A Champagne Dial for the Louis Moinet 1816 Chronograph

Louis Moinet’s 1816 Compteur de Tierces, or “thirds counter”, was originally designed to measure the speed of moving stars. Endowed with a start, stop and reset function and a balance wheel beating at an impressive high frequency of 30Hz or 216,000 vibrations per hour, his novel stopwatch could time events to the 60^th of a second. Considered one of the precursors of the modern chronograph, Louis Moinet’s 1816 invention was rediscovered in 2013, much to the delight of the eponymous brand founded in 2004 by Jean-Marie Schaller. Coming up for its grand 210^th anniversary, Louis Moinet uncorks the champagne and releases a special edition of the 1816 Chronograph with a refined champagne coloured dial.

Following in the footsteps of last year’s 1816 Chronograph in a titanium case and silver dial, this second chapter warms up the scenery with its more expressive golden dial. A curious fusion of a contemporary titanium case and a dial layout inspired by the historic chronograph, the 1816 Chronograph is powered by a traditional manual-winding integrated chronograph movement developed in collaboration with Concepto.

The titanium case, which measures 40.6mm across and 14.7mm thick, comprises 51 parts and features prominent pump-style pushers and a crown decorated with a fleur-de-lys, the emblem of the city of Bourges, where Louis Moinet was born. Decorated with polished and satin-brushed finishes, the case is water-resistant to 50 metres.

Echoing the dial layout of the original Compteur de Tierces, the running seconds, and elapsed 30-minute and 12-hour chronograph times are recorded on three separate sub-dials, creating an inverted pyramid. Alluding to Louis Moinet’s precision 1/60^th of a second indications, the peripheral minutes track, mounted with four blued screws, is graduated with numerals every six minutes and indicated by a long blued steel hand.

The hours and minutes are indicated centrally by openworked hands with luminescent inserts on the contemporary watch, and the 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock now features Roman numerals, like the original. Set into the beadblasted champagne dial, the three recessed counters feature satin-brushed rings with black markings and blued-steel hands.

Powered by the proprietary LM816 calibre, this manual-winding, integrated, column-wheel chronograph with a horizontal clutch can be admired on the caseback. With 330 parts, a 4Hz frequency and a 48-hour power reserve, the architecture of the movement was dictated by the unique position of the counters on the 1816 model. Components like the steel column wheel, the elegant mirror-polished swan-neck regulator and the wolf-tooth wheel for the jumping minutes are fully exposed and stand out against the sanded and bevelled gold-plated bridges and mainplate and the blued screws and red rubies.

The integrated titanium bracelet with large arching links features champagne DLC-coated links on the underside. The Louis Moinet 1816 Chronograph Champagne retails for CHF 28,900 (excl. taxes). More information at louismoinet.com.