FOR ETERNAL TIMES For almost 500 years the most important watches show more than only hours and minutes. Welcome to our cabinet-exhibiton Out of the blue: Out of the blue: The renaissance of mechanical watches in 1978 The renaissance of When quartz watches were on top of their triumphal procession in mechanical watches in 1978 1978, the family business Audemars Piguet launched a pair of wat- ches which was equal to a revolution: The Quantième Perpetuel, a
wrist watch and a pocket watch with perpetual calendar – centirely
mechanical. This watch-concept which came almost out of the blue
in 1978 was the birth of
the renaissance of mecha-
nical watches. The follow-
ing results are noticeable
until today. We show both
original watches in our
cabinet-exhibition: The po-
cket watch owns the No. 111, this watch is a sign for the third revo-
lution of chronometry – and at the same time it is Benjamin Freisfelds For almost 500 years the most important watches show more personal watch, a sign for the third generation that follows watchma- than only hours and minutes. Welcome to our cabinet-exhibiton ker Josef Freisfeld in the field of jewellers. The magical Audemars Piguets wrist watch became an icon of the mechanical calibre 2120 and renaissance. It hides under the perpetual calendar the same basic the role model from 1925 movement as the Royal Oak from 1972, the famous automatic mo- vement Cal. 2120 with outlying rotor which works on moving ruby
balls. True connoisseurs identify this movement only by the sound of
its winding. It is built until today and it is probably one of the thinnest
and most valuable move-
ments of Swiss Haute Hor-
logerie. Just like the Royal
Oak, the Quantième Per-
petuel defined the step to-
wards a new price range
for precious, handmade
watches. We managed to acquire exactly that watch by Audemars
Piguet from the year 1925 which was the role model for the perpetu- For almost 500 years the most important watches show more al calendar pair from 1978. We show the original piece: a valuable than only hours and minutes. Welcome to our cabinet-exhibiton rarity in white gold and pink gold, unbelievably thin and in an excel-
lent condition. Between heaven It is more than just a coincidence that the same basic movement, and earth: the famous Cal. 2120, is also found in one watch which set the Vacheron’s skeleton watch from 2009 standard for the best perpetual calendar watches since 2009: the openworked skeleton Quantième Perpetual, part of the Patrimony
Traditionelle collection by Vacheron Constantin. Traditionally Aude-
mars Piguet provides Vacheron Constantin with this basic movement
but the “kadratur” as well
as the masterly openwor-
ked movement and the
decoration following the
rules of the Hallmark of
Geneva are produced by
Vacheron Constantin itself.
This watch shows clearly the closeness to the concept of time from
watchmakers of the famous cathedral watch in Münster from 1540: For almost 500 years the most important watches show more the connection of sky and skeleton in a general view – an allegory than only hours and minutes. Welcome to our cabinet-exhibiton for the passing and the beauty of time at once. The time period of
men – a grand moment between heaven and earth… Blancpain. In 1981 Blancpain picked up what Audemars Piguet began in 1978: Moonstruck since The idea of “Six Masterpieces” by Jean-Claude Biver was the spiri- 1735. And with the right spirit for grand tual and technical framework for the mechanical renaissance. These complications. watches initiated the third revolution of mechanical chronometry: Re- leased by the force of exact timing, autonomic concepts for indepen-
dent time measurement were developed. Those concepts used new
possibilites of minimisation
and became designs for a
long future. The moon sed-
uced Blancpain to further
complications: A perpe-
tual calendar with “Repé-
titon minutes” as well as
worldwide the first automatic rattrapante chronograph with perpetu-
al calendar – eternal, everlasting and extremely fast at the same time For almost 500 years the most important watches show more – were proud self-developments during the 80s. Pieces for a museum than only hours and minutes. Welcome to our cabinet-exhibiton which marked the turning point of time. Eternal and endless: We show two watches from Blancpain’s current work which are fur- The Equation and the ther milestones of perpetual calendars: In 2004 Blancpain created charme of simplicity. with the “Équation Marchante” a combination of perpetual calen-
dar and equation of time. This watch can be seen as the seventh
masterpiece. It consideres the discrepancy between true solar time
and general time measurement. The Villeret collection presented
another slight sensation
three years later: The per-
petual calendar has the
possibilty to be adjusted
by a simple push under
the “clamps”. The inner
complexity is reflected by
the outer appearance which provokes a stunning, simple effect. For
the 275th anniversary Blancpain created a moon calendar with an For almost 500 years the most important watches show more 8-day-movement which can also be seen as a document for the hi- than only hours and minutes. Welcome to our cabinet-exhibiton story of time: It can be adjusted in every direction around the clock
– the most user-optimised watch of present time. A planet rotor and an The impulse for rediscovering mechanical complications didn’t stop at homage to the planets: Patek Philippe. The Swiss manufacturer remembered its own heritage Patek Philippe’s perpetual calendar a little bit delayed in 1985 and presented a perpetual calendar Ref. 3940 in the pure, technical style from the 1950s. A massive golden
planet rotor swings in the Cal. 240 Q on which a flat constructed ca-
lender was built. This watch became the source for the renaissance
of mechanical watches at
Patek Philippe. That same
model remained unchan-
ged in the collection for
almost twenty years. In
2006 the same movement
received a case in a con-
temporary size as Ref. 5140. The step-up of this models used the
Breguet-Lemania chronograph movement: Patek’s Ref. 3970 with a For almost 500 years the most important watches show more combination of perpetual calendar and chronograph is a dream for than only hours and minutes. Welcome to our cabinet-exhibiton every collector. La Grande Maison During the first decade of the 21st century, Jaeger-LeCoultre mana- Jaeger-LeCoultre: ged to realize the most important developments of watchmaking in Pioneers on the art of watchmaking watches with extraordinary complexity. A highlight from the manuf- acturer is the Grande Tradition Tourbillon which combines a perpe-
tual calendar with the most precise tourbillon worldwide – a great
masterpiece. Another rarity for collectors is the only Reverso which
was ever built with a per-
petual calendar: In 2000
Jaeger-LeCoultre made
it possible to put date
and moon on the back
of the watch - with a re-
trograde date indication.
Combining the masterpieces with the Reverso case is an homage to
Blancpains Masterpieces from the 80s – another pioneer of Swiss For almost 500 years the most important watches show more watchmaking. Jaeger-LeCoultre’s innovations count as a benchmark than only hours and minutes. Welcome to our cabinet-exhibiton for all possibilities in watchmaking at the moment. Kurt Klaus and Younger history of perpetual calenders is closely attached to one IWCs Da Vinci name: Master craftsman Kurt Klaus produced the Da Vinci for IWC
in the mid-80s – and he calculated it manually without any help from
computers. He took a simple Valjoux’ chronograph-basic movement
with a high energy rate and put the perpetual calendar with a new
technique on top of it, adjustable only through the winding button.
This watch with a very fair
price was the key piece
for a worldwide distribu-
tion of complicated wat-
ches. We show the last
model with this movement
in the new Da Vinci case
which bears an engraving of Kurt Klaus’ face. Another sensation from
2009: the perpetual calendar with digital date and an IWC-specific For almost 500 years the most important watches show more chronograph-movement which showed hours and minutes analog. In than only hours and minutes. Welcome to our cabinet-exhibiton platinum as a limited edition. A kind of different feeling of eternity:
beyond a moon indicator… FOR ETERNAL Traditionell der Zeit voraus. TIMES
HAMBURG · NEUER WALL 18 · INH. FREISFELD · T. 040 346103