How does the retrograde display complicate the exercise of ensuring accuracy?
The impact on the accuracy itself is less important than the complexity of the movement construction. The retrograde display on the Patrimony, for example, implies an additional plate compared to a date display, which is a module integrated into the caliber. In addition, it is worth highlighting the complexity of the passage from one day to the next, which is usually done between 9 pm and midnight, whereas this time range is reduced to 59 minutes on our retrograde date, which makes the mechanism more complex. Coming back to precision, our entire Watches and Wonders retrograde trilogy bears the Hallmark of Geneva and is expected to display a mere +/- 1 minute rate deviation every 7 days.
What are the aesthetic constraints generally relating to this indication?
The aesthetic challenge has indeed led to numerous constraints in the design of these models. In the case of the Overseas, a very sporty model, this display had to be integrated on the upper part of an already quite busy dial. Moreover, how was it possible to comply with the collection’s identity codes while endowing it with a function that is somewhat traditional and classic? We worked on three elements, starting with the chapter, which usually features very prominent hour-markers enhanced with Super- LumiNova. We had to shorten them to make them lighter, while also maintaining a similarity around the entire dial. Then, on the inner bezel ring normally bearing a minutes circle in somewhat white tones, the effect was softened with gray to achieve greater harmony. Finally, on the outer minutes track, the markings appear in a soft and delicate tone-on-tone blue shade true to the iconic hue of the Overseas blue lacquered dial.
You have chosen a very modern approach on the most complicated of the trilogy, why?
Since the introduction of the Twin Beat in 2019, there has indeed been a strengthening of the Traditionnelle collection’s contemporary identity. We wanted to continue instilling modernity from a design perspective, while maintaining and preserving the traditional codes and high complication functions. Twin Beat had already taken a first step towards this modernity with its gray tones, the NAC anthracite surface treatment of its caliber and its sapphire dial incorporating a hand-engraved gold baseplate. These aesthetic features have been applied to our Traditionnelle Retrograde Tourbillon, which has gone even further: the upper plate of the caliber – also in gold – has been hand-guilloched to match the upper part of the dial. Complexity and modernity are thus interpreted with a blend of elegance and tradition.
