A clean, modernist displays pay tribute to Angelus’ acclaimed travel clocks as well as taking cues from iconic industrial designs and designers of the 1960s and ‘70s. With the launch of the U10 Tourbillon Lumière Angelus has returned to the forefront of contemporary high-end watchmaking.
Boasting a radically deconstructed movement, the U10 Tourbillon Lumière features hours, minutes, dead beat seconds and a one-minute flying tourbillon, plus a 90-hour linear power reserve indicator on the case profile. Exclusive Angelus A100 movement, hours, minutes, central dead beat seconds, one-minute flying tourbillon, linear power reserve indication, hand-wound, translucent-grey concave sapphire dial and black outer ring, BO-988 specific annealed stainless steel case, dimensions 62.75 mm x 38 mm x 15 mm
Powering the U10 Tourbillon Lumière is an innovative, finely finished, in-house caliber complete with oversized, one-minute flying tourbillon, which is offset from the movement. The assertive, sculpturally-shaped case – in special annealed steel – features seven sapphire crystals. Visible from five sides in its own sapphire crystal showcase, the circular ballet of the tourbillon is on full display. The imaginatively engineered movement, visible also through the display back, pays homage to Angelus' 19th-century origins as a premium movement maker. The inspiration for the name U10 Tourbillon Lumière derives from the light (lumière in French) streaming through the threedimensional sapphire windows and illuminating the mesmerizing tourbillon.
Four years in the making, the U10 Tourbillon Lumière not only upholds the Angelus tradition of creating extremely inventive timepieces boasting finely-finished, in-house movements with long power reserves, it is also a timepiece of glorious contrasts. On one hand the U10 Tourbillon Lumière is classic haute horlogerie. Its dead beat seconds complication – where the second hand advances in full steps of one second – derives from 18th-century pocket watches; the movement bridges and plates are in traditional nickel-silver that is bevelled and polished; and the traditional 2.5Hz / 18,000 vph of the screwed balance with Breguet-overcoil is a throwback to some of Angelus’ early pocket watches.
And yet, the modernist display, innovative engineering and state-of-the-art materials and finishing ensure that the U10 Tourbillon Lumière can equally be viewed as a paragon of cutting-edge, contemporary watchmaking. Flying tourbillon on full show thanks to deconstructed movement and duplex case The configuration of the manual-winding calibre is decidedly avant-garde, with the tourbillon positioned far outside of the movement, displayed alone as a dazzling mechanical sculpture in its own sapphire crystal vitrine.
Angelus’ Head of Development Sébastien Chaulmontet reveals that the configuration of the tourbillon was his starting point when designing the U10 Tourbillon Lumière. He says: “We always first think of the final design of the watch that we wish to create. For the U10 Tourbillon Lumière, we wanted a large tourbillon displayed on its own in a sapphire showcase. In order to realize the design we had to develop a new movement from scratch, with the tourbillon configured apart from the rest of the movement. The case and the movement then went through several phases of development so that they worked perfectly together, both technically and visually, before arriving at the final, emphatically sculptural, result.”
The generously-proportioned – 62.75 mm x 38 mm x 15 mm – case, which took over two years to develop, features no fewer than seven sapphire crystals. All the crystals are bevelled, polished and subtly protrude from the case, creating expressive three-dimensionality. Four of these crystals – including one wrapping 90° over the end of the case – surround the tourbillon, allowing unfettered views to the beating heart of the timepiece. The large windows also let light flood in and shine a spotlight on this mechanical centrepiece. The vitrine aspect of the tourbillon space is cleverly enhanced by light-absorbing, matte black PVD finish on the interior walls encasing the tourbillon. The stainless steel used to make the case is BO-988 specific steel. This annealed steel is of a higher quality than the usual 316L steel found in timepiece cases because it contains fewer impurities, is less liable to corrode and is more biocompatible. Its finer grain size allows for a better standard of polishing and higher level of finish.
With its generous 16.25 mm diameter, the hand-polished tourbillon cage is crafted from weight-saving stainless steel, while titanium has been chosen for the tourbillon bridge due to its strength, low density and shock-absorbing qualities. The flying tourbillon configuration does not need an upper supporting bridge and offers unimpeded views to the top of the regulator. The combination of nickel-silver, titanium and stainless steel in a series watch movement is unique. Indeed, Angelus has deliberately sought to evoke the era of quartz watches, which also have stepped seconds. Angelus’ Sébastien Chaulmontet explains: “Seeing the design of the U10 Tourbillon Lumière’s dial – which is inspired from the era of quartz watches – you wouldn’t expect a sweeping seconds hand,” he says. “This timepiece has dead beat seconds to honour an historically important horological complication but also to evoke the jump of the second in a quartz movement. “What’s more, and as a touch of irony, we are imitating the very technology that signaled the death knell for Angelus, as well as many other prestigious Swiss brands, in the 1970s. Against the odds, mechanical watches have survived; Angelus has survived and is now back. So the U10 Tourbillon Lumière is our little wink at – and snub to – history.” Completing the indications on the side of the case is the intuitive linear power reserve featuring a rhodium-treated hand filled with black Super-LumiNova that glows blue in the dark.
Quelle
http://www.angelus-watches.com/media/1191/angelus_u10-tourbillon-lumiere.pdf
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