IF ONLY WALLS COULD SPEAK - Blancpain

APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
A Classical Collection Re-defined
SIDEWAYS
The Revolutionary New
Hidden Calendar Correctors
PHILIPPE ROCHAT
While Away an Afternoon In
Switzerland’s Greatest Restaurant
IF ONLY WALLS
COULD SPEAK
The Re-opening of Blancpain’s
Complicated Watch Atelier
SPRING | 2006

EDITORIAL

DEAR FELLOW WATCH CONNOISSEURS
Welcome to Issue No. 1 of Letters From Le Brassus!
We at Blancpain are pleased to introduce you to our new magazine. It is our hope that
Letters From Le Brassus will let you experience the
spirit of Blancpain by not only deepening your under-
standing of the collection and Blancpain’s haute
horlogerie innovations, but as well by introducing you
to some of the personalities of Blancpain, bringing
you the latest news from the manufacture and, finally,
sharing with you experiences from our art de vivre.
It is fitting that in our first issue of Letters From Le Brassus we write about the biggest
event of this past year, the re-opening of our workshop in Le Brassus following more
than a year of renovation. In the article If Walls Could Speak we are proud to give you
a short tour of our completely refurbished workshop, known affectionately inside
Blancpain as the “farmhouse”. Not only have we completely remodeled the farmhouse,
we just completed moving our entire team of watchmakers to Le Brassus so that 100%
of our production is now located there.
We hope you enjoy this first issue, and encourage you to fill out the enclosed card so
that you can be on the list to receive future copies.
Marc A. Hayek
CEO Blancpain
| 01

HIGHLIGHTS
IF ONLY WALLS
COULD SPEAK
4
WHILE AWAY AN AFTERNOON
RESTAURANT PHILIPPE ROCHAT
24
APOTHEOSIS TEMPORIS
A CLASSICAL COLLECTION
RE-DEFINED
14
THE BLANCPAIN WINE LETTER
LUCIEN LE MOINE
54

CONTENT
IF ONLY WALLS COULD SPEAK page 04
APOTHEOSIS TEMPORIS page 14
RESTAURANT PHILIPPE ROCHAT page 24
SIDEWAYS page 34
THE PRODIGY page 40
SHORT STORIES page 48
THE BLANCPAIN WINE LETTER page 54
THE NEW AD-CAMPAIGN page 62
NEWS OF THE BLANCPAIN WORLD page 64
COVER
Detail of the
Villeret Chronograph
Monopusher
02 | 03

IN TIME

The Le Brassus atelier
known within Blancpain
as the “farmhouse“
04 | 05
“IF ONLY WALLS COULD SPEAK” IS A FAMILIAR, IF NOT STOCK
LAMENT. THE SECRETS, OMNISCIENCE, THE SUPERIOR WISDOM
THAT COMES FROM THEIR SILENT, PATIENT OBSERVATION
OF HUMANITY AND EVENTS WITHIN CAUSES US ALL TO EXHALE
THIS EXPRESSION DURING OUR LIVES WHEN WE REALIZE THAT
WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY WOULD KNOW WERE THEY ALIVE.
BY JEFFREY S. KINGSTON

IN TIME
On occasion, however, walls do speak.
Loudly. There are circumstances when
they not only reveal a glimpse of what goes
on within, they spew forth whole paragraphs,
sometimes whole cinema reels of
their stories. How can this be so? It is when
the walls show us the values, the ethics, the
purposes, the aspirations of the people who
built them or who inhabit them. Think of the
famous photographer, Peter Menzel, whose
landmark 1994 portrayal for the United
Nations’ International Year of the Family used
photographs of family dwellings and possessions
eloquently to tell the tales of how
people around the world live. As this exhibit
traveled from the banks of the Seine in front
of the Assemblée Nationale to New York, the
images of the walls gave gripping narration
of each of their lives, without need of words.
It was thus during Blancpain’s 270th year
celebration. An anniversary year rich with
events, it culminated October 6-7 with the
re-opening of the Le Brassus farmhouse. But
the re-opening was more than an occasion
to remark upon the beauty of a rejuvenated
building. The farmhouse atelier is symbol of
what Blancpain stands for. Its re-opening
was a re-affirmation of Blancpain’s core values.
No need to summon the chef d’atelier or
the horlogers who work within these walls
to learn the details of what goes on within.
The style of the farmhouse, its traditional
wooden watchmaker benches, its layout, its
loving restoration all speak volumes of
Blancpain’s goals, ethics and the things it
prizes. Walls do speak.
The cynical among us may be prone to
scoff: “This is just a factory”, a word which is
Entry to the
farmhouse

06 | 07
Stairway to the
upstairs workshops

IN TIME
Blancpain took the occasion to lavish special
finishing throughout. Here the banister
highlighting the year of Blancpain’s founding
THE FARMHOUSE ATELIER IS A SYMBOL
OF WHAT BLANCPAIN STANDS FOR.

Lovely details abound.
Note the drawer
pulls on the bespoke
watchmaker benches
pejorative here. “How is this different from
gleaming architectural watch-house trophies
in Geneva with soaring arches or flying cantilevers?“
And the final question in the riff,
meant as the coup de grace “Aren’t these all
just structures with a watchmaking factory
within?”
The answer is a resounding no. These buildings
are not alike and those differences
reveal the differences in watchmaking philosophy.
The Blancpain Le Brassus farmhouse
has not been conceived like a factory and its
design shows that it is not meant to be used
like one.
08 | 09
When it was acquired in 1982, the Le
Brassus farmhouse was meant to symbolize
Blancpain’s joinder in more than 200 years
of Vallée de Joux watchmaking traditions.
Historically, watches were not made in factories.
There were no fluorescent lit, cantilevered
antiseptic facilities with assembly line
methods. Watches were handiworks of artisans
who labored in attics, farmhouses,
small family dwellings. Each watch was a
highly personal creation of the man who
lovingly fashioned it. The finishes and decorations
were artistic signatures. Each watch
was made beginning to end by hands of a

IN TIME
THE BLANCPAIN WATCHMAKER BENCHES ARE ENTIRELY
BESPOKE AND HAND MADE. IF A WATCHMAKER IS
GOING TO WORK ON A SINGLE WATCH FOR AS LONG
AS ONE YEAR—AS IS THE CASE WITH THE 1735—IT WAS
VITAL THAT HIS OR HER POST BE PERFECT IN EVERY DETAIL.
Tough love. The renovation
tore the farmhouse apart to
its raw walls
Being born:
a Le Brassus
series Equation
Marchante
In the 1735 room, one of the only
two Blancpain watchmakers who
work on this exclusive caliber

10 | 11
single watchmaker. The Le Brassus farmhouse
transports these methods—and the
philosophy behind them—forward to our
times. The basics remain fully intact. The
farmhouse is ill-suited to productions lines
with their output charts and is not outfitted
with any. Instead, each watchmaker is given
his or her traditional work bench and gives
birth to time pieces, as was done 200 years
ago, building each from “A to Z”, that is to
say that a single watchmaker creates each
watch working from beginning to end.
During the ceremonies marking the reopening
of the Le Brassus farmhouse,
Blancpain’s CEO Marc A. Hayek explained that
Blancpain had many choices as it confronted
the problem of how to expand its capacity.
The easy path, conventional wisdom, if you
will, was to select a location for an efficient,
modern watchmaking factory. Plan-les-Ouates
in Geneva is a veritable garden blooming with
shining edifices housing famous brands popping
up like so many tulips in asphalt beds.
That solution, however, conflicted with
Blancpain’s traditional method ethos. The
Jura mountains, in which Vallée de Joux
lies, has been inextricably woven into the
fabric of Blancpain and linked to its soul
throughout its history. Moving from Le
Brassus was out of the question. Instead,
Blancpain chose to restore meticulously the
farmhouse that has become its symbol.
Leaving the four exterior walls intact and
cleverly adjusting the interior spaces,
Blancpain was able, settle on a design that
would on the one hand save the building
and on the other increase the watch,
making space by 50%.
As with any renovation, the first phase—
destruction—always precedes construction.
A stout constitution was required when
surveying the end result of the destruction
phase. Management and watchmakers
alike could only exhale as they peered into
the dusty pit that had once been the most
prized workshop of Blancpain, trusting that
the rewards would arrive at the other end.

IN TIME
The Tourbillon room
SINCE DECEMBER 2005, ONE HUNDRED
PERCENT OF BLANCPAIN’S PRODUCTION HAS
BEEN LOCATED IN LE BRASSUS.
And arrive they did, as the press, selected
collectors and many Blancpain retailers
discovered on the occasion of the re-opening.
In perfect harmony with its pastoral setting—the
Le Brassus ski lift is but 100 feet
from one side of the farmhouse, Swiss cows
all outfitted with bells graze in field a 2-minute
walk away—the farmhouse retains its stone
exterior walls, sheathing the interior in cherry.
Wood ceilings and hardwood floors add to
the rural ambiance. Small details add to the
pleasures of the interior.
But decorative flourishes lie at the periphery of
the renovation. By contrast the defining elements
are the individual watchmaker benches
(or etabli) which were conceived to re-enforce
Blancpain’s core belief that watches are to be
constructed from beginning to end by one
watchmaker. Although they are thoroughly
modern in their adaptation to perfect lighting,
supply of air (used to control dust), brushes,
and multiple height adjustments, the etablis
have their roots in the past with their arrangements
of drawers and solid cherry wood con-
struction. Catalogs abound serving up choices
of modular watchmaking benches for the factories
of other houses. These Blancpain watchmaker
benches were entirely bespoke and
hand made. If a watchmaker is going to work
on a single watch for as long as one year—as
is the case with the 1735—it was vital that his
or her post be perfect in every detail.
As the farmhouse is the home of Blancpain’s
most complicated timepieces, the organization
of the building was done according to complication.
Occupying the summit of Blancpain’s
constellation of watches, the most complicated
series produced automatic wristwatch in the
world, the 1735, merits its own room at the
summit of the farmhouse, the top floor. There
are but two benches in the 1735 Room, as but
two horlogers devote themselves to the yearlong
process required to fashion a 1735.

