Designing Time with Creativity and Haute Horlogery: Part 2 – CABESTAN

31/12/2013 | By Brice Goulard | 3 min read |

Yesterday we have shown you a magnificent timepiece, the 4N-MVT01 (see article here), a watch with a truly innovative display, consisting of 10 rotating discs. To continue this series of articles, we want to present you another striking way to display the time, here with drums integrated directly in the movement. The Cabestan Terra Luna offers not only a spectacular dial but also an outstanding piece of horological art, which we are proud to make you discover.

Cabestan makes the Time roll

Cabestan is not a new actor in the market of Haute Horlogery. Whereas the CEO of the brand just changed a few months ago, the watchmaking team remains built around Eric Coudray, one of the geniuses of the industry, previously part of the Jaeger-LeCoultre team and inventor of the Gyrotourbillon! We are naming some serious references indeed and rightfully so, because the Cabestan Terra-Luna is an extremely impressive timepiece. It is a complicated and innovative timepiece with a very interesting way to display time. Where the 4N uses discs, the Terra Luna’s time-display is based on drums. Not only is the display fascinating, but the rest of the movement is incredibly elaborate as well, with its all-vertical layout.

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This new Cabestan is a demonstration of Eric Coudray’s talent. Combined in this timepiece are:

a fusee-chain
a tourbillon
rolling drums
a 3D moon-phase

Having had the honor of playing with the movement outside of the case and holding it directly in my hands, I can personally attest that this is an extremely complicated engine. It has a technical, almost industrial, look. In contrast with a classical flat movement, this one allows a view on pretty much every movement component. Like the 4N-MVT01, the Cabestan Terra Luna is also build completely different than most other mechanical timepieces. In the 4N-MVT01, the movement is based on the display’s needs, while in the Terra Luna, the display results from the movement’s design. The drums are naturally integrated in the engine.

The Terra Luna has a clever way to display time: the layout has been made in such a way that every part of the watch is clearly visible, and moreover, you can easily read the time and other indications (seconds, power reserve and moon-phase). While the entire watch is already a wonderful demonstration of of technical highlights, probably the most complex factor is to combine all these complications and still offer excellent legibility!

The show is continuous, whether you wind the movement and watch the fuse-chain in action, or if you just look at your wrist and see the tourbillon and the seconds drum moving. Despite the dial’s center point is the moon phase indication in the middle, it never hides the rest of the show, and I would even say that it balances the design.

The finishing of the movement is in harmony with the high-end, technical contents of the case. Of course, the biggest point of interest with the watch is in the front, so the back looks a bit empty. But who cares, with such a dial. The technical specifications are impressive, with no fewer than 939 components (!!), all entirely conceived, developed and built in the Cabestan manufacture. This timepiece is available in titanium, yellow, pink or white gold or in platinum. The retail price starts around € 160.000 Euro ($ 220,000 USD) for the titanium version.