From the man who brought us Shabaka…

A masterful mechanical creation from the artisan of exceptional timpieces Jean Dunand…with caliber by Christophe Claret…(excerpts below from the press release).  Price?  $410,000.

Jean Dunand Palace

703 parts (53 jewels), mono-pusher chronograph, one-minute flying tourbillon, seconds and 60 min counter, power reserve and GMT for 2nd time zone via linear displays, chain-drive for winding mechanism (manual wind)

According to Jean Dunand’s CEO Thierry Oulevay, “The primary inspiration of the Palace is the cultural and societal transformation of Western civilisation during a 50-year period, defined as 1880-1930.”  Placing that time span in context, the Palace takes its name from the structure that preceded and heralded the age, London’s Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851, while sharing aesthetic details with the architectural pinnacle of the era: the Eiffel Tower.

Instead of a rotary dial, the Palace shows its second time zone through 12-hour indications on either side of the oval-shaped trace. The indicator arrow, mounted in a disc that mirrors that of the power reserve, makes two passes. When the disc reaches the end, it flies back to the top and the arrow rotates 180 degrees to chart the other scale. Adjustments to the GMT scale, in one hour increments, are made through the GMT advance button positioned between the lugs at 6 o’clock.

At the heart of the manually-wound Palace beats a one-minute flying tourbillon, placed at the 6 o’clock position, the balance operating at a frequency of 3Hz.  Above it are skeletal hour and minute hands, and a sapphire crystal 60-minute counter for the chronograph.  On either side of the flying tourbillon are two vertical tracks, the one in the right-hand corner charting its 72-hour power reserve, the other a linear GMT indicator.

The winder communicates its power to the barrel via an exquisitely-fashioned, microscopically tiny chain, designed, according to Oulevay, “to evoke the chain drive of vintage Indian and Vincent motorcycles. It even has a minuscule tensioner.”

So complex and detail-rich is the Palace that each will be supplied with a loupe, to enable the owner to study it over the years. Its many details and secrets will reveal themselves surreptitiously, the observer finding something new to admire every time it is examined. Such a wealth of function, form and detail demands a stately enclosure: at 38mm by 36mm the movement is larger than most complete watches, so the majestic case is a generous 48mm by 49mm providing the spaciousness a Palace deserves.

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