The 100% sapphire-crystal case of this watch allows to literally dive into the movement

 

Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon Légèreté by Speake-Marin, the watchmaking company specializing in high-end timepieces: The first Minute Repeater Carillon ever in a 100% sapphire case.

At this year’s SIHH 2019, Speake-Marin launched its new Haute Horlogerie masterpiece: the Minute Repeater Flying
Tourbillon “Légèreté”, the first Minute Repeater Carillon in the world assembled in a case which is fabricated in 100% sapphire crystal.

The new Speake-Marin Haute Horlogerie masterpiece is called “Légèreté”, which means “Lightness” in English, to highlight the sapphire-crystal case, which allows to literally dive into the movement from the top, the sides or the case back. The case is made up of three parts: the bezel, the case back and the middle section. The process by which the sapphire is made into a finished watch case is extraordinarily difficult, involving many hours of machining and polishing.

The most difficult part is the case finishing where one must avoid any scratches during manufacture: the case must be perfectly transparent.

At 6pm, you find the 60 seconds Flying Tourbillon, which is held by a cage shaped into the Speake-Marin symbol. This Flying Tourbillon gives the illusion that the watch is alive.

In addition, the movement conceals a Minute Repeater Carillon. When the slider on the left hand side is activated, the Minute Repeater Carillon starts to ring and launches the dial animation: the XII index disintegration.

From a technical point of view, it is interesting to note that there is a double safety module, which enables the setting of the time while the watch chimes thanks to the Carillon, and vice-versa. In addition, a regulator wheel regulates the Carillon speed… not too fast, not too slow… This wheel is almost silent so as not to distort the Carillon sound. The energy comes from a specific barrel dedicated to the Carillon and the dial animation so as not to disturb the watch chronometry.

Moreover, the hammers have been welded to a block which creates a sound box with the case to get a nice Carillon sound.

The Minute Repeater Carillon gives the time thanks to three hammers: one hammer for the hours, the three hammers all together for the quarters, one hammer for the minutes. Once the time is given by the 3 hammers, the XII Roman numeral comes back to its initial position.

All the surfaces of the Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon Légèreté are reworked, corrected and decorated. So, the Tourbillon at 6 o’clock features a hand-finished 60-second cage that can be fully appreciated through the display back when the tourbillon is over.

The lower tourbillon cage is supported by a striking paddle-shaped bridge offering clear visual access to the surrounding gears below. The bridges and main plate are circular-grained with polished screw heads and polished countersinks. The entire watch is engraved with words: on the casing girdle, on the sides and on the case back.