The Impressive Louis Moinet Speed of Sound, With Vintage Valjoux 88 Inside

With Jean-Marie Schaller at the helm, Louis Moinet navigates the seas of haute horlogerie with a distinctive style marked by its impressively staged mechanical movements, exotic materials and flamboyant styling. Louis Moinet’s latest port of call will appeal to fans of the legendary Valjoux 88 calibre, brought back to life onboard the Speed of Sound. As the brand whose founding father invented one of the very first chronographs in 1815 – the Compteur de Tierces – it is a fitting way to celebrate its 20^th anniversary.

The Louis Moinet Speed of Sound is a chronograph with moon phases and a telemeter scale designed to measure the distance from an event that emits light and sound powered by a modified and embellished Valjoux calibre 88. Not the most common kind of scale found on chronographs, the telemeter scale was a vital instrument for yesteryear soldiers to calculate the firing range in battle; today, telemeters can be used to calculate the distance of a storm based on the time elapsed between lightning and thunder.

The Valjoux calibre 88 is a manual-winding triple-calendar chronograph movement with moon phases built in the 1940s. According to The Naked Watchmaker, only 13,218 examples of this calibre were produced between 1947 and 1974. Louis Moinet’s watchmakers have modernised the calibre extensively, removing the calendar functions and the 12-hour counter. The pointer date on the periphery now hosts a telemeter scale to gauge the speed of sound, and the moon phase is reinterpreted in true Louis Moinet style.

By Louis Moinet standards, the 40.7mm titanium case is relatively understated with piston-style pushers and polished and satin-brushed finishings. The dial, with its red gold details and meteorite inserts – a favourite material at Louis Moinet – has a strong steampunk vibe. An unusual mesh-like textile pattern dominates the black background, a texture created with Yann von Kaenael’s guilloché engines. In contrast, the three sub-dials stand out with circular-brushed red gold frames, which match the precision scale underneath the black telemeter scale on the periphery. Another distinctive Louis Moinet detail is the incorporation of Aletai iron meteorite inside the 30-minute chronograph counter and small seconds.

The eye-catching moon phase counter at 6 o’clock has a domed disc with a realistic, hand-drawn interpretation of the Moon with luminescent paint that glows vividly in the dark. A smaller circular insert made from a sliver of the Dhofar 457 lunar meteorite brings a genuine fragment of the Moon to your wrist. The two pointers at 3 and 9 o’clock indicate the current state of the lunar cycle, and when the disc aligns with one of the pointers, it is a full Moon. Completing the dial are the applied indices indicated by semi-openworked hands with luminescent tips matching those of the two counters.

The transparent caseback reveals the beautifully decorated vintage Valjoux 88 movement. Hand-engraved with floral and scrolling motifs on the gold bridges, you can see many of the movement’s components, including the nine columns of the column wheel and the chronograph wheels and levers, as well as the escapement under the ornately decorated balance cock beating at 18,000 vibrations/hour.

The Louis Moinet Speed of Sound is a limited edition of 20 pieces. It is priced at CHF 50,000. For more information, please consult louismoinet.com.