Across the hall from the 1735 Room is
found the Finishing Room. The traditional
and complex finishes applied to components
of Blancpain’s complicated timepieces
can only be realized through painstaking
handiwork, applied by the master craftsmen
in the Finishing Room. It is here where the
clock is most decidedly rolled back two hundred
years. Working with materials and tools
developed by their forbearers, the Blancpain
craftsmen pay homage to tradition as they
patiently apply a wide variety of polishes,
swirls, stripes to components.
The next floor down is home to three
rooms. The largest is the Grand Complication
Room. It is here where Blancpain’s
watchmakers give birth to minute repeaters,
split-seconds chronographs, combined
complications and equation of time watches.
Across the hall is the Tourbillon Room,
which as the name suggests, is the locus
for the creation of all of the Blancpain
tourbillon variations.
The first level features the Training Room,
the Quality Control Room and Entry Hall. Not
The moon phase clerestory gives just
a hint of the special 1735 work room
which lies on the other side of the hall
12 | 13
the largest room in the farmhouse, the
Training Room is nonetheless key to the vitality
of everything else. At Blancpain, complication
savoir faire is passed from one generation
of watchmaker to the following on a
one-on-one basis. Working side by side with
a master, rising watchmakers acquire the skills
to add new complications to their repertoires.
What better arrangement than facing
benches?
As the name implies the Quality Control
Room is the place for final checks and adjustments
for Blancpain’s complicated timepieces.
On the occasion of the re-opening, the
Entry Hall did double duty. Not only were its
wooden display cases there to tempt the invited
guests with treasures from the collection,
Blancpain used the occasion to debut a special
exhibit entitled “Tradition of Innovation”.
The Tradition of Innovation highlighted world
firsts, world records and ground-breaking
innovations developed by Blancpain’s craftsmen
over the years. Punctuating the event,
Blancpain debuted yet another world record,
the caliber 5621 Women’s Perpetual Calendar,
which features the world’s thinnest perpetual
calendar movement. When it leaves
Le Brassus, the Tradition of Innovation Exhibit
will tour the world.
The ensemble of the farmhouse and its furnishings
re-affirms Blancpain’s adherence
to its values. How better to inspire its most
talented watchmakers—and, hidden benefit,
attract the best and the brightest from the
Vallée de Joux—than to offer the warmth of
cherry wood, the serenity of intimate quiet
workrooms and the family atmosphere of
watchmaking from eras past?
Yet another benefit comes from the renovation
project. With the farmhouse enlarged
and restored, Blancpain was able to move
watchmakers who create its less complicated
watches to facilities immediately adjacent.
Since December 2005, 100% of Blancpain’s
production has been located in Le Brassus.
■

IN TIME

14 | 15
APOTHEOSIS TEMPORIS:
A CLASSICAL COLLECTION
RE-DEFINED
IN THIS AGE OF BUSINESS CASUAL WHERE THERE IS ONE LOOK NO
MATTER THE OCCASION, WE FORGET WHAT IT MEANT TO BE WELL
TURNED OUT IN THE GLORY YEARS OF THE EARLY ‘60S.
BY JEFFREY S. KINGSTON

IN TIME
Then the mantra was correctness for
each occasion, and a gentleman’s wardrobe
was defined by those dictates. Business
attire: white shirt, narrow tie, dark suit, hat,
black wing-tipped shoes. Formal attire: single
button tux, stud fastenings, patent leather
shoes. Cocktail attire: blue blazer with
gold buttons and single vent, gray trousers,
black loafers. Visit to academia: corduroy
coat with elbow patches, brown loafers.
Touch football on the lawn: crew-necked
sweater (with only a white tee shirt underneath),
khakis (no belt), sneakers.
There is something of that spirit in the special
edition Blancpain set “Apotheosis
Temporis”, a set of eight watches, each conceived
to fit the demands of a different occasion,
in this case the demands of the most classical
watch specialties. Thoroughly researching the
development of watch complications, including
re-examining its earlier issue of the Six
Masterpieces, Blancpain has composed a set
of eight individual complications to outfit
perfectly a watch wardrobe with one each of
the most traditional specialties of haute
horlogerie.
Each of these eight watches is dressed in a
platinum case, with a platinum deployant
buckle. All have a special black dial reserved
for watches of this set.
The best way to understand how
Blancpain has evolved the Six Masterpieces
to arrive at the Apotheosis Temporis is to
APOTHEOSIS TEMPORIS IS A SET OF EIGHT WATCHES
EACH CONCEIVED TO FIT THE DEMANDS OF A
DIFFERENT OCCASION, IN THIS CASE THE DEMANDS
OF THE MOST CLASSICAL WATCH SPECIALITIES.
think of a “comparative tasting”. No, I do
not propose that like oenophiles we
solemnly swirl the watches all the while sniffing
to extract nuance then pompously intone
an adjectival riff on what we imagine
we have just experienced. But I do propose
that we illuminate our powers of observation,
so as to appreciate what years between
the two sets have brought.
First of course there are now eight
watches instead of six (no points for that
observation, that being the equivalent of the
pronouncement that a wine at a tasting is
“red”). Even if remarking on the existence of
two additions does not reveal extraordinary

APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
Ultraplate
APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
Quantième à
Phases de Lune
APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
Chronographe
Monopoussoir à
Rattrapante
APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
Equation Marchante
Pure
16 | 17
APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
Time Zone
APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
Quantième
Perpétuel
avec Correcteurs
sous cornes
APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
Tourbillon
APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
Répétition
Minutes

IN TIME
powers of perception, the significance of the
two additional watches does earn points.
Blancpain realized that the original set of six
lacked two thoroughly classical complications:
two time zones (“double fuseaux
horaires”) and equation of time. We will turn
to the refinements of these two pieces after
we have finished extracting more from our
comparative tasting.
The next difference gets many points if
you spotted it, for it is not apparent from the
faces of the watches themselves. Unlike the
Six Masterpieces, all of the watches in
Apotheosis Temporis are automatic. In the
Six Masterpiece set the Tourbillon, Minute
Repeater and Ultraplate were all manual
wind. In addition to the convenience that
automatic winding affords, Blancpain graces
the Apotheosis set with a special custom
eight rotor winding box.
Too hard? Now an easy one to spot. Size.
The Masterpiece Set was realized in the then
standard Blancpain 34 mm case. The
Apotheosis Temporis is turned out in the
Villeret 38 mm case.
The set includes
a winding box
APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
Equation du Temps
Marchante
Showing the solar hand
and the ellipsoidal cam
“programming“ solar time
Sunset over
Lac de Joux

18 | 19

IN TIME
The village church
of Le Brassus

20 | 21
Another difference, movement finishing.
Am I not playing fair? Asking you to spot a
difference visible from the back of the
watch, but, thus far, only displaying photos
of the front??? Really, honestly, there is
neither legerdemain nor trickery. If
you are a thorough student of
Blancpain you would know from
the face of the watch, which I have
showed you, that the Apotheosis set is
of the Villeret style, which means that
you don’t yet have to actually see a photo
of the movement to know that its finishing
would be carried out in the Villeret “ton sur
ton” style. Although the eight watches
EACH OF THESE EIGHT WATCHES IS DRESSED IN A PLATINUM
CASE, WITH A PLATINUM DEPLOYANT BUCKLE. ALL HAVE
A SPECIAL BLACK DIAL RESERVED FOR WATCHES OF THIS SET.
APOTHEOSIS TEMPORIS
Time Zone
showing two time zones

IN TIME
adopt the understatement of the Villeret ton
sur ton movement finish, a little flourish was
reserved for the winding rotors. There are
four distinct rotor designs in the set, each of
the rotors being realized in platinum.
The next difference if spotted earns you a
doctorate in Blancpain history. Three of the
watches in the Apotheosis Temporis set are
entirely new to the Blancpain collection this
year. The Villeret Perpetual With Correctors
Under The Lugs debuted at Basel this year.
Outside of the Apotheosis Temporis set it is
available in rose gold and platinum with
opaline dial.
The next two items really qualify one as a
particularly shrewd professor of Blancpain if
you not only spotted them as new to
Blancpain this year outside the set, but also
absorbing detail, you marked that they
debuted themselves as limited editions. The
Villeret Equation of Time debuted this year
at Basel in a limited edition of 50 pieces in
platinum, with opaline dial.
Of course, keep in mind that for all the
watches of Apotheosis Temporis, the combination
of platinum case and black dial is
reserved for the set. ■
APOTHEOSIS
TEMPORIS
Quantième Perpétuel
avec Correcteurs sous
cornes
Moon drenched
shores of Lac de Joux

22 | 23

ART DE VIVRE

WHILE AWAY
AN AFTERNOON
RESTAURANT PHILIPPE ROCHAT
24 | 25
THE MOST COVETED ACCOLADE IN ALL OF GASTRONOMY IS THE AWARD
OF THREE STARS FROM THE GUIDE MICHELIN. SO RARIFIED IS THE
ATMOSPHERE AT THIS STELLAR LEVEL THAT BUT TWO RESTAURANTS IN
SWITZERLAND HAVE ACHIEVED THIS SUMMIT; ONE OF THE TWO IS
PHILIPPE ROCHAT’S LEGENDARY HÔTEL DE VILLE RESTAURANT IN CRISSIER.
BY JEFFREY S. KINGSTON

ART DE VIVRE
Named “Hôtel de Ville”, the restaurant is
located in the center of the Crissier village
situated on the hill above Lausanne
There is a natural bond between
Philippe Rochat and Blancpain as he
was born in the Vallée de Joux home of
Blancpain’s Le Brassus atelier. Rather than
pursue the path of horlogerie, for which the
Vallée de Joux is known, Rochat’s mother
gave him the love of good food and inspired
him even at the age of nine to create
it. Just a few years after that early beginning,
he began to dream of becoming a great
chef and took up the calling.
Rochat boasts one
of the great wine
cellars of the world
For 17 years he worked alongside Fredy
Girardet at the Hôtel de Ville as the restaurant
acquired world-wide renown. Upon
Fredy’s retirement nine years ago, Philippe
made the restaurant his. Although the philosophy
of relentless searching for the finest
ingredients in season, respect for the purity
of flavors and lightness in preparation carries
on, Philippe has firmly placed his signature
on the cuisine with his constant invention of
new preparations. Each change of season is
cause for celebration among gourmets
around the world, as Rochat introduces new
menus conceived around the very best ingredients
then in the market.
Spurning the trend of other celebrity
chefs who have opened branch restaurants
separated by thousands of miles from
their roots, Rochat is content to work his
magic in Crissier. It is here where he
remains close to the sources of the finest
ingredients in the world and where he can

