1 L’EPEE 1839 – the premier clock manufacture in Switzerland For over 175 years, L'Epée has been at the forefront of watch and clock making. Today, it is the only specialised manufacture in Switzerland dedicated to making high-end clocks. L'Epée was founded in 1839, initially to make music box and watch components, by Auguste L’Epée who set up the business near Besançon, France. The L’Epée hallmark was that all parts were made entirely by hand. From 1850 onwards, the manufacture became a leading light in the production of ‘platform’ escapements, creating regulators especially for alarm clocks, table clocks and musical watches. By 1877, it was making 24,000 platform escapements annually. The manufacture became a well-known specialist owning a large number of patents on special escapements such as anti-knocking, auto-starting and constant-force escapements and the chief supplier of escapements to several celebrated watchmakers of the day. L'Epée has won a number of gold awards at International Exhibitions. During the 20th century, L'Epée owed much of its reputation to its superlative carriage clocks and, for many, L'Epée was the clock of the influential and powerful; it was also the gift of choice by French government officials to elite guests. In 1976 when the Concorde supersonic aircraft entered commercial service, L'Epée wall clocks were chosen to furnish the cabins, providing passengers with visual feedback of the time. In 1994, L'Epée showed its thirst for a challenge when it built the world's biggest clock with compensated pendulum, the Giant Regulator. At 2.2m high, it weighs 1.2 tons – the mechanical movement alone weighs 120kg – and required 2,800 man-hours of work. L'Epée is now based in Delémont in the Swiss Jura Mountains. Under the guidance of CEO Arnaud Nicolas, L’Epée 1839 has developed an exceptional table clock collection, encompassing a range of sophisticated classic carriage clocks, contemporary design clocks (Le Duel), avant-garde, minimalist clocks (La Tour) and futuristic technical high end design clock (Starfleet). L’Epée clocks feature complications including retrograde seconds, power reserve indicators, perpetual calendars, tourbillons and striking mechanisms – all designed and manufactured in-house. Ultra-long power reserves have become a signature of the brand as well as superlative fine finishing. 2 Foundation 1839 L'Epée was created in Sainte-Suzanne by Auguste l'Epée on August 1st 1839. Acquisition of the building called "La Ferme du Prince" in Sainte-Suzanne - France 3 From 1850, L’Epée becomes the reference for escapement Milestones : 1850 : Launch of the production of «platform escapements» 1857 : Patent for platform escapements 1877 : Production reaches 24’000 platform escapements 1889 : Annual Production reaches 200’000 platform escapements « Force constante » « Anti-rebattement » « Auto-démarrant » 4 History L’Epée Manufacture received prestigious Gold Awards at various International Exhibitions all around the world : 1889 : Paris 1892 : Vienne 1900 : Paris 1902 : Hanoi In 1976, L'Epée is the unique horological brand In 1994 : L’Epée creates The Giant Regulator to have equiped a superfonic fleet : Registered in the Guiness Book The Concorde 5 Nowadays L’Epée 1839 is part of the Swiza group Integrated manufacturer Specialized in high quality clocks: SWIZA SA Manufacture SWIZA SA Manufacture is the Swiss Clock leader Design, Development and Production are made in-house 6 It’s not about time, it’s about Art. Time has change, now people are looking into clocks not anymore as a timepiece but as an object, a piece of art that is giving a personal touch in their environment. 7 Collection 8 Two Hands 10.2014/001 9 Two Hands 10.2014/101 10 In 2014, to celebrate its 175th anniversary the brand has developed a timepiece that suggests many interrogations. It was time for the manufacture to come back to its history and origins by redeveloping an extraordinary escapement: A Tourbillon. A special Tourbillon had to be made and what a better collaboration than with Vincent Calabrese, a well known figure of the Horology world. The challenge for the teams was to create an exceptional timepiece. Thanks to the dimension, to the design, to the material, to the ideas of Vincent Calabrese and to the dexterity of L’Epée 1839 team, Two Hands was born. The most surprising complication, the tourbillon comes and takes place in the middle of this piece of art. It becomes flying, and stands proudly on the middle of the Turbine shape inspired design. The movement, designed by Vincent Calabrese, includes a double tourbillon. As the movement is rotating on the single axis carrying a fixed center-wheel, the