JEAN DUNAND Orbital Tourbillon Dragon Pc.Unique for sale in North Miami Beach, Florida

$225,000

RETAIL $550,000.00
Never before has a wristwatch been conceived, designed and ultimately executed in such a manner. The first offering from the small Independent brand created by Christophe Claret & Thierry Oulevay, was the Orbital Tourbillon. Thierry Oulevay had recently and brilliantly masterminded the relaunch of the Bovet brand prior to selling it to Pascal Raffy, the current custodian. It was Oulevay who encouraged Claret to make this piece. This was one of those "Impossibilities", rather similar to Thomas Prescher's "Triple Axis Tourbillon". Many in the watchmaking world considered the Orbital Tourbillon concept, a non-starter.
Well that is a challenge readily taken up by the likes of Christophe Claret. He is a genius watchmaker, who has been "behind the scenes" for many years creating and executing many of the top complicated watches coming out of Switzerland. Initially happy to create in the background and allow all the glory to go to the watch brands he sub-contracted for, Claret finally wanted some recognition of his artistry. Technologically on a plane at the very top of what is horologically possible, this timepiece stands out as possibly his best feat yet!
I had the chance to get to know several of these extraordinary pieces of artistry over the past couple of weekends, and finally took some pictures. These creations from Jean Dunand are all unique, although sharing the same movement, the dial execution in each watch differs. This piece pictured has an amazing Dragon depicted in cloisonn enamel. This enamelling technique is when a tiny gold wire is soldered onto the base gold dial, in order to house different colored enamels, as in a checker board pattern for example. This allows the enameller to have bold differing colors right next to each other, as opposed to the colors blending during the firing process. here you can see with this dragon, the reds, yellow greens and blacks, distinctively representing the scales of the dragon.
So what does makes this movement extra-ordinary? First of all, having the tourbillon and main spring barrel rotate once an hour, means that a traditional winding stem cannot be used. Hence the need for a winding "key' on the back of the watch. A series of wheels are used for winding the barrel, and setting the hands is done through the center pinion, again with an elaborate series of gears and wheels. Secondly as the dial rotates under the hands with the appearance of a floating "Flying tourbillon" the need for a totally new design construction in order for this to work. Thirdly, the indicator showing the power reserve, executed in a "Gas Gauge" or "Empty/Full" design, which if you think about it, had to be really tricky to sort out, as the mainspring barrel is constantly in motion!


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