OWNER OF FIVE BLANCPAIN WATCHES ACQUIRED
OVER THE YEARS, PHILIPPE ROCHAT’S DAILY WATCH
IS A WHITE GOLD BLANCPAIN TOURBILLON,
WORN EVEN AS HE PRESIDES OVER THE KITCHEN IN
HIS CHEF’S WHITES.
26 | 27
devote himself to his constant drive to
refine and invent.
He has known Blancpain for nearly twenty
years. Owner of five Blancpain watches
acquired over the years, his daily watch is a
white gold Blancpain tourbillon, worn even
as he presides over the kitchen in his chef’s
whites. His choice of Blancpain for his timepiece
is reciprocated as Rochat is Blancpain’s
choice of chef for important occasions.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

ART DE VIVRE
ONE OF LIFE’S GREAT LUXURIES
IS A LEISURELY, GRACIOUSLY SERVED,
RELAXED LUNCH.
One of life’s great luxuries is a leisurely,
graciously served, relaxed lunch. Not
only has this precious civilizing grace been
banished from our working lives, to be replaced
by cardboard sandwiches wolfed
down at one’s desk, but it has also withered
and nearly died off from our leisure lives.
“Who has time to sit for lunch? We have to
hurry off and play!”
So what happens in the confluence of the
following circumstances: it is a cold, misty,
forbidding day in Western Switzerland; the
afternoon meeting has been cancelled; every
tourist attraction worthy of a visit has been
visited and … confessing freely, one of my
favorite restaurants is just around the bend.
SOOOOOOOO—LET’S DO LUNCH! Not
just anywhere but at Rochat in Crissier.
So off I went to rediscover the pleasure of
the hugely satisfying and uplifting ritual of a
magnificent lunch.
At Rochat, every meal, particularly a decadent
lunch is a fête. So if lunch it would be to
while away a misty cold December afternoon,
it would not just be three plates and out, but
the full on big menu. I had this firmly in mind
as M. Villeneuve, the maître d’hôtel, showed
me to my table.
Great restaurants depend upon a great
maître d’hôtel. M. Villeneuve has been at this
restaurant for decades, beginning with the
The ratio of chefs per dinner is astounding—Rochat leads a brigade of more than twenty
reign of Fredy Girardet, and not missing a
beat, into the reign of Philippe Rochat. I think
of him as a great opera conductor. His gaze
takes in the entire room, and with barely perceived
winks, nods, gestures and an occasional
word, he directs all the waiters and sommeliers.
Under his command the room quietly
hums with perfect service. So after a pleasant
chat with M. Villeneuve, ordering was particularly
easy: the BIG menu s’il vous plaît!
When M. Villeneuve departed with my
order, I took in the rest of the room. As this
was Friday lunch the room had a high proportion
of what were obviously businessmen.
But business in Western Switzerland
is different than in many places. No one
was headed back to the office to turn out
an-other marketing report that afternoon.
It was plain that everyone there was taking
the remains of the day off. I was particularly
delighted to listen in on a conversation at
the table next to mine where the entire

focus of their first half hour together was
not how the foreign subsidiaries were
managing their order flow, but which
Condrieu would marry best with the several
truffle dishes they had planned!
The meal started off with a glass of particularly
fine, yeasty champagne
(Philippe Rochat selection) and an elongated,
almost tray-like plate, carrying the
amuse-bouches. Arrayed in a line were a sea
urchin shell holding a veloute of oursins
from Ireland; a small scallop shell with a
vinaigrette de pétoncles noirs and finally
crissed crossed shells of “couteaux” (knife) or
sometimes called “ciseaux” (scissors) in
French. Oursins is one fish amateur cooks
never tangle with. Rochat produced a velvety,
slightly sweet thick velouté served just
warm, a simply lovely first bite on the road
to an elaborate menu. The pétoncles were
particularly small in diameter served as slices
Gros spaghetti aux truffes blanches d’Alba
in the shell, barely translucent and accented
by a herb vinaigrette. Could I have 3, no
make that 10, of these? Finally the couteaux
were taken out of the shell coated in a dark
stock, offset by a balsamic vinaigrette, placed
as chunks back on the shell and decorated
with finely piped crème fraîche.
The next course showed the separation
between Rochat and ordinary excellent
cooks. It was a gelée de caviar d’osciètre
acidulée aux pommes vertes. This was an
incredibly generous mound of osciètre
caviar which arrived perched on top of a
pale white gelée flecked with tiny chards
of green apple. Of course the pairing of
caviar with citrus, is rather normal. That is
the stuff of ordinary chefs. The green apple
is far finer. Less acid than citrus it provides
a barely perceived background polish to
allow the full flavor of the caviar to shine
through. The texture of the gelée was just
firm enough to carry the tiny caviar balls.
28 | 29
Both senses of taste and texture were fulfilled.
This was a brilliant dish.
The white wine to accompany was a 2000
Puligny Montrachet from Sauzet. Sauzet is
of course an icon in Puligny. Sauzet’s villages
level Puligny performs far above its
appellation. It was an elegant, richly satisfying
Puligny with a hint of spiciness that
struck a nice compromise for the dishes
with which it was paired.
What followed was familiar, a dish I had had
here a year ago. Indeed, if I could imagine
coming to Rochat and having just one
thing, it would be this: gros spaghetti aux
truffes blanches d’Alba. Spaghetti were rolled
into the shape of a hemisphere (imagine a
ball the size of a small mandarin cut in half)
placed into the center of the plate. It was
surrounded by the lightest foamy truffle
sauce and generous slices of white truffle.
The waiter counseled to cut the ball in half
immediately, which released a poached egg

ART DE VIVRE
Aiguillette de Saint-Pierre
yolk and light herbs hidden beneath the spaghetti.
So what one experienced was sensory
overload. The smell of white truffle leaped
from the bowl and one married the truffle
foam and the slices of truffle with its two best
foils, pasta and egg yolk. I cannot imagine a
more hedonistic dish. Nor a more perfect one.
If the first two dishes were studies in black
and white, the color palate changed abruptly
with the arrival of the first fish course,
Aiguillette de Saint-Pierre de Port en Bessin
grillée à la fleur de sel fumée et piment
d'Espelette, gnocchi parisienne aux olives de
Nyons. A flat rectangular platter bore the
grilled St. Pierre, generously salted with coarse
herbed sea salt, surrounded by a luminescent
orange sauce dotted with hunks of pimento
and olive. Surrounding the border were the
gnocchi olive tubes. This was a pure breath
I HAVE OFTEN THOUGHT OF ROCHAT AS A
“YIN YANG” CHEF. IN EACH PLATE HE
STRIVES TO STRIKE A NOTE AND AT THE SAME
TIME OFFSET IT WITH A COUNTER NOTE.

Caviar d’osciètre
of provence on a winter’s day in Switzerland.
St. Pierre is a lovely white fish with a
somewhat chewy texture that needs a great
sauce to spice it up. Rochat provided that
with this boldly spicy orange pimento based
sauce, accented by the salty Nyons olives.
The gnocchi served to provide not only a
textural counterpoint to the St. Pierre, but to
cool the palate for the white wine.
Again came a change in the color palate.
From the brilliant orange of St. Pierre, one
was transported to the chartreuse green of
Grosses langoustines de Bretagne frites
Chlorophylle et tomates confites au jus de
flageolets. The menu description does not
fully capture all the elements of this Rochat
creation. Two giant langoustine were encased
in very thin phylo shell, dusted with
almost microscopic flecks of parsley. They
were surrounded by foamy bright green
sauce with green flageolets and bits of the
tomato confites. But there was even more
hidden away. Between the encasing phylo
shell and the langoustine were flecks of herbs,
principally basil. I have often thought of
Rochat as a “yin yang” chef. In each plate he
strives to strike a note and at the same time
offset it with a counter note. Here one had
the natural sweetness of the langoustines,
playing on the one hand against the very
subtle spice of the basil, in turn modulated
by the earthiness of the beans, then propelled
forward by the almost spicy confites
tomatoes. Another candidate for a one dish
meal. Let me come here and eat just this!
The animal rights and PETA crowd can
now avert their eyes or, better yet, seek out
the nearest exit. The meat course was a
30 |31
carnivore’s delight and a Rochat speciality,
chamois du Tyrol. The filet was no more
than an inch and half in diameter sporting
a rib bone far thinner than my baby
finger. Where do you find meat like
that??? And what size exactly was this
little creature before he met the butcher?
A rib filet and separate mignon were
served perfectly rare, coated with chutney
and surrounded by a dark spicy classic
game sauce. There is no more delectable
venison to be found on the planet. The
meat simply vaporized on the palate. The
spice of the meat was accented by the
subtle chutney coating. The meat itself was
perfect, but there was a little treasure
sitting by itself on the right upper side of
the plate. This was small layered cylinder
that featured slices of celery root alternating

ART DE VIVRE
DESSERT AT ROCHAT CONSISTS OF NO LESS
THAN FOUR COURSES, NOT COUNTING THE
PETIT FOURS AND CHOCOLATES
with a farce of finely chopped bits of pineapple
and turnips. Brilliant! This could have
been a course all by itself. It set off the richness
of the chamois and its game sauce
perfectly.
For the red, I found a great half bottle of 99
Trapet Gevery Chambertin vieilles vignes. Like
the Sauzet which proceeded it, this is a burgundy
that is far better than its villages level
appellation. It had everything one seeks out
from Chambertin: a blackberry cassis spice,
earth tones, vanilla and hint of chocolate. It
had more than enough power and stuffing to
go with the game.
There is a season for game, and there is a
season for cheese as well. This being after
October, the season for Mont d’Or cheese
was in full swing. Mont d’Or comes from the
nearby Jura and only is found from October
to April. At its best, it is a runny, unctuously
creamy, rich cheese that, together with
Reblochon, is perfect for finishing off the red
wine remaining after the meat course. So of
course, I chose both receiving a particularly
generous portion of flowing Mont d’Or. But
remember that Rochat’s village of Crissier is
but a short drive from Gruyère. Sadly, there
is too much supermarket cheese spewed
Mirroir Cassis The dessert trolley
from factories and sold as “Gruyère”. But
laboring out of sight from the mass market
are small artisanal producers. What they
create is a different substance from the rubbery,
cased in shrink wrap, yellow bricks that
present themselves to the mass market. It is
Gruyères with real character. Rochat offers a
full range from mild, through mi-salé and
onto vieux Gruyères. The mi-salé has a nut
quality that is delightful. But the real winner
is the vieux Gruyère that introduces caramel
overtones.
Apart from the range of perfect cheeses,
there is another reason never to pass up
the cheese trolley here – the bread! As with
any self-respecting three star, Rochat bakes
his own bread, and good they are. But the
special bread basket that materializes as the
cheese trolley departs is a wonder. It abounds
with crunchy baguettes, elegant couronnes,
rustic country breads and best of all fig bread.

