Letter from the Publisher

A STUNNING VISION
The dance of the hands leaping back to their initial position tends to
make retrograde timepieces a spectacular experience, especially when
certain dials combine two, three or even four indications of this type,
or when watchmakers have fun creating complicated “figures.” On the
Seconde Virevoltante Rétrograde, Pierre Kunz offers an amazing show of
aerial acrobatics with a hand dipping and swooping around a 470° loop
before returning to its initial position in 5/100ths of a second and starting
all over again. The new Tirion Triretrograde Minute Repeater by Milus
features a retrograde seconds display based on three 20-second
segments placed at 6, 10 and 2 o’clock. The first hand moves
across its arc of a circle before jumping back to its starting
point, while the second hand takes over, and then in turn passes
the baton on to the third. Pierre DeRoche went even further in
2009 by unveiling the GrandCliff TNT Royal Retro, equipped
with an exclusive Dubois Dépraz mechanism. The seconds
are indicated by a succession of six retrograde displays
driven by gear and strip-spring systems that are visible
on the dial. In a slower yet equally spectacular model,
the central minutes hand of Chanel’s J12 Rétrograde
Mystérieuse runs in a traditional manner for the first
ten minutes, before bumping up against the retractable
crown appearing on the dial at 3 o’clock. This sets off a
retrograde motion that takes another ten minutes to bring
the hand to the other side of the crown, on the 20th minute.
During this retrograding period, a disc-type digital display
appearing in a magnified window between 5 and 6 o’clock
takes over counting the minutes. After the ten-minute retrograde
episode, the time indication continues in the customary way.
top left
Pierre Kunz, Seconde Virevoltante Rétrograde
top center
Pierre DeRoche , GrandCliff TNT Royal Retro
top right
Chanel, J12 Rétrograde Mystérieuse
below
Milus, Tirion Triretrograde Minute Repeater
Retrograde Mechanisms and Jumping Hours 373 •