Baselworld 2010: Hautlence
By Don Corson
One of the relatively unsung new brands that deserves much more attention, IMHO, is Hautlence.
They don't really communicate too much on their depth of production, which they have and own development skills, which they also have. This year we can finally see the result of more than two years of development: the HL 2.0.
The HL 2.0 is hard to describe, yes it is a tourbillon, but a tourbillon which changes position once an hour when the hour jumps.
The hours are shown in a window by links in a chain, the chain which turns the tourbillon. The minutes display is retrograd as is traditional for Hautlence watches, but the best is the visibility of all this in a wrap-around sapphire case. Thrown in to boot, it is an automatic winder too.
I have been following the development of this watch for the last two years, sworn to secrecy, and am very happy to see this come to light this year. We see one of the two working prototypes here. Before it reaches customers there is still work to be done to find color and plating compinations to increase the legability.
New in production is also the HLc in a smaller case aimed at female clientelle. As usual at Hautlence each reference is limited to 88 pieces.
Note how the Hautlence "infinity" logo has found it's place in the bridge forms.
Two new case and dial variantes of the HLq (with date and seconds disk)
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Since Don was sworn to secrecy, this came as a surprise to me too.
The twisting tourbilllon conneted with the jump hour is an interesting 'twist' in the tale of tourbillons. Mechanically interestng, it is logistically fantastic, of course, as the user is not expected to stay in oe position every hour. Hw could this mechanism compensate for all the variable positions that a wrist can find itself, it changes its own position only hourly?
Still, one of the more interesting new movements at Baselworld 2010.
Melvyn Teillol-Foo