I had now worked my way up to dessert,
which at Rochat consists of no less than four
courses NOT counting the petits fours and
chocolates. The first dessert was Miroir de
cassis aux baies de sureau crème glacée aux
poires William's du Valais. This was a cassis
mousse crowned with a shimmering shiny
cassis glaze accompanied by a wonderful
pear william ice cream. Yin and yang again.
The pear william eau de vie, creamy as it
was, had just enough bite to play off the
miroir de cassis.
The parade of desserts then turned to first
a plate of intense and perfect sorbets and
then a plate of ice creams, in each case a
selection of three. Sorbets were grapefruit,
mango and raspberry; ice creams were praline,
vanilla and yogurt-lime. The vanilla ice
cream alone is worth the trip to Crissier:
positively black with bits of vanilla bean, it
shames all others.
After all of this comes the challenge, the
last act in the ballet, the dessert trolley. It is
always entertaining to look at the expressions
on faces around the room as diners,
who have made it this far, confront a trolley
laden with enormous selection of tarts and
poached fruits—have as many as you like.
Smiles of guilt, eyes bulging in disbelief,
hands rubbing together, everyone has at
least something. For me the one constant is
the tarte vaudoise. This is a tarte whose filling
is a highly reduced crème of cinnamon. With
that and a sensational bittersweet chocolate
tart I surrendered. Well, not exactly, since irresistible
chocolates materialized with coffee.
By this point, the afternoon had now
moved to its final stages and, surprise, the
mists had separated allowing for just a bit of
late afternoon glow. I know that it did not
atone for the caloric intake, but I managed
to race off to Glion, above Montreux, and
jog until enveloped in darkness. All in all, a
perfect day. ■
PHILIPPE ROCHAT
RESTAURANT DE L’HÔTEL DE VILLE
1023 Crissier
Phone: +41 (0)21 634 05 05
Fax: +41 (0)21 634 24 64
www.philippe-rochat.ch
32 | 33

IN TIME
Villeret Perpetual Calendar
SI

DEWAYS
As it recounts a several day vacation,
harsher wags might substitute the
word “debauch” for “vacation”, in California’s
Southern Coastal wine country, the
principle protagonist of the film, a nebbish
oeneophile, spouts opinions on wines,
waxing lyrical on the fragility, caprice, delicacy
and virtues of pinot noir, and sourly
denouncing merlot shouting “if anyone
orders merlot… I’m leaving!”. Result: Sales
of pinot noir have risen more than 34% and
sales of merlot have plummeted.
34 | 35
ONE OF THE FILM SUCCESS STORIES OF THE PAST YEAR WAS
“SIDEWAYS”. WIDELY ACCLAIMED, IT WAS NOMINATED FOR THE
OSCAR BEST FILM OF THE YEAR, WHICH IT DID NOT WIN, AND
WAS NOMINATED FOR THE OSCAR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF THOMAS HAYDEN CHURCH WHICH
IT DID WIN. SUCH WAS THE NOTORIETY OF SIDEWAYS
THAT IT HAS HAD A PROFOUND INFLUENCE OUTSIDE OF
ITS ENTERTAINMENT DOMAIN.
6057-3642-53B
The story is what
is not seen. Note
a complete absence
of correctors on the
side and the resulting
purity of line
BY JEFFREY S. KINGSTON
Although it seems the film has achieved
enormous commercial success and even
turned the wine markets topsey turvey, no
one can explain the title. Just what does
“Sideways” mean? Is it a slang description
for people who drink too much? The two
principle characters in the film, both losers,
consume far too much wine. Is it a reference
to the way bottles are stored? No one
knows. The film is accepted for what it is
and evidently for what it says about wine,
mysterious title and all.

IN TIME
Neatly tucked away, the calendar
correctors are nestled under the lugs
When I first laid eyes on Blancpain’s new
Villeret Perpetual Calendar, fresh from
having seen the film, its title immediately
popped into my head. The reason had nothing
to do with the merits of pinot noir vs.
merlot. No, the catalyst that brought the
word “sideways” to the fore, was seeing the
marvel of a completely clean side profile of
the watch. Normally one expects a calendar
watch, even a perpetual calendar watch, to
have correctors arrayed along its sides. However
with the new Villeret Perpetual, Blancpain
has achieved elegance and a purity of
line when the watch is viewed “sideways”
by completely removing the customary and
necessary correctors from the visible flanks
of the case. The meaning of the title
“Sideways” may forever be obscure when
applied to the popular film, but shifted to
the Villeret perpetual fits perfectly!
It is rare that the innovation of a new
watch lies in what is not seen rather than
what is seen. This seems to be particularly
true in this age of larger, bolder, yes, even
bling watches. However, Blancpain conceived
the Villeret line to embody the most
refined, elegant, traditional horological values.
What those values teach is restraint and
understatement in all of the features of the
watch. The cases are round and classic. The
movements finished ton sur ton (which
means a single restrained white metal color,
with no blued screws, yellow engraving or
other contrasting colors), with even the gold
winding rotor finished in rhodium, so as to
not draw too much attention to itself.
Would it not seem natural to carry these
principles out to the correctors ordinarily set
into the sides of the watch? How fitting then
to refine Blancpain’s most understated line
by taking what is normally seen in a calendar
watch, the correctors, and making it no
longer seen. This is refinement by removal of
complication.
Want purity of line? Just erase the
correctors. Notionally it is appealing.
Trouble is that one brutal reality appears
bringing freezing rain. Correctors are
a fact of life for complex calendar watches.
They cannot be simply removed leaving the
owner to fend for himself otherwise. There
must be some means afforded to set the
day, date, month, leap year and moon
phase of the watch. Since the era of calendar
pocket watches, the solution has been to
place correctors into the sides of the case.
With a push of a setting tool (which is a
small cylindrical metal tool supplied with the
watch; it should be said, however, that really
knowledgeable collectors prefer to use a
simple wooden toothpick, because if one’s
hand slips while using it, the watch will
never be scratched) the correctors, connected
internally to the calendar plate of the
watch movement, advance by one day,
month, or date each calendar indication.
Taking care to read the owner’s manual to
be sure when it is “safe” to set each of
these indications, correctors supply the
necessary means to take a watch which is
new or has been stopped for a period and

set it to the current day, date, month, leap
year position and moon phase. Thus,
Blancpain’s hopes to enhance the elegance
of the Villeret line by removing the correctors
from the side of the watch depended
upon finding an alternative location for
them.
If not the sides, where?
The possibilities were inherently
limited; only the
dial and back of the watch
remained as choices for corrector
locations. Obviously, the only hidden location
would be the underside of watch. But
how could correctors be placed there and
still manipulate the calendar plate of the
movement, which is located just under the
dial?
Blancpain’s solution, now the subject of
patent, was ingenious and a first for
watches. The correctors are placed under
the lugs, completely out of sight when the
watch is worn. The general idea for this
innovation came no less than from one of
the 1735 watchmakers in Le Brassus. The
Blancpain 1735 is the world’s most complicated
automatic wristwatch: minute repeater,
perpetual calendar, split-seconds
chronograph and tourbillon. This watchmaker,
one of but two who build the
1735, had the inspiration that correctors
IT IS RARE THAT THE INNOVATION OF
could be placed under the lugs, requiring
no changes in the movement, but cleaning
up the lines of the watch.
But even more was gained than cleanliness
of line. Traditional correctors push
directly upon movement components in
order to accomplish a change in an indication
(day, date etc.). Blancpain’s hidden
correctors push as well upon movement
components, but they do so by means of a
lever arm. Look closely at the photo of
prototype case showing the corrector. The
knob of the corrector, which is hidden
under the lugs, is attached to a rotating
shaft, which in turn has a small arm that
A NEW WATCH LIES IN WHAT IS NOT SEEN
RATHER THAN WHAT IS SEEN.
actuates the movement. That small arm
provides leverage. Whereas previously correctors
required a small tool to make a
change, now with the aid of the small
knob and the lever the owner can use the
correctors with but a push of the fingernail.
There was more than a little magic
and subtlety involved in the development
Detail of the corrector
and its integrated spring
36 | 37

