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As a prelude to a much-awaited announcement about ladies’ watches, Louis Moinet has just unveiled the very first reinterpretation of its ladies’ watch, now dubbed the Skydance.
“Our style has matured a lot over the last ten years, as have our decorative techniques,” explains Jean-Marie Schaller, Louis Moinet’s CEO and Creative Director. “It was high time we extended our tradition of exclusive limited editions to encompass a completely different, contemporary piece.”
The timepiece in question has now become a celebration of sidereal space. To achieve this, it’s been endowed with a radiant dial in Magic Blue, the precise composition of which is a closely-guarded secret, known to Louis Moinet alone. Unlike anything achieved using enamel, lacquer, or galvanisation, this particular blue provides unique depth and power, evocative of the immensity of the galaxy, with the sun shining brightly in its midst.
At 6 o’clock the small seconds display features a sun with the rays pointing to the second, driven by an automatic caliber boasting a 42-hour power reserve. In the centre sit the hours and minutes hands, with their dewdrop tips – one of Louis Moinet’s signature symbols – here filled with a luminous substance. The timepiece features two distinctive levels of diamonds: a first set of six on the bezel, and twelve more marking the hours on the dial.
The Skydance case is a combination of titanium and engraved steel – a more recent Louis Moinet hallmark. “We’ve developed the engraving on our cases into an art form in its own right to adorn some of our finest limited editions. This is the first time that one of our ladies’ watches has featured these engravings on the case.” And in a final distinctive touch, each of the lugs to hold the strap is topped by a diamond – another first for Louis Moinet, and probably a first in watchmaking, too.
Ateliers Louis Moinet was founded in Saint-Blaise, Neuchâtel, in 2004. The fully-independent firm was established to honour the memory of Louis Moinet (1768-1853): master watchmaker, inventor of the chronograph in 1816 (certified by Guinness World RecordsTM), and pioneer in the use of very high frequencies (216,000 vibrations per hour). Louis Moinet was a watchmaker, scholar, painter, sculptor, and teacher at the School of Fine Arts – as well as the author of Traité d’Horlogerie, a watchmaking treatise published in 1848 that remained a definitive work of reference for almost a century.
Today, Ateliers Louis Moinet is perpetuating this legacy. The firm’s timepieces, produced in limited editions only, have won some of the most coveted honours, including a Red Dot Design Award (Best of the Best category), gold and bronze medals in the Chronometry Competition, a Robb Report “Best of the Best” award, a “Chronograph of the year” distinction from Begin magazine, Japan, and a recent UNESCO Award of Merit. Louis Moinet creations often make use of unusual materials, such as fossils and meteorites, combined with bespoke fine watchmaking complications in a unique creative approach. The brand’s core values are creativity, exclusivity, art and design.