Simply Abu Dhabi Magazine XXV

1 1 4 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I G rande sonnerie: the two words command a hushed reverence in the world of haute horlogerie. One doesn’t see many grande sonneries for the simple reason that very few watch manufactures are capable of the extreme expertise required to produce them. The most noble and elevated of all watch complications, any brand creating a Grand Sonnerie has scaled the dizzy heights of the top echelons of horlogerie. Greubel Forsey unveiled their grande sonnerie at SIHH 2017, and with a price tag of almost $1,150,000 it is certainly one of the most expensive timepieces of the year. The brand stated, “Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey have been thinking out what their own, resolutely contemporary interpretation of this regal complication could be. For eleven years, the grande sonnerie shaped their day-to-day lives. Eleven years, during which they worked in the utmost secrecy to assemble the 935 parts of this timepiece, striving in particular to achieve absolute harmony between the movement, the exterior and the acoustics. This timepiece represents the quintessence of their expertise and their ideal of watchmaking excellence.” The watch bears all the hallmarks of a Greubel Forsey timepiece and also boasts a tourbillon – not merely a conventional one, of course, but a 24- second, 25°-inclined one – plus there is automatic winding for the second barrel. And even though it costs well over a million dollars, this extraordinary timepiece is actually designed and intended for daily wear. Unlike many grande sonnerie watches, which are by their very nature extremely delicate and can break if the wearer accidentally changes the time when the watch just started to chime, this watch has 11 precautions to prevent any damage; for instance, the repeater cannot be activated while the time is being set. In fact there is one precaution for every year of the watch’s development. Despite the incredible complication, the watch is pleasingly legible. The grande sonnerie shows the striking mechanism on the front at 10 o’clock, while the incline tourbillon is at 8 o’clock. A button at 4 o’clock acts as the function selector for silent, small strike or grande strike modes. Greubel Forsey opted for a titanium case to keep the weight of the watch down and to make the chiming gongs sound more vibrant. With a diameter of 43.5 mm, the watch is large but not obtrusive or unbecoming – take into consideration the levity and you can see why it could indeed be worn daily. Greubel ForseyGrand Sonnerie