IN TIME
1 2
3 4
BLANCPAIN’S SOLUTION, NOW THE SUBJECT OF
PATENT, WAS INGENIOUS AND A FIRST FOR WATCHES.
THE CORRECTORS ARE PLACED UNDER THE LUGS,
COMPLETELY OUT OF SIGHT WHEN THE WATCH IS WORN.
of this first in the world innovation. For
example, Blancpain did want to make the
watch adjustable without use of tools. But
on the other hand, it did not want to make
actuation of the correctors too easy. It would
not do to have the correctors move when
the owner was simply wearing the watch or
taking it on and off. Thus, considerable
effort was devoted to designing a spring
system that was neither too weak nor too
strong, so that corrections would only occur
when they were deliberately commanded. In
A
a bow to tradition, Blancpain does furnish a
small tool for actuating the correctors, if the
convenience of doing it by hand seems too
great a departure from the inconvenience of
the past.
Now that Blancpain has made the correctors
not only more discrete and
easier than ever to use, a few words are in
order about how to use them. With any
watch it is always critically important to
read the owner’s manual before setting or
2 1
push
There are four calendar correctors. 1: date corrector, 2: year and month corrector, 3: day of week corrector, 4: moon phase corrector
push
4 3

using the watch. It is uniformly the case
with calendar watches that the manual will
contain very specific warnings against
changing the calendar settings (using the
correctors) when the watch is set between
certain times of day. Why is that? What is
the reason that for certain times using the
correctors is forbidden?
This is because of the way calendar
mechanisms are constructed. Changes
in day, date, month and moon phase occur
over a period of several hours generally
grouped around midnight. Be careful!
Depending on the calendar mechanism
design, sometimes indications, such as the
moon phase, occur near noon; read the
manual for your watch! Because the
change of an indication absorbs power
from the movement, the changes do not
take place all at once, but instead take
place one at a time. As well, again to minimize
power drain, each change takes place
over a span of time, sometimes a period of
many minutes. Thus, the warning period as
given in the owner’s manual cautions
against making changes with the correctors
for several hours. During the time
changes are occurring, gears, cams or
levers of the movement are engaged to
move an indication to the next day. If a
corrector is pushed during the time of a
change, that is to say when a gear, cam or
lever is engaged, there is a danger that
these components may be damaged with
the force of a corrector push. For similar
reasons, adjusting the time of the watch
backwards during the change cycle risks
damaging engaged components for many
watch designs (this is not the case for the
perpetual calendar mechanism used in the
Blancpain Villeret Perpetual With Correctors
Under the Lugs; it uses a calendar
plate that is tolerant of backwards time
changes. However, other Blancpain perpetual
calendars do not permit backwards
time corrections around the midnight date
change time. The universal rule, Read the
Manual, applies!). ■
This section of the case
shows how the corrector
is installed. The finger
actuates the movement
38 | 39

CLOSE UP

THE PRODIGY
★
EACH BLANCPAIN WATCH IS A PERSONAL CREATION.
MEET ONE OF BLANCPAIN’S RISING YOUNG WATCHMAKERS.
BY JEFFREY S. KINGSTON
40 | 41

CLOSE UP
We live in a time of
all-consuming political correctness.
Such is the power of the political
correctness priests (and for heavens
sake, don’t call them that!) who oversee and
enforce its imperatives that some violations
are more soundly condemned and punished
than, for example, mere murder (for as we
know some circumstances excuse murder as
being politically correct). At the very top of
the politically correct list of malum per se
offenses are stereotypes. In this age where
every group is “a community”, and one must
at all times be “culturally sensitive”, the
utterance of a stereotype is a crime. It will
ruin a political career, justify an expulsion
The world of a
watchmaker exists in
small dimensions
from a university, end a
businessman’s climb up the corporate
ladder, extract approbation even
from one’s children. This we all know. It
is STRICTLY forbidden to speak a stereotype
aloud. We are not even supposed to think
them. So what are we about to do here? We
are going to exploit a loophole and write
about stereotypes.
Naturally there must be ground rules. If you
are a high priest of correctness (or involved
in a close personal relationship with one),
perhaps it would be a good idea to close
the magazine, go to your computer and with
a simple click of your mouse transport yourself
to a web page with the 15-day weather
forecast for Patagonia. On the other hand,
if we can all agree we are here among
friends and we harbor no ill will towards our
fellow men and women, inclusive of all
communities, sensitive and insensitive
(which embraces all races, creeds, religions,
ages, ethnicities, persuasions, proclivities,
heights, circumferences, hair colors, tastes
in music, and willingness to eat animal
products), we can have a little fun off
the record (which means I never wrote this
article; you never read it and it rains a lot in
Patagonia).
Ground rules settled and mice unclicked,
let’s dish the dirt with a few wicked (but not
insensitive) stereotypes.

1. Strong-willed effective politicians, with the
mettle and backbone to change the course
of a nation or history itself must be MEN.
Ooops. Don’t say that to Margaret
Thatcher. She was strong-willed enough
to be nicknamed “La Dame de Fer”, by
the French press. Strong enough to go
toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball with burly,
brutish, scowling coal mine union leaders
and make them be the first to blink.
She had enough mettle systematically to
yank the economy of her nation forward
transforming it from morbidity to the
most powerful engine in Europe at the
time.
2. Muscle men may “pump you up” but beyond
their pecs, abs, delts and lats have no
other abilities, much less a brain.
Well, not exactly. Arnold may have flexed
at the start of his career, but since then
it has been his intellect that has made
him not only a successful actor, but a
hugely successful business man. Now in
his fourth career (muscle man, actor,
businessman, and politician), he has
shown himself to be mentally nimble
enough to outmaneuver and beat back
a pack of hostile legislators as governor
of the sixth-largest economy in the
world.
42 | 43
3. Great chefs are all fat, out of shape, rolly
polly men.
Again not quite. Does Philippe Rochat look
fat and rolly polly to you? (See page 24)
Philippe is one of only two Michelin three star
chefs in Switzerland and is widely esteemed to
be in that incredibly select group of the ten
best chefs in the world. By the way, don’t even
try and keep up with him skating up hills or
climbing them on a bike. On a good day, Lance
Armstrong can outclimb him. But you can’t!
One more thing. Don’t intone the other
part of this stereotype, the part that insists
that great chefs be male, in front of Alice

CLOSE UP

Manually calibrating
the balance spring
of the tourbillon.
This traditional
hand-craft method
is still practiced
by Blancpain
Waters. This stereotype also trespasses on
her turf. This woman chef not only is one of
the most celebrated in the world, but she
transformed restaurant cooking in the
United States. More than that, she completely
revolutionized food production and
food markets. Remember spam in the US
actually is a food made up of meat parts of
je ne sais quoi. Thanks to Alice, markets now
brim with artisanal, organic, sparkling fresh
ingredients.
Had enough? So far our stereotypes seem
not to be holding up very well. Maybe there
is a reason these things should never be
spoken. It’s because—to put a fine point on
it—they are so often wrong. But living
dangerously, let’s spin another one.
4. Watchmakers who work on the most
complicated watches are grizzled gray old
men.
Well, we seem to have put a false foot down
again. And to demonstrate that point, enter
Blancpain’s 22 year old prodigy. In a little
over two years of working at Blancpain, his
first and only employer since graduating
from the Ecole Technique du Vallée de Joux
(Switzerland’s most prestigious watchmaking
school), he has sprinted up the ladder
of his profession to work in Le Brassus
on Blancpain’s complicated watches. I first
met him during a visit to the atelier to learn
about the plans for the renovation (now
completed) of the farmhouse. Accustomed
as I was to seeing if not grizzled, at least
senior watchmakers working at the
benches in Le Brassus, I gazed in
and saw this unmistakably young,
(could this even be a teenager?), hunched
over a bench (or if you are building your
French watchmaking vocabulary “etabli”)
upon which was perched a tourbillon. Freely
confessing to age prejudice, I lurched to halt,
mouth gaping with the same disbelief as if I
had seen Paris Hilton sliding into the captain’s
seat of a 747. Summoning my most
diplomatic French, I muttered something
sotto voce to the senior watchmakers squiring
me around about le jeune homme in
the atelier with a tourbillon! “Of course!”
they replied he is one of our most talented
young watchmakers. Two days later, attending
the Blancpain summer picnic in
Lausanne, along the shores of Lac Léman I
struck up a conversation with him. After
amiably chatting the usual cocktail party
… AND OF THOSE THREE GRADUATES FROM
WATCHMAKING SCHOOL TWO CHOSE BLANCPAIN
TO BEGIN THEIR CAREERS.
fluff, I mentioned that I had seen him the
other day up in Le Brassus working on a
tourbillon. I might as well have thrown a
switch. Immediately his eyes sparkled and
his demeanor became all business. Indeed,
that was the first tourbillon upon which he
had worked and making that unmistakably
Gaullic gesture of thumb and forefinger
brought to the lips, it was working “sweetly”.
At once, I concluded I must write a story
of how this 22 year old has achieved so
much in his profession.
44 | 45

CLOSE UP
His story begins, as it must, with his
schooling. Born in Crissier, he has lived
for the past 14 years in the Vallée de Joux
near Le Sentier. Originally pushed by his
parents towards a career in medicine, he concluded
early on that was not to be his profession.
Intrigued by things mechanical, and particularly
pleased by solving mechanical problems,
he took the entrance exam to enter
watchmaking school. Places in the Ecole
Technique de la Vallée de Joux do not come
easily. While it may be the case that young
Swiss are spared the schemes and games,
professional application counselors, essay
coaches, parent manipulations, and phony
“hooks” that have now become de rigueur
for admission to prestigious US colleges and
universities, securing a spot in the Ecole
Technique is nonetheless demanding and
competitive. Only a very small percentage of
the applicants gain a spot.
The curriculum consumes four years and
culminates with the CFC Diplôme (“Certificat
Fédéral de Capacité de Horlogerie” Federal
certificate of watchmaking competence). If
admission to the Ecole was difficult, staying
till the end and achieving the diplôme was
also not a cakewalk. Of the 14 students in
his class only eight survived the examination
process. Of the eight, five chose not to pursue
immediately a watchmaking career, preferring
instead to be technicians, either working
in laboratories designing watches or
working on old watch restoration. Thus, at
the end there were only three graduates who
entered the classical watchmaking world.
And of those three graduates from watchmaking
school (all of whom enjoyed offers
from throughout the industry) two chose
Blancpain to begin their careers.
Why Blancpain? Because Blancpain approaches
watchmaking holistically. Watchmakers
learn from day one how to build
watches from A to Z. This stands in contrast
to the practice of many others in the industry
who compartmentalize the tasks. Elsewhere,
young watchmakers may spend long periods
of time doing only watch regulation or mounting
of movements into cases.
Of course, A to Z, did not begin with tourbillons.
It began with building the 1150
movement, Blancpain’s superb 100 hour
power reserve work horse. Soon thereafter, he
graduated to working upon 1150 powered

