Classic Tourbillon Double Spiral
Some secrets are best shared: due to requests from customers and collectors eager to savour the view of the Galet Classic Tourbillon’s spectacle not only from the movement but also from the dial, Laurent Ferrier worked on a unusual view of the tourbillon itself, visible from the bottom cage. For Laurent Ferrier, it was a challenge because he always strives to be consistent in both his horological values and aesthetic codes.
To further showcase the raison d’être of the Galet Classic Dual, the task was to offer this view through the dial side, with the tourbillon remaining in its initial position. By turning around the tourbillon mechanism, we found that a new look has resulted, providing an unusual take on the most elegant of watch features.
And yet it is a truly subtle exposé, one to be appreciated by connoisseurs of tourbillons. A tourbillon’s mechanical ballet is too beautiful to be hidden away, as our clients have advised us. Equally, it is too precious, too rare a creation to be presented in any manner other than one of understated grace.
For Laurent Ferrier, the only way to achieve this goal was to keep the original design intact, while creating a space to unveil the tourbillon cage from the dial-side. Through insisting that the tourbillon remain in its initial position, he was able to create a subtle and elegant version that aspired to greater transparency. This demanded a specifically-developed bridge with two arms supporting the regulating organ. This part has such a singular shape, combined with a strong functional role that it is extremely difficult to finish: this tiny component features vertical satin-brushing, shot-blasting and hand-polishing of the sink and angles.
In a Galet Classic, the finishing on the tourbillon cage takes up to fifteen hours just for the bottom cage bridge because of the seventeen interior angles. With this new version, the decoration achievement is seen from the two sides so the interior angles are decorated on both sides. The cage, too, is extremely light and thin, providing the quest for greater transparency with another opportunity to better reveal the technicality and the high standard of decoration of the tourbillon. It achieves this by increasing the mount of space and light for the regulating organ.
To provide a perfect presentation of this most noble of horological feats, the Galet Classic Dual is encased in a white gold housing, of a comfortable 41mm diameter. This surrounds a dial with its circular satin-brushed chapter ring and its sole numeral – a Roman XII – in a raised, powdered silver-toned grey transfer. Delicate is the contrast between the chapter ring and the silver-toned vertical satin-brushed finish in the center, accented further by a railway minutes track painted in slate grey.
Indicating the time are Assegai-shaped white gold hands with a ruthenium treatment, standing proud against a light background. The tourbillon, this magnificent timepiece’s raison d’être, enjoys pride-of-place in an aperture at the six o’clock position. A sculpted arc draws the eye to the tourbillon.
Attaching the Galet Classic Dual to the wrist is a blue alligator leather strap with Alcantara lining. This is secured by a pin buckle or a double-blade folding clasp in 18K white gold.
