Virtuoso V

One side of the watch presents an off-centered traditional display at 12 o’clock, which accommodates the hour and minute hands and allows the movement’s atypical structure to be admired. The various bridges present voluptuous shapes and the concentric curves of the dial that they seem to embrace. Once again, balance and symmetry bring graceful harmony to the whole watch. The seconds cage positioned at 6 o’clock completes the vertical axis with a triple hand, each arm of which successively covers 120° of the scale on its dial. The center wheel and its bridge, visible at 4 o’clock, mirror the balance wheel-hairspring and balance cock, while the power reserve indicator is located at 10 o’clock.

The other side of the watch presents a complication that is quite literally on show. Here too, the seconds are displayed at 6 o’clock and reveal the transparency of their cage. Patent No. 0169-DI-CH refers to this precise double co-axial seconds display mechanism. The seconds are shown on both sides of the movement and share the same axis, even though their direction of rotation is reversed. The true merits of this technical feat are revealed when it is applied to an Amadeo^® convertible case.

The movement’s architecture displayed on the other side of the watch is evoked by plates that are alternately lacquered and hand-engraved, then harmoniously staggered in a series of layers until they reach the top dial indicating the hours and minutes. The jumping hour display appears in an aperture in the center of the watch. This complication enables quick and intuitive reading of the time in complete simplicity and creates a privileged place for the expression of watchmaking decorative arts.

To further refine the space attributed to the time on the Virtuoso V, the minute hand points towards the center of the dial and repeatedly covers a segment of 160° before retreating in a semi-instantaneous leap each hour. The combination of these two types of displays is particularly rare, as it requires perfect synchronization between the jump of the hour disk and that of the retrograde minute hand. The artisans of the DIMIER 1738 Manufacture have mastered this technical feat to perfection.

Pascal Raffy designed Virtuoso V to offer a space that artisan dial-makers, hand engravers or miniature painters could personalize to meet the desires expressed by collectors. Be it the dial displaying the timepiece’s various indications or the different decorative plates, there are no fewer than eight dials each requiring more than 10 hours of work, carried out on each watch by the artisans of the DIMIER 1738 Dial Manufacture. Elegant, delicately hand-engraved surfaces are inserted between the dial and the lacquered or painted plates.