Louis Moinet Hope Probe Tourbillon
The Louis Moinet Hope Probe Tourbillon is a ‘pièce unique’ made to celebrate the UAE space mission. The model encompasses many elements close to the heart of Jean-Marie Schaller, owner and Artistic Director of the Louis Moinet, including artistic crafts, meteorites and space exploration. Once again, the Maison from Saint Blaise showcases its extraordinary creativity.
Jean-Marie Schaller, the owner and Artistic Director of the high-end watch brand, Louis Moinet, has an innate sense of style. Whenever you meet Schaller he is an exemplar of sartorial elegance. His poise also extends to the watches he conceives. The resultant timepieces are often bold and may, on occasion, polarise opinion, but they wonderfully sidestep the banality found with some mass-produced watches.
Schaller is a man with many passions. For example, he loves painting, space travel and exceptional stones such as meteorites. Needless to say, as the owner of an independent watch brand, he has the creative freedom to design watches that incorporate his aforementioned interests.
Earlier this year, Louis Moinet unveiled ‘8 Marvels of the World‘. This set of eight unique pieces comes in an impressive wooden trunk. Each of the watches is equipped with a hand-wound tourbillon movement. At the time, the Maison from Saint-Blaise also released the Louis Moinet Moon Race, a set of four, unique pieces, again endowed with the Calibre LM 35 tourbillon movement and presented in a travel trunk.
Both sets of watches reference space and incorporate artistic crafts such as miniature painting and engraving.
Now, the prestigious marque has created another unique piece, the Louis Moinet Hope Probe Tourbillon. This watch has been made to celebrate the UAE space mission. It incorporates a large aperture below noon which reveals the tourbillon in motion. Interestingly, the movement, the Calibre LM48 is the ‘world’s first satellite tourbillon’. The design of the tourbillon carriage is very unusual. Presented in a vivid shade of green, the tourbillon carriage is affixed to a semi-circular beam that supports a depiction of Mars midway along its section. This is encrusted with genuine Mars meteorite dust and serves as a counterbalance to the adjacent tourbillon carriage.
The blue dial incorporates a map of the Northern Hemisphere constellations and is enlivened with miniature painting. The watch is housed in a 47.4mm case formed of Grade 5 titanium.
The brand’s press release
Hope Probe Tourbillon is a new one-of-a-kind creation dedicated to the extraordinary UAE space mission. Based on technology exclusive to Louis Moinet, this satellite tourbillon® contains an authentic meteorite fragment from the Moon and genuine Martian meteorite dust.
Beautifully depicted on a blue dial, the map of the Northern hemisphere constellations is crafted using a special miniature painting on mother-of-pearl technique.
The green tourbillon carriage, measuring an exceptional 13.59 mm in diameter, is balanced by means of a Mars planet rotating around it and encrusted with genuine Mars meteorite dust.
A hand-painted depiction of the Hope Probe appears on the black aventurine front plate, inlaid with a genuine lunar meteorite fragment – as too is the black rear plate featuring a hand-painted UAE astronaut.
UAE Hope Probe in Mars
The UAE’s Hope Probe is the first Arab space mission. Known as “Al-Amal” in Arabic, it will orbit the red planet for at least one Martian year (687 days). It is the first probe to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere while evaluating its seasonal and daily changes. The Hope Probe is an important gift dedicated to the people of the UAE on the 50th anniversary of the nation and a source of inspiration for Arab youth.
Further reading