Louis Moinet launched an anniversary version of its Memoris timepiece, created for the bicentenary of the Chronograph. It unveiled at Baselworld 2016 comes in a limited edition of 20 pieces.
For this very special edition, Memoris will be housed in a 46 mm rose gold case, whose 52 parts are held together by six visible, functional screws on the bezel. Especially created for Memoris, the case sports alternating brushed and polished finishes, and bears the Louis Moinet signature on the side. In homage to the watchmaking skills of our forebears, it features chevé concave crystals, now made from scratchproof sapphire.
The innovative movement, meanwhile, is neither a skeleton nor a supplementary module: rather, it has been designed for and around the chronograph. Indeed, Louis Moinet has opted to place the time mechanism on the back of the automatic movement, beneath the plate.
The bicentennial edition also sports all-exclusive decoration, the centrepiece of which is a special shade of midnight blue for the chronograph plate, mirroring the actual colour of the sky at night. A host of individually hand-engraved stars shine forth, each crafted using a brand new fixed graver technique. This involves attaching a specially-made lathe to a traditional rose engine.
What is more, individual stars are all fashioned with different angles and depths, so that each and every one captures as much light as possible. This requires the fixed graver to be used many times – an unprecedented technique in watchmaking. The outstanding result gives the novel impression of stars actually shining, twinkling with unique splendour against the backdrop of the night-blue plate beneath them.