movement is embedded on top of the minute hand, it fulfill the full definition of Abraham Louis Breguet’s Tourbillion. The escapement, fitted on the exterior part of the minute hand upon the extension of the escapement wheel pinion, operates in tourbillon with a period of 60 seconds. The tourbillon is flying as its mobile parts are fitted on bearing without upper-bridge. All of this to make Two Hands fly over gravity and explore the basics of the tourbillon. Say good bye to the biggest force applied on earth, and welcome perfection, a movement that cancels gravity effect. Two hands was fully crafted by L’Epée 1839, Switzerland's only remaining specialised high-end clock manufacture, founded in 1839. The highly visible, superlatively finished in-house movement boasts an exceptional power reserve of 40 days with only one small barrel. 11 Hours and minutes hands are as usual used to indicate time but here it is also the main plate for the Tourbillon. The details of the finishing parts of the movement can be fully appreciated by the naked eye. The Full concept of a Flying Tourbillion can be admire and also easily understood by everyone as none of the subtle parts are hidden. This clock therefore threats observers to a fascinating visual full animation display. Almost every component of the superlatively finished palladium (or gold, depending on the chosen configuration) treated brass movement is designed and manufactured at L’Epée’s Swiss manufacture. The gears and mainspring barrels are on full display thanks to the skeletonised “Aerospace Turbine” inspired design dial and to the minute’s hands showing all the parts of the regulation of the clocks. When conceiving The “Two hands” housing, CEO Arnaud Nicolas and Designer Christian Chabloz set out a new reference to where no clock manufacturer had gone before, manufacturing an exceptional timepiece with 35 Kg of titanium. And as this was not enough, the shape is round and enamel! Two hands is limited to 2 unique pieces ; one in massive Titanium Grade 5 and one in massive brass gold plated. 12 13 The Sphere “When KnowHow becomes art”: No better motto will fit what had been realized by the L’Epée team. With this housing, L’Epée’s team pushes forward the limit of a masterpiece. Several challenges had been solve to manufacture this exceptional housing. The First but not the least was, for the black and white configuration, to be able to manufacture a sphere resulting of 35 kg of massive Titanium. To push to the extreme the link between design and material, the raw material used to manufacture the housing is identical to the one used in Aerospace industry: Titanium Grade 5. A unique dressing was also designed and, to be able to machining it on top of the sphere, not less than 2 millions of computer lines made by a specialist, resulting in more than 50 hours of grounding on a 5 axes CNC machine, was required. As it is an anniversary piece, the link with the past had to be visible in the movement but also in the housing, so the choice of enamel was taken. This was the biggest challenges for the l’Epée team. The design of the housing is composed of 212 leaves and 167 characters. So, 379 pockets of different size, going form 0.38 mm2 for the smaller one to 780 mm2 for the biggest one, had to be enamel on a unique round surface. The sphere shape was a huge constrains but it was one of the key code for this anniversary piece. History is always a cycle and what a better representation than a perfect sphere! The base is also in Titanium and had to be as simple as possible. Everything is in top of it! The L’Epée team wanted to have a clock that the owner can enjoy and despite the weight it had to be easily handled. To ease the discovery, to align the dial opening to its desk or to enjoy it from its sofa, the owner can easily turn it; thanks to the free rotation on its pedestal. 14 The Dial A Contemporary guilloché dial plated with All -Black associated with curved arms reveals the back side of the movement. Nothing is hidden, everything is shown in this turbine like dial. 3 main-plates composed the movement. The first one and the second one have this wave shape that gives a sensation of movement to the clock. The last one is placed on the back of the movement to add some kind of deepness of infinity. The deepness of the space into which the movement is flying. The Vincent Calabrese and L’Epée 1839 Signatures are engraved respectively at 3h00 and 9h00 to underline the 3 and 9 of 1939, date of foundation of L’Epée. The 12 numbers are sun satined finish to highlight the dial contrast and to re-enforced the turning effect. Like in a vortex, everything seems to come out from the center.