Vagabonde Tourbillon Series 3

Futuristic, complex and incredibly cool, the Hautlence Vagabonde Tourbillon Series 3 watch features an endlessly fascinating dial arrangement, with a phenomenal, space-age surface by the Black Badger workshop of James Thompson. Presented in a limited edition of only 28 pieces, the watch is housed within a blue PVD coated steel casing, and it displays a highly contemporary wandering hour complication with a one-minute tourbillon, and is powered by a self-winding in-house mechanical movement.

The watch carries a TV-screen watch case, so-named as it recalls the profile of retro television screens, measuring 50.8mm across and 43mm end to end. Manufactured from stainless steel with a deep midnight blue PVD coating, it has a streamlined architecture and resting comfortably on the wrist at a height of 11.9mm it is worn on a fully integrated white rubber strap. The bezel of the case is stepped and has been topped with bevelled sapphire crystal which when viewed side-on enhances the unique architecture of the dial.

To create the dial, Hautlence called upon the skills of James Thompson, whose Black Badger workshop is well known within the industry for its innovational metallurgy and mastery of luminescent materials. The dial of this edition is rendered from a material intended for use in particle accelerators, termed ‘copper-niobium superconductor’, which James has meticulously cut, before soaking it in an acid bath to remove the copper. Incredibly, after undergoing this processing, James has harvested natural beauty from the scientific substance, and the result is a gorgeous shimmering silvery grey dial surface, with a mesmerising honeycomb motif. And, by carefully removing some of the dial material, a ripple-like pattern has been achieved, thus adding an immersive three-dimensional aspect, which draws the eye towards the tourbillon and the unconventional arrangement of the dial

The minutes are indicated on a sapphire disc via brilliant white numerals and markers, enhanced with Globolight®, a ceramic compound loaded with Super-LumiNova. Rotating in a clockwise direction, the minutes disc is elevated above a trio of hour satellites, each nuanced with vivid blue accents. As the current hour is revealed within its window, its numeral is accompanied by a arrow pointer for the minutes, thus the time can be read instantly and intuitively. At the lower dial, and providing symmetry to the layout, the one-minute tourbillon demonstrates the Haute Horlogerie pedigree of this otherwise ultramodern timepiece.

The compelling dial side panorama is achieved by an equally impressive mechanical movement, the in-house D30 automatic movement, which is revealed through a central sapphire section in the caseback. Beating at a frequency of 21’600 vib/h (3Hz), and with a reserve of power of 72 hours, the movement is entirely modern in its arrangement, with dark grey rendering on the plates and bridges and with a darkened, partially openworked rotor embellished with the brand’s signature logo. Notably, the calibre is equipped with a double hairspring, produced in-house by the sister company of Hautlence, the prestigious Precision Engineering AG atelier.

Released in a limited series of 28 pieces, the Hautlence Vagabonde Tourbillon Series 3 watch comes presented on a white rubber strap secured with a steel pin buckle.