By Jovan Krstevski
The Tourbillon 01 is the very first tourbillon watch produced by Hautlence in its bid for the expansion of its Atelier collection. Ladies and gentlemen of the horology world, this is pretty much good news for all of us. Now if we delve deeper into the making of this incredible timepiece, we will find out that the Tourbillon 01 is the result of the synergies between H. Moser & Cie and Hautlence which is practically owned by the Meylan family company which is the MELB Holding.
The first thing I noticed about the timepiece is its clear deviation from the watchmaker’s rather contemporary touch. The Tourbillon 01 my friends sports a more traditional look yet still distinctive of its class. It is kind of exciting because this is a tourbillon for crying out loud.
It is a good watch to say the least and its design is really top notch. I admire it alright but before I become bias, I will just go on my usual review routine. First under the test bed is the amazing rose gold case sporting other nice elements such as black PVD coated titanium. Plus the round design of the 44 mm two tone case looks splendid when mated with the smooth edges of the bezel and the robust looking lugs. Also being consistent with Hautlence creations, the crown looks rather rustic, giving the timepiece a remarkable traditional feel to it. As for those with keen eyes, you will notice that the case also frames a multi-level dial with a black enameled base enriched by Côtes de Genève decoration.
Being a tourbillon watch, the dial pretty much looks quite clean in my opinion when compared to other tourbillon watches besides being multi-level. I also like the consistencies in the watch like the combined rose gold numerals 3, 9 and 12 o’clock and the index hour markers. The large roman numerals still look subtle considering the materials used. Another plus factor is it makes travelers happy since the Tourbillon 01 sports a second-time-zone which can be hidden from plain sight at will using the crown. And at 6 o’clock, you will be treated by the slightly large one-minute tourbillon which is clearly visible behind the polished open worked bridge that acts as the protagonist.
Power is provided by the in-house self-winding Calibre HMC 802 sporting 21,600 vibrations per hour that yields about a 3-day power reserve. Most Tourbillon watches are hard to come by and when they fail they usually are harder to get serviced because of their construction design. Lucky for us, the H. Moser & Cie and Hautlence thought about this problem making the Tourbillon 01 quite innovative in its class. It features a plug and play system for the Tourbillon module making it independent of the movement. Nevertheless, the movement comes with hand decorations made by H. Moser & Cie.
You get to wear this timepiece on a nice leather strap, of course, that is, if the 88,000 Swiss Francs is a sound price point to you. For more info, please visit hautlence.com
JOVAN KRSTEVSKI – FOUNDER, PROPRIETOR & EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Watch collector, aficionado and an Event profile in the Swedish nightlife. He launched Watchgeek back in 2011, which is now known as WristReview and is one of the most widely read watch blogs on the Web. He quotes ’WristReview is a site to help people find, explore, discover and enjoy wristwatches.’ The passion for horology jump started in his early teens when his father bought him an Omega Seamaster which he still has in his collection. Since then he has always been in love with wristwatches! Besides WristReview, he also writes for a number of publications. P.S. He is also a huge fan of The Man of Steel. Read his articles here
