Blancpain L-Evolution Phase de Lune 8 Jours Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Jan 5th 2011 at 12:01PM

I must attest to the fact that I have no idea what this watch design is all about. In fact, the entire concept of the Blancpain "L-Evolution" collection more or less evades my understanding. That being said, I highly appreciate the brand's willingness to experiment versus just re-hashing what worked in the past. This quite fancy version of an already fancy watch has the well-made in-house made mechanical movement visible through the dial. Though much of what you see are discs through a sort of semi-opaque treated sapphire crystal.

Still, the mechanics are fascinating. The Calibre 66R9 movement is an automatic with 192 hours of power reserve, has an annual calendar with the date, month, and day of the week, as well as a moonphase indicator. The latter doubles as a subsidiary seconds dial. The L-Evolution collection attempts to mix sport with class (I think), which might explain the large Roman numeral "3" and "9" o'clock indicators that appear comically large. The watch case itself is 43.5mm wide in 18k white gold - being matched to a black reptile strap. I am glad to know that the case is water resistant to a respectable 100 meters.

Even with all the crazy stuff going on the dial, Blancpain made sure that the watch had full, lumed hour markers. I have a feeling that this Blancpain L-Evolution Phase de Lune 8 Jours watch will be easier to read in the dark - than in the light. Price is $43,900.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: 8 jours, blancpain, de lune, l-evolution, phase, watch