In the wake of its perpetual calendar, Blancpain is delighted to adorn its Villeret Extraplate, Quantième Complet, Quantième Phases de Lune and Tourbillon Carrousel models with its much-loved sunburst green dial, inspired by the Vallée de Joux fir trees surrounding the Manufacture in Le Brassus. From resolutely understated to highly technically complicated models, Blancpain further enhances the resonance of its history by continuing to implant this valley’s forests in its collection.
Synonymous with timeless elegance, the Villeret collection is characterised by the purity of its design and the technical sophistication of its movements. Highlighting the natural world around us, Blancpain unveils new timepieces in this collection attired in splendid shades of green, whose contrast with the 18 ct red gold of the characteristic double-stepped cases is captivating. These subtly combined mechanical and aesthetic characteristics make for exceptional timepieces.
Villeret Quantième Phases de Lune
Graced with Blancpain‘s famous moon phase, the Villeret Quantième Phases de Lune radiates a poetic aura. Featuring a beauty spot (referred to in French as a mouche for its similarity to a fly) at the corner of its mouth along with closed eyelids framed by long eyelashes, the Brand’s feminine moon phase appears attired in all its beauty to enliven this timepiece. This benevolent face attunes the watch with lunar cycles, along with a date ring and a moon crescent-shaped hand. In a further nod to the starry sky, the dial and case are lit up by almost 1 ct of brilliant-cut diamonds, not forgetting the dainty sunburst pattern adorning the new green dial, whose soothing colour is picked up on the strap. This timepiece thus shines in radiant beauty both day and night. Embodying a concentrated blend of mechanical expertise, this creation houses the secure 913QL.P self-winding movement in a 33.20 mm 18 ct red gold case.
Villeret Extraplate
Elegantly understated, the Villeret Extraplate focuses on essential time indications (hours, minutes and seconds) while simply adding the date, leaving ample room to contemplate its new dial in a comforting green colour. This self-winding timepiece with its pared-down design reflects the DNA of the Villeret collection, its minimalist appearance belying the complexity hidden beneath the dial. Driven by ultra-thin Calibre 1151 (measuring a mere 3.37 mm), this timepiece with its 40 mm 18 ct red gold case is just 8.70 mm thick. Despite this remarkable thinness, the Villeret Extraplate has a substantial power reserve of 100 hours ensured by its twin series-coupled barrels.
Villeret Quantième Complet
Harmoniously associating a complete calendar with a moon-phase display, the Villeret Quantième Complet is a mechanical marvel. This 40 mm 18 ct red gold timepiece indicating the date, day of the week and month through a date ring and two dedicated apertures is carefully proportioned to ensure optimum visual balance and reading comfort. The contrast between the new dial in a subtle shade of green and the red gold hands and hour-markers makes the information even easier to read, while adding unique warmth. To protect the complex calendar mechanism, Calibre 6654 is secured so as to enable the wearer to adjust the calendar indications whenever they wish, using Blancpain’s patented under-lug correctors that can be operated simply at the press of a finger.
Villeret Tourbillon Carrousel
The tourbillon and the carrousel (also spelled karussel) are among the great achievements aimed at reducing the effects of Earth’s gravity on a movement’s operation. Presented as a world first in 2013, the Villeret Tourbillon Carrousel demonstrated Blancpain’s ability to create extremely complex mechanical masterpieces by combining these two regulators in a wristwatch by means of Calibre 2322: a flying tourbillon at 12 o’clock and a flying carrousel at 6 o’clock, along with a date display at 3 o’clock. Featuring two independently rotating carriages linked by a differential that transmits the average rate of the two regulators to the time display, this watch has an external winding crown enabling the two barrels to be wound simultaneously, while guaranteeing equal winding. This endows the model with admirable precision and a seven-day power reserve, indicated by a display visible through the sapphire crystal case back.
This year, the Villeret Tourbillon Carrousel returns in a new guise, with a 44.6 mm 18 ct red gold case framing a dial in a dainty sunburst green shade that is as understated as it is sophisticated.
Villeret: timeless elegance and an eminently technical nature
Blancpain’s native village lends its name to the Brand’s most classic collection. Rooted in tradition yet looking firmly to the future, Villeret models personify the roots of the Manufacture and are distinguished by their restrained, pure lines endowing them with timeless elegance. With its iconic double-stepped case, the Villeret collection incorporates the results of Blancpain’s recent research into its movements, such as the under-lug correctors also found on the Quantième Complet timepiece.
Moon phases: The face of Blancpain
Reintroduced by Blancpain in 1983 in the wake of the quartz crisis, this complication that is now a signature of the Manufacture in Le Brassus enabled the Maison to demonstrate that a mechanical timepiece testified to extraordinary expertise and that quartz could never replace a complex mechanical watchmaking creation. It thus came to symbolise the revival of mechanical watchmaking. Blancpain’s immediately recognisable moon phase graces the Villeret Quantième Phases de Lune and Quantième Complet models, each of which features a secure movement enabling the wearer to adjust the calendar indications at any time of day without damaging it.
Blancpain: The Master of Calendars
As key components of the Manufacture’s DNA, calendars demonstrate Blancpain’s expertise in complications. The complete calendar made a strong comeback after the quartz crisis and in 1983 heralded a succession of timepieces equipped with calendar indications. Whether in the form of a weekly calendar, a simple date display, an annual calendar or a perpetual calendar, the Brand’s ability to create calendars culminated in the extremely complex creation of two world firsts: the Villeret Equation du Temps Marchante and the Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel. Frequently featured within the Manufacture’s catalogue in the Villeret, Ladybird and Fifty Fathoms collections, calendar mechanisms consolidate Blancpain’s stature as the Master of Calendars.
The silicon revolution
Silicon has revolutionised watchmaking since the beginning of the 21st century and enabled major advances in time measurement. Elastic without deforming, hard, light and highly resistant to corrosion, this material notably stands for its resistance to magnetism, a welcome quality when it comes to ensuring timepiece precision.
Featuring balance springs fitted with this technology, the new Villeret models not only proudly showcase their unique movement construction and high-quality finishes through their transparent case backs, but also deliver superior timekeeping performance thanks to this material.
Counteracting gravity: tourbillon versus carrousel
The tourbillon and the carrousel are veritable mechanical feats designed to reduce the effects of Earth’s gravity on a movement’s operation. By reviving the carrousel and offering it new prospects, the Manufacture in Le Brassus effectively redefined it. It is an alternative to the tourbillon yet differs in the way it performs this function. While these two systems serve the same purpose, they are based on distinct construction principles. In the case of the tourbillon, the carriage is linked to the barrel by a single gear train, meaning that if this mechanical connection is interrupted, the tourbillon also stops turning. Meanwhile, the carrousel is linked to the barrel by two gear trains. The first supplies the energy required to operate the escapement, while the second controls the carriage’s speed of rotation. The difference between the two systems is that the carrousel is more elaborately designed and has more components. The cohabitation of these two regulators therefore represents a real challenge taken up – for the first time in watchmaking history – by Blancpain in 2013.
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