Greubel Forsey: Art Piece Edition Historique

Following on from previous Art Pieces, the new Greubel Forsey Art Piece Edition Historique houses within its 44mm diameter case a new movement with a variation on the theme of the Double Tourbillon 30°: a mechanism designed to enable the balance wheel to oscillate consistently in all planes ensuring maximum precision. The new 475-part hand-wound movement boasts a 72-hour power reserve with optimal chronometric performance, ensured by two series-coupled fast rotating barrels.

The most eye-catching aspect of all is the multi-level construction that opens up whole new vistas. The gaze is first drawn to the Double Tourbillon 30° set against a royal blue background, with the flat black polished bridge and hand-bevelled and open-worked cage pillars. It is a veritable sculpture in motion, with its inner tourbillon inclined at a 30° angle performing one rotation per minute and its outer tourbillon completing a revolution in four minutes. The small seconds dial is positioned on the same level, between 10 and 11 o’clock. Lifted onto a significantly higher plane, the power-reserve indication bears large Arabic numerals and a blued steel hand. Higher still, at 2 o’clock, the offset hours/minutes subdial has been replaced with a daring titanium dome featuring a hand-punched background entirely engraved with the finely polished Greubel Forsey key values. The hours are displayed by a red hand on a separate rotating ring, while the minutes appear on request through an aperture thanks to a simple press on the crown-fitted pusher.

The caseback also offers a most original design, a rear view of the Double Tourbillon 30° surrounded by the barrel bridge where one can admire the jewels in gold chatons and the hand-polished countersinks, completed by the relief-engraved signatures of Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey.