1872

Very classy, and very pricey (not sure of the exact price, but trust me), Badollet releases a new piece, the Observatoire (observatory) 1872 Minute Repeater watch. Available with or without precious stones, the watch has a serious elegance that can be customized by the buyer. Don't like the hands? Don't worry about it! Badollet has you covered.

The watch case is 44mm wide in 18k white gold, and has unique hinged lugs attached to a black crocodile strap. If you opt for precious jewels, see here the watch as 72 diamonds and and 12 sapphires. Without the jewels, the watch uses Arabic hour numerals. I usually don't say this, but I like the watch with precious jewels better than without.

Functionally the piece uses a highly complex manually-wound mechanical movement. I do not believe that Badollet produces the movement. The Calibre BAD1655 features the time, a flying tourbillon, and a minute repeater complication. All with a very interesting partially skeletonized dial (that reminds me of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Hybris Mechanica Grand Sonnerie watch. The rest of the dial is finely machine engraved.

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