Blancpains with complications such as the
triple date moon phase and GMT.
Along the way, he gained experience in the
950 base movement, which is used in the
Blancpain Lady Bird.
Next came the perpetual calendar. As he
recounted this progression of ever more
complicated watches, I interrupted. How
did it come to pass that he had become
experienced in so many different movements
and complications in such a short
period of time, when his peers from the
Ecole Technique might still be stuck working
on their first movement, or perhaps even
just a few elements of that movement? His
answer was simple and insightful: it is all a
question of motivation. For him watchmaking
is not a job, it is a passion.
He had a very
clever method
for gaining assignments
on new things.
When he saw another
watchmaker working
on a complication on which he had yet to
gain experience, he devoted time to observing
the new techniques and asking questions.
Never once at Blancpain was he turned
down in these requests.
So step by step, he has moved up the ladder
to tourbillons. It is clear that tourbillons
please him a great deal. He appreciates the
delicacy of the tourbillon cage and the nearly
microscopic components contained within it.
He clearly is proud that he quickly mastered
the level of concentration on the details
of this delicate mechanism which is demanded
of any watchmaker who works upon it.
This then provoked another question. When
working on something this difficult, does he
ever find himself cornered and frustrated
and forced to put down the task? My
question clearly had stumbled into territory
familiar to every watchmaker who works
upon taxing complications. “Yes”, he confessed,
there are times when a technique
“makes his head feel two times its size”, but
rather than put the task aside to resume it
later (when presumably the swelling will
have subsided), he prefers to stick with the
problem until it is solved.
So where does he go from here? What is
to be the next challenge after the tourbillon?
46 | 47
Already he had set
his sights on new
ground: split-seconds
chronographs! Indeed,
working beside
him—the neighboring
bench, if you will—was a watchmaker
devoted to the Blancpain, Le Brassus
Collection, split-seconds flyback perpetual
chronograph. The observations and questions
had begun and he was certain that the
split-seconds was to be his next stop as he
climbs the ladder.
And what of life in the Vallée de Joux.
How can we put this delicately? As romantic
as the notion of the cradle of watchmaking
may seem to collectors, this remote lake valley
perched in the Jura mountains, has never
been described as offering the throbbing,
pulsating scintillating night life of London,
IMMEDIATELY HIS EYES SPARKLED AND HIS DEMEANOR BECAME ALL
BUSINESS. INDEED, THAT WAS THE FIRST TOURBILLON UPON WHICH HE HAD
WORKED AND MAKING THAT UNMISTAKABLY GAULLIC GESTURE OF THUMB
AND FOREFINGER BROUGHT TO THE LIPS, IT WAS WORKING “SWEETLY”.
Careful inspection of
a Tourbillon Grande Date
Paris or New York. So is there at least one
night spot? Indeed, there is. A discotheque.
Which he has visited but once, and then only
to humor his sister who insisted he go.
Instead he seeks out the pleasures in which
the Vallée excels, nature, sport (did you
know that Blancpain has a small ski lift but
50 yards from the Le Brassus atelier, which
on a perfect Friday afternoon, with fresh
powder snow empties the etablis) and quiet
evenings with friends over fondue. ■

IN TIME
SHORT STORIES 2005
FOLLOWING THE BASEL FAIR FROM 2005 WE TAKE A SHORT TOUR
THROUGH SOME OF THOSE INTRODUCTIONS NOW IN THE SHOPS
BY JEFFREY S. KINGSTON
FLYBACK GRANDE DATE
AQUA LUNG GRANDE DATE
There are trends we deplore and those we
applaud. To deplore (a personal top 10):
1. Bigger and bigger SUVs
2. Longer and more outrageous football
“touchdown dances”
3. Wasabi in French Haute Cuisine
4. Increasing numbers of impossible to
find and use “features” in Microsoft
software
5. Too many megapixels, particularly those
that come out just after you shelled out
for that new camera
6. Photo radar on every millimeter of European
roads
7. The incredible shrinking snow skis,
now tiny little jobs that make teeny little
moguls. Call them “mini-me” skis
8. TV cable “news” programs where
everyone yells at once
9. People who scream into their mobile
phones in restaurants, particularly
London restaurants
10. Fewer and fewer flights with boarding
gates at European airports. Let your first
class flight begin pressing the flesh,
Tokyo subway-style, with your fellow air
travelers on a boarding bus, the knapsack
toting bunch troweling trenches in
visages of the unlucky victims pressed in
from behind
Now that we have that off the chest, at least
one trend to applaud:
1. Large date watches
It is one of life’s cruel ironies that as many
of us advance in age and gain the stature
and means to acquire fine time pieces our
near vision abandons us making the reading
of lovingly finished dials ever more difficult.
Our savior is the Grande Date, a feature
prized not only by those with the near vision
affliction but as well by those, vision perfect,
who appreciate dial harmony.
This year Blancpain introduces two new
Grande Date models, the Flyback Grande
Date and the steel Aqua Lung Grande Date.
Flyback Grande Date. Long one of the
icons in the Blancpain collection has been
the Flyback Chronograph. In a new larger
40 mm size, the new Flyback Grande Date
carries over all of the core elements
that have distinguished the Flyback and
made it a must for connoisseurs of
chronographs: column wheel design for
supple smooth control of and creamy
button feel for all chronograph start/
stop and reset functions; vertical clutch
actuation of the chronograph for flawless,
jump-free starting and stopping; flyback
capability, which, with a single push
of the return to zero button automatically
stops the chronograph, resets it to zero
and restarts.
Now with the Grande Date, legibility is
emphasized. To maintain harmony of the
dial, the date disks are black to blend subtly
the display into the rest of the dial.
A classic of the house refreshed,
the Flyback Grande Date

IT IS ONE OF LIFE’S CRUEL IRONIES THAT AS MANY
OF US ADVANCE IN AGE AND GAIN THE STATURE
AND MEANS TO ACQUIRE FINE TIME PIECES OUR
NEAR VISION ABANDONS US MAKING THE READING
OF LOVINGLY FINISHED DIALS EVER MORE DIFFICULT.
Aqua Lung Grande Date. For many years
the Aqua Lung in its several versions has
been one of Blancpain’s most popular diving
watches. It, together with its other diving
siblings, the Fifty Fathoms, Anniversary Fifty
Fathoms, and Concept Fifty Fathoms, is
unique in the world of diving watches in
that they offer an extraordinarily long
power reserves in their derivations of the
Caliber 1150.
The Aqualung Grande Date is powered by
the Caliber 6950 (based on the 1150) whose
283 components deliver a 70 hour power
Dial Side of the Aqua Lung
Grande Date. Note the mirror polish
on the edge of the plate
reserve. Viewing the movement through the
clear case back, all of the finishing motifs of
the Léman series are visible: traditionally
produced (heat method) blued screws,
rhodium-plated solid white gold winding rotor,
blue engraving, and hand decorated and
polished components. The case in brushed
steel is water-resistant to 100 meters.
As 2005 was the 270th birthday for
Blancpain, in remembrance of that date, the
Aqualung Grande Date has been issued in a
series limited to 2005 examples, each individually
numbered.
Aqua Lung Grande Date
48 | 49

IN TIME
LE TOURBILLON TRANSPARENCE
Lingering, lurking, lying in wait in the back
of every savvy watch collector’s consciousness
is a rarely asked, almost never answered
question: “Yes. I can see the finishing
through the clear case back of my watch.
The bridges with delicately applied côte de
Genève. The plates with perlage swirls. The
gleaming anglage polish on the sides of
plates and bridges. But … what about the
finish on the side of the movement hidden
behind the dial?” Occasionally, the question
turns somewhat dark, maybe even with an
edge of menace. “What if … there is deception
here? What if … the watchmakers who
produced my watch dolled up the side of the
watch I could see, the parts exposed to view
by the clear case back, but followed some
lesser standard elsewhere?”
Of course watchmakers, from whom
nothing is hidden, know that for every
Blancpain watch, the quality of finishing on
the components which do not reveal themselves
through a clear case back is the same
as those which do. Wonderful articles have
been written and published on the Internet
by exceptionally talented watch collectors
who have themselves dismantled their
Blancpains and examined the finishing of all
the parts, even the most hidden from view,
such, as for example, the components of the
keyless works. (For the less experienced collectors,
the keyless works of a mechanical
watch, deeply buried in the movement, is
attached to the crown. These components
allow the crown to wind the watch in one
position and change the time when the
crown is pulled to a different position.) One
particularly experienced collector concluded
in his Internet article that the finishing of the
WITH THE SPECIAL EDITION TOURBILLON TRANSPARENCE,
BLANCPAIN PARTS THE MISTS AND MYSTERIES OF
FINISHING ON MANY OF THE PARTS WHICH OTHERWISE
WOULD BE HIDDEN FROM VIEW.
Blancpain was impeccable throughout,
including the keyless works (and sadly came
to a very different conclusion concerning
another brand where the visible parts displayed
elaborate finishing flourishes, but the
hidden parts, particularly the keyless works,
were a disappointment). That conclusion is
also born out in the hands of many
knowledgeable collectors who with an
accomplished sensitive touch can feel the
finishing of a Blancpain when they wind the
watch, pull the crown, activate a pusher on
a chronograph, change time of a GMT
function or otherwise manipulate a control
on the watch.

A piece for connoisseurs:
The Tourbillon Transparence
50 | 51
With the special edition Tourbillon
Transparence, Blancpain parts the mists
and mysteries of finishing on many of the
parts which otherwise would be hidden
from view. Now in addition to watchmakers
and the 1 in 10 million watch collector
who dares to disassemble his
watch, everyone can be treated to the
delights of the normally hidden from view
dial side of a Blancpain Grande Date
Tourbillon movement.
Blancpain summoned art and science to
achieve front side transparency. The dial is composed
of a sapphire plate a mere 0.40 mm
thick. Precision drilling produces the mounting
points for the diamond polished, baton
faced and faceted hour markers.
Of course all of this effort was expended
for what lies below. Now from two sides
the owner can gaze upon the handiwork
of the movement. Not only is
all the polishing done by hand, so
individual is the decorating and
finishing of many of the components
that the cognisenti can recognize tiny
details which reveal which particular
artisan in Le Brassus finished the watch!
The Grande Date movement composed of
307 parts and offering a 7-day power reserve
is housed in a 38 mm platinum case.
As befits a haute horlogerie piece, the Transparence
is equipped with a deployant (or
folding) clasp.
The Transparence was made part of Blancpain’s
270th Anniversary and in homage to
that occasion is offered as a limited edition
of 27 pieces.

