“The Turbine has become our flagship model since its launch in 2009. It quickly established itself in the watchmaking world as a decidedly different, sophisticated and instantly recognisable model thanks to its unique design and positioning. We had been looking for some time to develop a complication and to thus expand our Turbine collection by pointing it in an even more “horological” direction. The chronograph was thus an obvious choice. And this is just the beginning!”
It is in these words that David Sanchez, Product Director, Perrelet, sums up the path the brand plans to pursue. With its new Turbine Chronograph, Perrelet is entering the segment of complicated watches, while enriching it with its famous rotor. Housed in a new-format 47 mm case, mid-way between the customary 44 and 50 mm sizes, this watch comprises 12 titanium blades topped by a sapphire disc rotating to indicate the elapsed minutes.
This new timepiece from Perrelet is thus clearly all about movement and rotation. This unconventional display mode is based on a module developed with Dubois Dépraz and which indicates the minutes and seconds, but not the hours. It took a full year of development to fine-tune this complication. The model will be available in five steel and/or pink gold versions, with the entry models starting at 6,000 euros.
New Perrelet Tourbillon
The brand’s second complicated model, this ‘Turbillon’ combines a traditional 60-second tourbillon with a turbine composed of ten sapphire propeller blades. Representing a new feature for Perrelet, the turbine is thus translucent so as to reveal the full splendour of the tourbillon placed at 12 o’clock. Within a 46 mm case, the model reflects the brand’s traditional design codes: integrated crown, polished steel, Arabic numerals and triangular luminescent hands.
“This unusual combination of a finely crafted tourbillon movement and a turbine gives rise to a truly exclusive timepiece. Perrelet thereby demonstrates not only its watchmaking expertise, but also its unique product positioning”, points out David Sanchez.
With these two new models, Perrelet successfully manages to preserve its playful and unconventional dynamic, while entering the field of top-flight horological complications. This daring approach was nonetheless widely anticipated among industry observers who believed the brand would naturally leverage the industrial capacities of the Festina group to which Perrelet belongs. Time will tell whether it will continue moving towards traditional Fine Watchmaking, or will instead opt, as it has always done, to pop up where it is least expected.
