Blancpain Saint Valentin White Mother of Pearl Dial Ladies Watch 3400-4554-58B

Lettres du Brassus - N° 11

 
 
The watch industry has witnessed a progression of sorts, one, which as it has advanced has seemingly wiped the past from our memories. So a bit of refreshment is in order. There was a time, not that long ago, when closed case backs were the norm for wristwatches. Not just diving watches, mind you, where antimagnetic shielding in the form of an inner soft iron case mandates, or better said, makes irrelevant, a closed case back, but essentially all watches. Under sway of this practice shrouding the vital mechanicals in mystery, cloaked by a case back which only a trained watchmaker dared remove, watch owners were left simply to imagine and guess at the appearance of their movements.
For decades, with only rare exceptions, this was the norm. Certainly brands were left free to talk about their movements, even wax poetic about them in catalogs, but as for even a sneak peek, not a chance. Blancpain was no exception. Although owners knew from the catalog that all of Blancpain's movements were hand finished with finely applied côtes de Geneve, anglage, and perlage decorations, how those appeared was reserved for essentially two professionals, the watchmaker who assembled the watch and the watchmaker who might later service it. Even among connoisseurs, there was little debate, much less even the most passing discussion, about the qualities of movement finishing because nobody could see it.

Today, the very practice of closing off from view the precious movements that lie at the core of haut de gamme watchmaking seems as remote and obscure (really was there such a thing as a solid case back?) as the view of movements was during the previous reign. Bursting onto the scene starting in the early 90's came the clear case back not just as an oddity, but as a near universal standard. We take for granted that with only a very few exceptions, generally driven by a particularity of design such as diving watch shielding, that all wristwatches feature open backs. Blindfolds removed, we all can enjoy the pleasures of the architecture of the bridges, the fine hand fi nishes, decoration of winding rotors, and, of course, the constant motion of the balance wheel and escapement. Through today's lens the earlier era now seems almost prehistoric.
As satisfying as this evolution from closed to open case backs may seem, there is a bit of a rub. All of the visual glory of the movement is only present when the watch is not being worn! This then sets the stage for the next step in the evolution, the Villeret Mouvement Inverse, which offers no less than full view of the movement while the watch is on the wrist. And more.

The foundation of the Mouvement Inverse is Blancpain's legendary caliber 15 movement. The caliber 15 has a rich pedigree at Blancpain spanning three decades. Originally conceived as an ultra thin pocket watch movement, the caliber 15 has been reserved for only the most special timepieces in Blancpain's collection. After several years of slumber without new introductions utilizing it, the caliber 15 reappeared in Blancpain's Only Watch created for the muscular dystrophy charity auction in 2008. This ultra limited edition of but a single pocket watch timepiece fetched a spectacular price at the fi nal rap of the auction hammer in Monaco. More recently, the caliber 15 has been the metal canvas for the expression of the artistry of Blancpain's in-house engravers in the Le Brassus workshop. Indeed, Blancpain's Marie-Laure Tarbouriech triumphed in the French Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition with her engraving of the animals and birds of the Vallee de Joux on the bridges of the caliber 15. Since then, with the graceful arcs of its bridges furnishing an ideal backdrop, Blancpain has offered a highly limited series of engravings striking themes from different regions of the world in the Villeret Grande Decoration collection.
The Villeret Mouvement Inverse offers an entirely new personality of this legendary caliber. In order to present what is otherwise the back of the movement on the front of the watch, Blancpain had to reverse the axes for the hour and minute hands so that they would support the hands on the opposite side of the watch from "normal". Naturally, with the reversal of position, a gearing change was also required so that the hour and minute hands would rotate in the correct direction.

Attention then turned to the decoration of the movement bridges. Here inspiration was drawn from the traditional enamel dial technique known as (roughly translated as "raised field"). This centuries old dial decoration technique consists of carving out areas on the metallic surface of the dial, leaving intact ridges of material as the border for the carved "fields". Therefollowing, enamel is deposited in the field areas, bordered and defined by the ridges which had been left in place. The same principles were brought to bear on the decoration of Mouvement Inverse. Blancpain began with the movement bridges of the caliber 15. The center portion of the bridges has then been carved out, except for the outer rim, the name "Blancpain", and the indexes. Following the carving, the outer rim, "Blancpain", and indexes appear raised above the remaining surface of the bridges. Ceramic material is then deposited into the trough areas of the bridges. Careful processes of heating and cooling are required to ensure that the ceramic surface will be free of bubbles or blemishes. After curing, the ceramic field is then polished flat along with the metal rim and indexes. Every step of the method is extraordinarily delicate as the ceramic field is exceptionally thin (.25mm), roughly one third the traditional depth for the deposit of material in a process.
The Mouvement Inverse is offered in a 43mm white gold case with a choice of either black or white ceramic bridge decoration.