IN TIME
THE LIMITED EDITION REVEIL
Whether you covet them or denounce them,
only the most isolated of Tibetan hermits has
not remarked on the evolution of the sports
utility vehicle from a purely utilitarian transport
conceived to go about its appointed
tasks with, at best, the grim resolve of a
party apparatchik during the Soviet heyday
into vehicles with the flash, pizzazz, and
verve of the most exotic sports cars. In drawing
an analogy here by no means do I suggest
that the Blancpain Reveil be considered
as anything other than one of the world’s
most gorgeous timepieces whose every
detail was conceived and carefully executed
to fit perfectly all of the tasks given to the
“ultimate travel watch”. So the first half of
my SUV rant can be dispensed with as irrelevant.
Not so the second half since I most certainly
DO want to draw an analogy when it
comes to the subject of adding spice and
pizzazz because THAT evolution has most
certainly come to the Reveil.
BLANCPAIN TAKES THE REVEIL AND LIBERALLY APPLIES A DOSE
OF CHILI, DASH OF CAYENNE AND SOUPCON OF JALAPENO.
Detail of the
alarm hammer

Introducing the Limited Réveil GMT
Anniversaire. Blancpain takes the Reveil
and liberally applies a dose of chili, dash of
cayenne and soupcon of jalapeno. This
Anniversary edition features a 5N brushed
red gold case, special black dial with
applied markers and numerals, a highly
flexible and conforming to the wrist rubber
bracelet, and a gold deployant buckle. It is
a Reveil with special pizzazz.
Of course, all of the features of the nonlimited
edition Reveil are replicated in the
Anniversary Edition including two time
zone displays (home time and local time),
an advancing and retarding date display
(which moves forwards and backwards as
the local time is moved through midnight),
an alarm function with a musical large diameter
sounding ring, automatic winding of
both the alarm and main barrel of the base
movement, and an alarm power reserve
display. The movement finishing featuring
blued screws, a solid gold rhodium-plated
18 kt gold winding rotor, hand polished and
finished components and free sprung
balance carries over as well.
Another watch from the celebration of
Blancpain’s 270 years as a manufacture,
this Limited Edition Réveil is available in
only 270 examples, each engraved from
1/270 to 270/270 on the caseback. ■
52 | 53
The reveil movement.
Two details to note:
the free sprung balance
and repeater-like
sounding ring

ART DE VIVRE
THE BLANCPAIN
WINE LETTER
LUCIEN
LE MOINE
BY JEFFREY S. KINGSTON
This inaugural issue of Letters From Le Brassus introduces
wine expert Dr. George Derbalian. Dr. Derbalian is the
founder of Atherton Wine Imports located in Northern California.
Not only has he become one of the United States’ premier
importers of fine wines, but he has acquired a well-deserved
reputation as one of the leading and most respected wine
connoisseurs and expert tasters in the world.
Each year Dr. Derbalian travels the wine circuits of Europe and
the United States meeting with producers, owners of the finest
domains, chefs de chai, and other key figures in the world
of wine. Throughout the course of each year he tastes literally
many thousands of current production
and vintage wines.
In this issue, Dr. Derbalian shares
with us one of his latest discoveries,
the burgundies of Lucien Le Moine.

54 | 55
The Corton Corton
Hill,
Côte de Beaune

ART DE VIVRE
NO ONE PERSON FULLY MASTERS
THE VEXING COMPLEXITY OF THE
Winston Churchill, always one to turn a
phrase, conjured the description “a
mystery wrapped in an enigma”. He was not
speaking of wine, but he easily could have
been describing the world of French burgundy.
No one person fully masters the vexing
complexity of the burgundy region. Take for
example the famous Grand Cru vineyard of
Clos de Vougeot. There are nearly 100 different
owners of separate parcels within this
single vineyard, producing wine under different
names, and, most importantly, no two of
these wines, each bearing the same vineyard
name, are exactly alike. To the diversity of production
(each producer reflecting the style,
approach and talent of the wine maker and
caretaker of the vines) adds the year to year
vintage variation, and one confronts an exceedingly
complex matrix of wine quality and styles
ranging from profound, ethereal, earthy to,
BURGUNDY REGION.
Mounir Saouma “Lucien Le Moine“
sadly in a few cases, thin and mediocre. And
this is the complexity reflected in just one of
the dozens of vineyards that comprise the
Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune.
Finding great burgundy is a quest to unravel
the complexities of the region and to latch
onto producers dedicated to quality. Over the
last 30 years, this quest increasingly has been
a search for domain wines, that is, wines
whose origins exist entirely under “one roof”,
so to speak. These are wines where the owner
of the vines, raises the vines, controls the harvest,
conducts and controls the vinification
and, then finally, bottles the finished wine. The
emergence of such domain wines represented
a remarkable revolution in burgundy.
Previously the region had been dominated by
large houses called “negotiants”, who purchased
wine already in barrels, trusting in the
raising of the vines (“élevage”) and vinifica-
tion of others. The negotiants with their substantial
commercial size performed a valuable
service for small wine producers. They removed
the distribution and sales burdens
which many small producers felt unable to
bear. With their purchases of much of the production
of the entire region, the negotiants
became the principle source of burgundy for
the consumer.
Unfortunately, the negotiant business
model often did not result in wines of distinction.
Their identity hidden and, by reason of
often long-term purchase contracts, insulated
from substantial commercial risk (or reward),
the vintners who actually made the wine had
reduced incentives to excel. Also contributing
to mediocrity was a risk averse predilection of
the negotiants. Many did not want wines that
excelled. They wanted “safe” wines that
could be easily sold. Finally, the negotiants

muted whatever individual expression might
have been found in a particular wine from a
particular producer by blending all of the producers’
wines from a single vineyard together
in the final bottling.
This began to change 30 years ago as
ambitious, creative, talented vintners
one-by-one began breaking away from the
negotiant cocoon in order to express themselves
with their own hand-crafted domain
wines. They did not want their handiwork to
be lost in a blend. They wanted their wines to
make a statement about their wine making
philosophy and represent the best that burgundy
had to offer. More than that, many of
these domain owners were willing to take
risks in the name of uncompromising quality.
What formerly had been a rather bland world
of commercially produced negotiant wines
became a world of wonderfully diverse
artistic expression. Burgundy lends itself to
creativity as the pinot noir grape, used exclusively
for the reds and the chardonnay
grape, exclusively for the whites, both may
be vinified in a multitude of ways—should
the wine stay long on the lees before fermentation
is begun? Should vinification
temperature be depressed? How much stem
should be allowed? Should grapes be sorted
bunch by bunch? How much new oak? How
much stirring in the barrel? You get the idea.
There is no set formula, no single recipe so
to speak, to be followed. This variability
allows talented wine makers to extract different
expressions and emphasize different
qualities from the grapes from a single vineyard.
Some domain wine makers seek to coax
out of their harvests an expression of the soil
of each particular vineyard. Others follow
56 | 57
the opposite route, seeking to bring forward
their own wine making style, de-emphasizing
soil characteristics. The knowledgeable
consumer is the winner, able to choose
domains according to style. With some very
limited exceptions, over the past decade, all
burgundies of distinction have been domain
wines and the quantities of negotiants’ wines
have diminished and their appeal to wine
connoisseurs has largely disappeared.
The wines of Lucien Le Moine improbably
turn this now accepted truism on its head.
Doubly so. These are wines of great breed
making powerful personal style statements—
wines which critics have already called “worthy
of a special search in the market place”. Yet
contrary to the current catechism that wines
with strong personalities and great definition
can only be domain wines, these are technically
speaking negotiant wines, because the

ART DE VIVRE
raising of the grapes and vinification is done
by individual growers who sell their wines in
barrel to Lucien Le Moine. But as we shall see,
these are not factory blended and bottled high
volume wines, as produced by the big negotiant
firms, but artisanal specialties specially
selected and available in only small quantities.
Lucien Le Moine is a micro negotiant, if you
will. Second, and equally running contrary to
conventional wisdom, the geniuses behind
this enterprise far from being native French are
Lebanese and Israeli in origin.
One basic to put to the side. There is no person
named “Lucien Le Moine”. Instead this
micro negotiant firm is the inspiration of
Mounir Saouma (Lebanese by birth) and his
partner Rotem Brakin (Israeli). Mounir’s entrée
into wine making came in Israel where he
worked as the wine-maker for Christian
monks. In1995, Mounir relocated to burgundy.
LUCIEN LE MOINE IS A MICRO
NEGOTIANT. HIS WINE MAKING
PHILOSOPHY DEDICATED TO
FASHIONING DISTINGUISHED,
INTENSE, RIVETING WINES.
IN A WORD, IT IS A PHILOSOPHY
OF NON-INTERVENTION.
As the monks in Israel were of the same order
as those found in the Abbaye de Cîteaux,
located 16 kilometers east of Vougeot in the
Côte de Nuits, Mounir, on arrival, looked to
the Cîteaux monks to open doors for him in
the region. Through the help of the monks,
Mounir was introduced to a wide range of
small domains in both the Côte de Nuits and
Côte de Beaune.
The monks were also the source of his name
“Lucien Le Moine”. The link to the Abbey is
easy to spot in that the words “Le Moine”
mean “monk” in French. The first word is
somewhat less obvious. In Arabic, Mounir
means “light”. The rough translation of that
became “Lucien”. Hence, Mounir the Monk
became “Lucien Le Moine”.
Acting as a wine-making consultant, Mounir
preached his wine-making philosophy dedicated
to fashioning distinguished, intense,
The “line-up“ of an
evening’s tasting
riveting wines. In a word, it is a philosophy of
non-intervention. All too often, wine-makers
manipulate their wines seeking to avoid risk.
Sadly, however, wines manipulated to be safe
are wines lacking character. According to his
policy of non-intervention, Mounir does not
believe in fining, racking or filtration. Fining is
a process of clarification to stabilize the wine.
A substance, often egg whites, is put into the
barrel where it may bind with solid particles
suspended in the wine. The solids are then
filtered out producing a wine which is clear
and unlikely to have sediment. As many consumers
wrongly consider sediment as a flaw,
the resulting wine is unlikely to raise hackles.
It is also unlikely to have depth, character or
personality. Safe, but bland is the result. The
very particles filtered out of the wine possess
remarkable flavors and give the wine depth
and dimension.

