Playing heavily on contrasts, H. Moser & Cie. has chosen innovative materials borrowed from the worlds of astrophysics and aerospace to return to the essence of one of the most complex and most traditional mechanisms in Haute Horlogerie.
A Vantablack dial without indices or logo and featuring aluminium components showcases the tourbillon. Positioned at 6 o’clock, the one-minute flying tourbillon seems literally to float in the center of a black hole, with no reflection, and without indices or logo by way of distraction.
H. Moser & Cie. has given its Endeavour Tourbillon Concept a dial made from Vantablack, employing all the expertise it has gained by working with this innovative material created in 2012.
A super-black coating renowned as the darkest substance in existence, Vantablack is used in astrophysics for telescopes, by the military for thermal camouflage, to increase the stealth level of certain equipment, or in civil engineering for applications such as solar panels and, more recently, a concept car. It is composed of carbon nanotubes that are 10,000 times finer than a human hair, aligned vertically alongside each other. When a photon hits Vantablack, this material absorbs 99.965% of the light. As our eyes need reflected light to perceive what we are looking at, Vantablack is perceived as the absence of matter, a black hole.
Resistant to shocks and vibrations, Vantablack remains a material which is extremely delicate to handle. H. Moser & Cie. had to put a structure in place and develop special processes to successfully work with this material. Special cases were designed to transport the dials from the supplier, and tools were specially created to handle them and to fit the hands, until casing-up.
Technical Specifications:
The case, in 18kt white gold, measures 42mm x 11.6mm. It has double sapphire crystals.
Movement is the Swiss automatic Moser in-house caliber HMC 804 with 28 jewels, 21,600 vph and a power reserve of 3 days. Bi-directional pawl winding system. Rotor in 18kt red gold with engraved Moser logo. One-minute flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock with skeletonised bridges coated in black PVD. Tourbillon cage, cage wheel, balance bridge and escapement bridge in aluminium. Double hairspring designed and produced in-house. Thanks to this pair of matched hairsprings, the movement of the point of gravity on each spring when it expands is corrected and the effect of friction reduced, significantly improving accuracy and isochronism.
The Vantablack dial has leaf-shaped hour and minute hands.
It comes on a hand-stitched black alligator leather strap with an 18kt white gold folding clasp.
