BASELWORLD 2017: Blancpain presents an appealing new week of the year, large date, and day of the week model
BASELWORLD 2017: Blancpain presents an appealing new week of the year, large date, and day of the week model
The Villeret collection welcomes a new timepiece offering a blend of horological complications and re ned aesthetics.
Blancpain continually and subtly enriches the Villeret line so as to preserve its timeless elegance. This newest piece with its pure lines, full red enamel dial and double-stepped bezel is no exception to the rule. In harmony with these aesthetic codes, the chapter ring and Blancpain logo are enamel-painted, a decorative technique requiring many successive oven rings at an extremely high temperature of more than 800° Celsius.
This latest creation from the Manufacture offers a large twin-aperture date display, along with a week of the year indication showing the number of the week around the rim of its dial with a traditional blued serpentine hand. To ensure visual balance as well as enhanced readability, the day of the week is also displayed with a blued hand on a subdial in the 9 o’clock position. The change of the week of the year takes place with the transition from Sunday and Monday. The numbering from 1-53 is a reminder that certain years comprise 53 weeks according to of cial calendars. The red gold 42mm case is equipped with Blancpain’s patented under-lug correctors that are entirely out of view when the watch is worn, thereby accentuating the Manufacture’s goal of achieving the purest and most aesthetically pleasing possible case design. This system also enables the owner of this timepiece to adjust the indications with a nger tip, thus avoiding the need for a stylus tool. The corrector at 11 o’clock serves to modify the day of the week; while its counterpart at 1 o’clock controls the week of the year. The large date is set via the crown.
This Blancpain timepiece is powered by Caliber 3738G2, a 378-part self-winding movement. It is equipped with three mainspring barrels guaranteeing an 8-day power reserve, as well as a titanium variable-inertia balance with gold micrometric regulation screws and a balance spring in silicon. This material recently introduced within the watch industry offers several important advantages. Firstly, its low density makes it lighter and thus more shock-resistant. In addition, it is impervious to magnetic elds. The resulting balance spring is ideally shaped, thereby ensuring improved isochronism performance of the movement, which in turn leads to enhanced timekeeping precision.
The sapphire case back provides a clear view of the nely hand- nished movement and the gold winding rotor with its honeycomb guilloché pattern. This new creation combining innovation and watchmaking tradition is offered with a hand-stitched chocolate-colored alligator strap.