For watch fans and collectors, the notion of exclusivity is important. Having a watch that nobody else has is both a source of personal pride and in some cases a guarantee that your watch will always have a higher value than the standard model. The extra costs for the brand itself, however, may be limited just to the one-off production of a special dial or a special engraving on the case back. If you’re looking for an alternative to a unique piece that nevertheless has a touch of the unusual and gives you ultimate bragging rights, why not consider brands that are going to great lengths to source the most unusual materials on (and off) the planet for use in their products.
Rocks from the beginnings of time
A number of brands have already used meteorite fragments to produce dials, including Jaquet Droz, Parmigiani and Corum. But Louis Moinet, a brand that draws much inspiration from the world of astronomy, goes one better with its Sideralis Evo model. This watch has the only double tourbillon in the world that powers a special complication, driving counter-rotating discs on the same dial. The lower disc depicts the Moon, Mars and Mercury using fragments of rock from outer space, the oldest of which from Sahara 99555, also known as the “Rosetta Stone”, is a staggering 4,566,200,000 years old!
Petrified wood is the next big thing
As luxury brands constantly search for new inspiration the artistic crafts have been reinvented over and over again as craftsmen search for new materials to cut up and stick back together in different forms of marquetry. In recent years we have seen wood marquetry, feather marquetry and even eggshell marquetry. For its latest watch winder model, however, RDI Charles Kaeser goes a step further by using petrified wood that is 225 million years old!
This rock was created as entire forests were preserved as fossils, keeping a unique combination of metals and minerals that give it a distinct colour and pattern. It serves as the decoration on a unique piece in the RDI “Mémoire” collection that weights in at a solid 3 kilos with its soft-black metal columns and open front. The RDI Mémoire watch winder runs on 2 AA batteries or mains electricity and offers a variety of winding programmes to suit any mechanical watch movement. This unique piece is available for CHF 6,500.
Find a selection of RDI watch winders in our new WT-Shop
There is a great deal of discussion on the subject of watches as art. Although a watch should not be art to be of notice, I am a firm believer in their own potential to straddle the bounds of function, shape, and doctrine where appropriate. In the case of those Corum Bubble watches, it is apparently a brand’s effort at creating a pure objet d’art. It is correct, the Corum Bubble watches are not love anything else that the brand makes (or much like anything anyone leaves, for that matter), but they’re designed to be beautiful items, that is something that they have in common with other timepieces bearing the Corum logo.The dedication to the world in these bits is unwavering. In my opinion, this group works simply because it’s so unconcerned with anything but the most loyal realisation of its own unique idea. To take advantage of this re-release opportunity, Corum has partnered with famous cymbal manufacturer Paiste. Paiste have been enlisted to create a exceptional dial for the Corum Bubble Paiste special edition watch. The dial of the Corum Bubble Paiste is a tiny cymbal created by Paiste in exactly the exact same manner they’d make a full size cymbal. I’m quietly confident it would function as planned have been it removed from the home and attached to a kit, but if it’s just for display, it looks excellent.