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Blancpain 1735, Grande Complication luxury watch

Price: $800,000 (582,000 EUR)

Blancpain 1735, Grande Complication luxury watch

Blancpain’s expert watchmakers devised a daunting challenge: merging their six earlier masterpieces into a single construction. For no other reason than the secret pleasure of outdoing themselves. Despite countless doubts and dead ends, talent and preservance ultimately got them there. After six years, against all odds, fulfillment was at finally hand. In homage to the year of foundation of the House of Blancpain, they called the new watch 1735. Almost magical in its intricacy, its movement’s original design comprises an impressive 740 parts and components.

Blancpain 1735, Grande Complication

A truly inspired achievement, the Blancpain 1735′s horological wizardry provides a rare and altogether convincing demonstration that, at least for the best watchmakers, impossibility is only relative.
The 1735 is the fruit of a year of loving labor by a single watchmaker. With its 740 individual hand-finished components, the 1735 remains the world’s most complicated automatic winding wristwatch produced in a series. The platinum case measures 42 mm, the strap is crocodile leather. Movement is the automatic Caliber 1735, with 950 platinum rotor and a power reserve of 80 hours.

Ulysse Nardin Genghis Khan

World’s first wristwatch featuring a Westminster chime

Ulysse Nardin Genghis Khan

Ulysse Nardin Genghis Khan

In 2002 Ulysse Nardin proudly presented a watch beyond all considerations of practicability, a piece of art more than a mere timepiece; the Genghis Khan, world’s first wristwatch featuring a Westminster chime with minute repeater, automatons and tourbillon.

Ulysse Nardin Genghis Khan

A dial made of massive onyx features four figures, meticulously chased from gold. The figures show Mongolian warriors, thus explaining the watch’s strange name, which remembers the founder of the largest empire in humankind’s history, Genghis Khan (born 1155, or 1162, or 1167; died 1227). Each time the Westminster chimes or the repeater is engaged, the figures are fighting with their characteristically curved swords or trying to catch a small ring with a spear, while riding a impressively crafted horse.

Ulysse Nardin Genghis Khan

All this is encased in 18k gold of 42 mm diameter, and in spite of its repeater activation slider it is watertight down to 30 meters.

Ulysse Nardin Genghis Khan

The visible one minute Tourbillon is integrated into the aventurine dial. Opaque or translucent, containing crystals that were engendered by fire in molten glass, aventurine scintillates, subtyl flecked with all possible shades of red, yellow and grey. Forged by human hands, often compared to the philoshopher’s stone, aventurine contains the secrets of the master jeweler’s aclchemy.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Grande Complication-most expensive timepiece

Audemars Piguet is another manufacturer of expensive Swiss watches. Tradition, excellence, daring: it is based on these three fundamental values that Manufacture Audemars Piguet perpetuates the art of Haute Horlogerie. At each stage of its history, it has proved capable of adopting the latest avant-garde technologies and of placing them in the service of hand craftsmanship, thereby creating exceptional timepieces.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Grande Complication

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Grande Complication is a selfwinding watch that features perpetual calendar indicationg the day, the week, the moon phases, the month and the leap years.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Grande Complication

It also features minute repeater, split-seconds chronograph and small seconds at 9 o’clock. 18-carat white gold case and bracelet, transparent sapphire caseback. Water-resistant to 20 metres. Limited production.