorations. A further two years in college saw Beat emerge as Swiss Federal Graduate with the title Master Horologist.

So what I have found here is a very successful young (well, 46 is young enough from where I’m sitting) master watchmaker and visionary, who has clearly read all the books on horology and then apparently thrown any of them which dictated how a watch should be straight out of the window of his lakeside mansion/atelier!

For the watches made here are like no others and most certainly not for the passive watchbuyer. His latest creation, due to be presented at Baselworld 2010, the H8 Sculptura is a fine example in that it is an exercise in horology yet would serve little value to the customer who wants his watch to actually tell the time – this one doesn’t fully perform that function, but wow, it truly is a thing of rare beauty.

The Beat Haldimann H8 Sculptura stands out – literally – from it’s peers, and that’s only to be fully appreciated when first viewed, as there, placed centrally where one would expect to find the hands, is the quite magnificent flying one-minute tourbillon, seemingly floating above the otherwise unblemished dial. The search for hidden hour and minutes hands to read the time proves fruitless as there are none! This piece is not about being able to tell the time, rather it is a study in time as a movement and as such, hands have been seen as surplus to requirements.

So, if the Haldimann H8 Sculptura doesn’t tell the time, what does it do? Why is it with us at all? Well, according to the Haldimann atelier’s official scribe, Valentin Blank, the H8 Sculptura is a little glimpse at the philosophy of it’s creator in that his expression in the piece is that it is not strictly a watch, but rather a portable personal piece of horologic art – a sculpture in fact.

Like an artefact in a glass case in a museum, the tourbillon can be viewed from any angle thanks to the low level of the bezel and the convex crystal which is like a domed glass ceiling above, and it is then that the mastery in Haldimann’s complication can be appreciated, indeed how it was meant to be appreciated. There is nothing else on the surface of the dial to distract one’s attention, not even a marker or manufacturer’s ident, just this mesmerising and hypnotizing, whizzing yet so dignified flying tourbillon reflecting off the dial above which it performs it’s 60-second pirouette.

The H8 Sculptura is available in 39 or 42mm platinum case by order with collection in person from the hands of Beat Haldimann himself at the atelier itself!