2013/06/14

Vianney HALTER the Deep Space Tourbillon

 

Considering this, Vianney Halter has imagined a wristwatch that would be likely to remind the man in space the four dimensions (length, height, breadth and time) that are his frame of reference while on Earth.

Rather than a scientific instrument, this watch is an philosophical artifact that maintains the link between the crew of a spacecraft and the mankind that has sent them as explorers and ambassadors.

The result of this reflexion is a wristwatch that not only displays the time, but also describes the motion in every dimension of space.

For outer space voyagers, Vianney Halter has created a triple axis central tourbillon watch that he calls DEEP SPACE TOURBILLON.

The First Contact
At first sight, Deep Space Tourbillon plunges you in a strangely familiar world : a mix of futuristic visions from Sci-Fi and present pictures from space exploration.

A sapphire dome surmounts a round shaped titanium case and houses a big triple axis tourbillon implemented in the centre of the watch.

The latter is surrounded by a index ring with a surprisingly classical “chemin de fer” graduation.

Two curved blued steel hands lean out of the watch periphery and spread above the tourbillon.

The whole is breathtaking, certainly, but the tourbillon in motion is mesmerizing.

The tourbillon cage - that contains the balance wheel, the anchor and the escape

wheel - rotates in only 40 sec. Here is the 1st axis.

It is installed inside a ultralight structure that rotates in 6 min around a 2nd axis which is perpendicular to the one of the tourbillon cage.

The whole set is suspended in a cradle that turns in the plane of the watch mainplate in 30 min. This is the 3rd axis.

Due to these desynchronized revolution speeds, the tourbillon moves in a never-ending ballet, showing second after second a different point of view onto the graceful mechanism.

Nothing chronometric in these various durations of revolutions. It is rather philosophical : each dimension (axis) has its own rhythm, its own time.

Time is represented by the hour and minutes hands which surround the triple axis tourbillon.

This achieves the 4-dimension-space representation envisionned and wanted by Vianney Halter for the deep space voyager.

Memories of a future time
A strange feeling emanates from this watch. A kind of déjà vu experience.

Subliminal images come in mind : Neil Armstrong’s helmet on July 1969, HAL 9000 enigmatic eye from “2001, a space odyssey”, the greenhouse domes from “Silent running”, the soviet Lunokhod automatic exploration module, the rotating antenna of Robby the Robot from “ Forbidden Planet”, the Deep Space 9 station from Star Trek .... and many others.

Nothing surprising as scientific matters as well as Sci Fi movies and novels are

Halter’s favourite universe and among his sources of inspiration.

However, Deep Space Tourbillon is not a servile copy of an accessory from the movie industry, or - worst - a indigestible mix of details harvested here, there and everywhere. It is rather a subtle potpourri made of the various cultural influences that Vianney Halter is sensitive to. These have been translated into a genuine timepiece, thanks to the experience, the rigour and the work of a genuine watchmaker.

Though quite different from his previous opus, Deep Space Tourbillon is not fully disconnected from these : one can see in the strap lugs a derivation of the ones of the Antiqua while the riveted winding crown is a stylistic link to the “Futur Antérieur” collection that was the founding stone of Les Montres Vianney Halter.

Definitely Deep Space Tourbillon is a Vianney Halter timepiece. Besides the Futur Antérieur Collection, its belongs to the Halter Tempus Collection that already counts in the Contemporaine, the Goldpfeil, the HW Opus 3 and the Satellarium.

“A fantastic trip beyond the infinite”
(credit : 2001, a space odyssey by Stanley Kubrick)

As Vianney Halter said in his speech when awarded 2011 Best Watchmaker-Designer at Le Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève : “Watchmaking is an exploration journey” He started his journey with the Antiqua, inspired by marine chronometers of the XVIIIth century. However, that was 15 years ago. 15 light-years far behind. Seven years after his last creation - the Classic Janvier Equation of Time and Lunar Cycle- Vianney Halter is back again.

His Deep Space Tourbillon is his new - and definitely not his last - contribution to the contemporary art of watchmaking.