BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
It’s not very often that we hear about a new watch release from Tiffany & Co. It hasn’t quite been a year since we covered their special “Bird on a Rock” Pendant watch“ for last year’s ill-fated OnlyWatch auction, but it does feel like it’s been quite a ride since then.
Following on from last year’s special pendant watch we have this, Tiffany & Co.’s new “Bird on a Flying Tourbillon” watch. Yes, it really is called that. It shares the same inspiration as the pendant watch, that being Jean Schlumberger’s 1965 “Bird on a Rock” brooch. Whereas the OnlyWatch piece resembled the 1965 brooch, this new watch takes it a bit further and turns the brooch into a wristwatch.
The case itself is quite modest in its proportions at 39mm across. However, it’s made from white gold and snow-set with diamonds. One should expect such a thing from Tiffany & Co., of course, and they don’t disappoint.
There are 143 snow-set diamonds on the movement’s plates, visible through the sapphire caseback. The calibre AFT24T01 is made for Tiffany & Co. by Artime under Tiffany & Co.’s guidance. The movement features 205 components, is manually wound and has a 60-hour power reserve, but the main feature is a flying tourbillon on the dial, a first for the brand. Perhaps the strangest part of the flying tourbillon is that it has its own sapphire crystal dome over it on the dial side which rotates with the tourbillon. By doing this, Tiffany & Co. say, it catches the light in an exciting new way never seen on a watch before.
The dial is where the main action takes place. Apart from the aforementioned tourbillon, we see two birds flying near the flying tourbillon. The birds are made of white and yellow gold and are set with 147 diamonds between them, while another 168 diamonds adorn the time dial. The birds soar over 16 cloud-shaped pieces of turquoise gemstones, which have been precision cut and are wafer then. The turquoise pieces are then set into layers on the dial to give depth; Tiffany & Co. says this takes 45 hours to complete.
All of this, of course, means the 25 examples of the watch that are being made are pricey. However, we don’t know how pricey they are, as Tiffany & Co. won’t say, but you can get in touch with them and ask if you like. It’s clear that Tiffany & Co. is putting in some hard work on its watches once more, and with so many high-end brands which focus on other things also happening to make wristwatches these days, it’s a no-brainer for them.
