Introducing the AkriviA Heure Minute Tourbillon Stainless Steel with hand-made matt dial

It’s not often that we see a brand coming to the market with their first watch that comprises both a tourbillon and a monopusher chronograph, with a fully hand-finished in-house movement – but it’s exactly what AkriviA did with this watch. Because it’s seems difficult to develop an even more complicated watch (especially for a small and young brand), Akrivia is now coming with a simpler watch. Well, simple but still quite a watch, as we’re talking about the AkriviA Heure Minute Tourbillon.

Brief reminder about Akrivia:

“(Akrivia) was founded in 2011 by Rexhep Rexhepi, a young master watchmaker with an interesting educational background which includes an apprenticeship at Patek Philippe at the age of 14, and working as movement developer for BNB Concepts (which went bust in 2010, then was partially bought by Hublot, resulting in the Hublot Clé du Temp).” The first watch to be revealed by AkriviA was an impressive one that we covered last year, after an interesting meeting with Rexhep. Instead of showing an out-sourced movement cased in an over-designed watch – like most of the new launched brands – he created a Tourbillon Monopusher Chronograph, a traditional piece of mechanical sweetness housed into a modern and complex case.

Then, in 2014, Rexhep Rexhepi came with two other editions of his watch, using the same design, case and base movement but with different complications and displays. The collections now comprise a tourbillon watch with jumping hour and chime and a simpler hour minute tourbillon watch. The latter comes now with a new finish and dial.

The AkriviA Heure Minute Tourbillon Stainless Steel with hand-made matt dial

As said, the new watch by AkriviA is simpler, compared to the Tourbillon Monopusher Chronograph. However, it remains quite a piece of haute horlogerie with a tourbillon regulator. It uses the same case, with its modern design (a central barrel with curved flanks, alternating brushed surfaces and mirror polished angles) and a complex construction (more than 30 parts) shown here in stainless steel, again a modern choice compared the usual precious metals used in tourbillon watches (a 5N gold edition and a platinum edition are also available). The case is robust at 43mm x 12.9mm but, as we’ve seen in our previous hands-on with the Tourbillon Monopusher Chronograph, it wears extremely comfortable.

The movement of the AkriviA Heure Minute Tourbillon is based on the same calibre as the Tourbillon Monopusher Chronograph, but cleaned from its chronograph module (normally located on the top side). It now only displays the hours and minutes on the central axis and highlights the large one-minute tourbillon at 6 – that measures 9.6mm, comprises 63 parts and weights 0.45g. This movement boasts 100 hours of power reserve (approximately 4 days) and ticks at 21.600 vph. The movement is decorated by hand with inward angles, black polished steel parts, Côtes de Genève, hand grained parts, hand polished angles, rhodium plated and hand engraved. From the back, the view is the same than the Tourbillon Monopusher Chronograph.

The main novelty of this edition is the dial, that shows a modern aspect that is however realized with traditional techniques. The matt-polishing is obtained by a long and painstaking process. A blend of crushed rock and oil is laid out on a flat surface such as glass or marble. Then, the steel dial is affixed on this mixture which then carries out tiny circular movements until reaching the perfect homogeneity of the ‘mat-polish’ finishing. The result is a pure and modern face that matches with the simple display and original case.

For more details, please visit www.akrivia.com.