Every now and then, I allow myself to freely contemplate and admire the fine mechanism and the artistic dimension of a timepiece. But almost each and every one of those instances, the prices and the overall conditions required to obtain the said timepieces are so draconian, that the only extravagance I still afford is talking about them and staring intensively at the pictures.
Today it’s Vianney Halter’s Deep Space Tourbillon. If you’re thinking that ‘Deep Space’ has anything to do with Star Trek’s famous sequel, you’re spot on as Vianney Halter was indeed inspired by the 180 episodes of Deep Space Nine he had watched and the original Star Trek series he re-watched prior and during the making of this new watch.
Vianney Halter is an independent watchmaker and his previous designs which were also fantastically imagined and crafted as to represent his vivid imagination fueled by sci-fi literature. Notably, his first watch, The Antigua (1998) and one of his last watches, The Opus 3 (2003).
Deep Space Tourbillon represents a more personal approach to the watch making process as he dreamed the design of this timepiece as being an object he used while explaining to some aliens he met (in his dreams) how the Earth is built, following the four dimensions: width, length, depth and time. Of course the watch itself resembles the star station Deep Space Nine from the earlier mentioned series, but the rather headspinning design and the story apparently made of this limited edition $200,000 watch one of the hottest watches of this year as WSJ noted in their article! And what a better year for this watch as a new Star Trek movie was released in theaters worldwide?
Wait, there’s more! While you may be tapping your head in trying to figure out how the intricate mechanism works and how you’re supposed to actually read this watch, Mr. Vianney Halter himself decided to calm everyone down and lay it as it is:
This watch is the explanation of life on earth. I made the three axes move at speeds that have no place on watches in history. The axes are the three dimensions.
In other words: this watch is not an actual watch as it does not indicate the time.
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