Throughout millennia, researchers and inventors strived to build a perpetual motion machine, a device that would continue to move indefinitely once started. Without any external source of power, it was believed that the machine itself would generate an unlimited amount of energy. It was only with the formulation of the law of conservation of energy in the middle of the 19th century that physics quashed the principle of perpetual motion. Nevertheless, people’s fascination for the concept remained unbroken.
Functions:Hours and minutes, subsidiary seconds with stop seconds
No. of parts:312
No. of jewels:38, of which 3 in screwed gold chatons
Escapement:Lever escapement
Oscillator:Shock-resistant Grossmann balance with 4 inertia and 2 poising screws, Nivarox 1 balance spring
Balance:Diameter 10.0 mm, frequency 21,600 semi-oscillations/hour
Power reserve:72 hours when fully wound
Operating elements:Crown for winding the watch, and setting the time
Case dimensions:Diameter: 41.0 mm, height 11.35 mm
Movement dimensions:Diameter: 36.4 mm, height: 5.15 mm
Case:Three-part, in 750/000 gold
Dial:Solid silver, opaline, with printed Roman numerals or ‘black-or’ shiny black, white Roman numerals or Engraved numerals, with black finish and handcrafted silver-plating by friction; Solid silver, cream-coloured with Roman numerals
Hands:Manually crafted, steel or 750/000 gold, annealed to a brown-violet hue or polished
Crystal and display back:Sapphire crystal, antireflective coating on one side
Strap:Hand-stitched leather with prong buckle in 750/000 gold
