Unrestricted creative freedomBASELWORLD 2017: A “Day-Date” enriches the Villeret Collection

Blancpain’s ability to develop and produce its own movements confers upon it complete freedom to create. This expertise has enabled the brand to present a horological complication indicating the day of the week and the date. Both practical and elegant, this timepiece enables the owner to read all of the information set out on the dial at a glance.

This new entry into the Villeret collection is housed in a stainless steel case measuring 40mm in diameter. Its matt white dial features leaf-shaped cut-out hands. The small seconds display appears at 6 o’clock, while the day of the week and the date are shown at 3 o’clock. The day change is instantaneous, while that of the date is semi-instantaneous.

The movement beating at the heart of the watch is the automatic caliber 1160DD, comprising 275 components including 34 jewels. Its balance wheel is fashioned in glucydur with gold micrometric regulation screws and a balance spring in silicon. This material recently introduced within the watch industry offers several important advantages. Firstly, its low density makes it lighter and thus more shock-resistant. In addition, it is impervious to magnetic fields.

The resulting balance spring is ideally shaped, thereby ensuring improved isochronism performance of the movement, resulting in enhanced timekeeping precision. Operating at a frequency of 4Hz, the movement is powered by two mainspring barrels connected in series and achieving a 72-hour power reserve. The sapphire case back provides a clear view of the finely hand-finished movement and the yellow gold winding rotor with its honeycomb guilloché pattern.

This new timepiece is fitted with a black alligator strap.