saphir

Blancpain L-evolution Carrousel Sapphire Watch Hands-On

A trend over the last few years has been to take complex tourbillon movements and make them either skeletonized or bare bones. This watch from Blancpain is a perfect example. Although Blancpain nowadays prefers the carrousel versus the tourbillon. The different? Well it is minor to say the least, but Blancpain wants to set itself apart by using this type of rotating escapement carriage versus a tourbillon. In operation they are both similar looking. If you want to know more about the difference between a tourbillon and a carrousel you can read here.

The watch movement, while highly decorated, is certainly bare bones. What you mainly see (aside from the hands) is the carrousel and the mainspring barrel. The rest of the watch seems to be the winding gear assembly and the gear train. The movement uses only sapphire crystal plates. This is what gives the movement its incredible floating looking. The sides of the 18k red gold case are also set with sapphire crystals for an additional view into the movement. Due to the shape of the case, the watch is included in Blancpain's newer L-evolution collection. This watch will likely prove to be a hard to find niche object, but will be a marquee look for the Blancpain carousel watches. Priced at around $240,000.

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

Gallery: Blancpain Carrousel Saphire watch