After preaching his non-intervention
beliefs for four years to a wide range
of small high quality domains, Mounir decided
to embark on his own venture. Through
his consulting, he met domain owners who
were single-mindedly dedicated to quality
and to crafting wines of distinction. He then
convinced these domains to sell him small
fractions of their production. Sometimes this
meant settling for but a single barrel—25
cases—of a particular wine. Upon delivery of
the wine in barrels, Mounir adheres to his
non-intervention credo. In addition to abjuring
fining, racking and filtering, he barrelages
the reds and whites on 100% of their
lees. Indeed, Mounir demands that his producers
supply the wine with a large quantity
of lees depending on the vintage. Lees are a
source of CO2 which helps the wine age and
in certain vintages like 2000 can bestow a
slightly creamy quality. For the whites, a
gentle stirring of the wine (called “batonnage”)
is done three or four times a month.
Mounir uses only the highest quality
Seguin Moreau barrels with oak from the
Jupilles forest. His attention to detail does
not stop there. He insists upon fine grain in
the oak and upon a slow toasting, varying in
degree depending upon which wine will be
aged in the barrel. Unusual today, when reuse
of barrels for two or three vintages is
common, 100% of his barrels are new.
When it comes time to bottle the wines,
Mounir does it the old-fashioned way, by
gravity. By contrast, one large negotiant in
Beaune, once pointed me with great pride
to his newly installed system of pumps,
meters and pipes with which he could automate
the bottling process. Great wines are
living things which evolve in the bottle. How
58 | 59
can such a delicate living thing be pushed
through the vanes of a pump?
In a further nod toward tradition, Mounir
uses special heavy glass bottles with a very
deep (or seen from the other side, high) indentation
at the bottom (if you want to dazzle
your friends with your mastery of wine terminology,
the indentation is called a “punt”). Of
course it is entertaining and practical to pour
the wine with ones fingers firmly docked in
the indentation, but there is another more
substantive reason for bringing back this traditional
bottle shape. The deep trough that is
created becomes a good trap for sediment. As
experienced burgundy collectors know, far
from revealing a flaw in wine, the accumulation
of sediment as the wine ages is the sign
of a wine that is alive and evolving. The contrary
is also true, wines without sediment
generally get that way because the elements
Mounir Saouma and
Rotem Brakin

ART DE VIVRE
© THIERRY GAUDILLÈRE-ECRIVIN
that produce sediment are filtered out—
unfortunately, these same elements are the
ones that allow the wine to grow and gain
depth during aging. No sediment—sterile
wine. Mounir’s wines, all unfiltered, do have
sediment so that the bottle shape serves a
dual purpose, grip and sediment trap.
Mounir and Rotem recently came to the San
Francisco Bay Area for a tasting of their wines
at Jardiniere Restaurant. Sommeliers from
several restaurants gathered to taste through
a range of reds and whites from the 2003 vintage.
Experienced tasters single-mindedly
focus on the “top of the ladder”, the wines
highest in the pecking order. Trade practice
takes account of this so that every tasting is
organized from bottom to top. If the most
prestigious wines are tasted too soon, then
lesser wines will be overshadowed. In burgundy,
this means that lesser generic appellations
come first, followed by “villages” wines (that
is an appellation of the village region, but not
of a rated vineyard), then premier crus, then,
finally, the stars of the show, the grand crus.
After hundreds of tastings, it is easy to skate
through the preliminary rounds, so to speak,
waiting for real heavy weights to show themselves.
This tasting did not depart from pattern
as the grand crus were in fact stunning riveting
wines. But where the pattern was broken
was in the tasting of lesser wines. These were
not wines to be overlooked, not merely stepping
stones waiting for the big boys to arrive.
In their own right, the lesser appellations were
distinguished wines of character.
The lowest white appellation was the
2003 Bourgogne Blanc. Generally an appellation
this low will be an utterly forgettable
wine, suitable perhaps for stuffing into a
knapsack for consumption on a picnic. Not
this one. It had a full-blown chardonnay
character in the nose melding notes of
melon and butter, followed by a rich body
yielding up butter and nuts. While this wine
would never be mistaken for a grand cru, it
has the potential to shame many wines of
higher appellations.
While the Bourgogne Blanc gave a hint of
the across the board quality of Mounir’s
wines, the Pernand Vergelesse added an
emphatic exclamation point. Pernand is an
often overlooked appellation which sits adjacent
to the very famous Grand Cru vineyard
of Corton Charlemagne. Despite its proximity,
Pernand is not noted for producing wines
of distinction. Mounir’s Pernand from the
Sous Frétila vineyard was outstanding. Displaying
the citrus mineral character of its
neighbor Corton Charlemagne, this Pernand
had admirable richness and length.

Next up the white ladder was the
Meursault Perrières. In a word, this was
a lovely text book example of great Meursault.
The opulent nose exploded with a nutty apricot
note. The mouth had a rich roasted butter
character followed by a long-balanced buttery
finish.
There was an interesting contrast with the
other Premier Cru white in the tasting, a
Puligny Montrachet Les Folatières. The
Folatières vineyard is one of the most distinguished
in Puligny, lying along the same road
(and the same side of the road as Le
Montrachet itself), across from and slightly to
the north of Les Pucelles. The Folatières was
more restrained than the Meursault, with a
nice balance of peach and butter and minerals,
followed by a spicy finish.
At the top was the Grand Cru, Corton
Charlemagne. A great Corton Charlemagne
The Hospice de Beaune.
The elaborately decorated
tile roof is a signature
architectural flourish of
the Côte d’Or
should have a citrusy steely exterior which
hides the strength and richness of the underlying
wine. Mounir’s again fit the appellation
perfectly. The depth and concentration of this
wine was extraordinary, so was its steel, citrus,
mineral sheath.
The reds were stars as well. Like its generic
counterpart, the Bourgogne Rouge was a
wine of character, displaying sweet pinot fruit
with touches of oak. Mounir explained why it
performed so well. It was a blend of grapes
from Fixin, Marsonnay, Hautes Côtes de Nuits
and young Nuits St. Georges.
The Premier Cru Gevrey Chambertin Les
Cazetiers showed extremely well displaying
very sweet cherry fruit, backed by Gevrey
earthiness. It would clearly outperform many
Grand Cru Chambertins.
At the top of the red ladder was Mounir’s
Chambolle Musigny Les Amoureuses. Technic-
60 | 61
ally speaking, Les Amoureuses is “only” a
Premier Cru vineyard. Yet burgundy cognoscenti
know that in the hands of great wine
makers (such as Christophe Roumier or Robert
Groffier), stunning Grand Cru quality can be
found there. Mounir’s offering placed his wines
in that same stratosphere. This Amoureuses
had remarkable depth and concentration of
fruit. It also had the wonderful velvet softness
in the mouth that devotees of the Chambolle
Musigny commune crave in those wines.
One caution about Lucien Le Moine wines.
The quantities produced of each appellation
can be miniscule. In some instances but a single
barrel, 25 cases are available for all the
world. A special effort, therefore, is needed to
find them, but that effort will be rewarded
with wine of uncompromising quality. ■
© FOTOS BY KOBRAND CORPORATION

NEWS
A NEW TRADITION
THE OCCASION OF BLANCPAIN’S 270TH ANNIVERSARY FURNISHED
A REASON TO REFLECT ON THE MANUFACTURE’S PAST TRIUMPHS

IS BORN
BY JEFFREY S. KINGSTON
Drilled into every successful businessman,
athlete, politician or artist, is a
keen sense of the present and a blocking of
the past. We are taught never to dwell upon
either past accomplishments or failures,
instead to look ever forward. However, the
occasion of Blancpain’s 270th Anniversary
furnished a reason to break from discipline
and reflect on the Manufacture’s past
triumphs. What Blancpain found was astonishing
to even the longest term employees.
Living in the present, the entire organization
had lost track of just how long a list of world
firsts and world records was embedded in its
past.
Gathering this history together, provided
an inspiration. What more fitting way to
mark an important anniversary for the
Manufacture than to produce an exhibit
celebrating these achievements. Thus the
exhibit “A Tradition of Innovation” was
born. Consisting of more than 19 pieces,
this exhibit and an accompanying special
edition hard cover book presented such
62 | 63

NEWS
records as the world’s thinnest automatic
chronograph, the world’s first modern diving
watch, the world’s first automatic winding
tourbillon with 8-day power reserve, and
carrying forward to the very recent past, the
world’s first running equation of time wrist-
At the heart of Blancpain’s world
record thin chronographs, the column
wheel and vertical clutch mechanisms
watch, the world’s first perpetual calendar
with hidden correctors and the world’s thinnest
perpetual calendar. After debuting at
the re-opening ceremony for its Le Brassus
workshop, the Tradition of Innovation Exhibit
has now embarked on a world tour.
But the theme of the Exhibit and the
book was seen to have a deeper significance.
It represents the core values of
Blancpain—a single-minded quest to expand
the frontiers of haute horlogerie
by undertaking new challenges while at
the same time remaining faithful to the
most honored watchmaking traditions.
This Blancpain ethos is now reflected in its
new advertising motif, bearing the name
“Tradition of Innovation”.
These new advertisements which will be
rolling out over the coming months highlight
the innovations and inspiration embodied
in the Blancpain collection. Of
course, the watches are shown, but so are
key components of the movement that
bestow the special personality that
connoisseurs expect of a Blancpain watch.
As well the ads feature photos of hands
and tools of the watchmaker as he or she
works bring the watch to life. ■

SHORT TAKES FROM THE BLANCPAIN NEWS-WIRE
PRINCE ALBERT II REWARDS
THE WORK OF ARTIST
JEAN-MICHEL FOLON
This year, the theme of Blancpain’s 6th participation
in the Monaco Yacht Show was a celebration
of Monaco’s maritime heritage. In
honor of this partnership, Prince Albert II of
Monaco personally rewarded artist Jean-
Michel Folon with an exceptional watch, the
Blancpain Léman Aqualung Monaco Yacht
Show 2005.
A multi-talented artist, Jean-Michel Folon
has given a new lease on life to a 1930s boat
that was inexorably degrading into a wreck.
This superb vessel, entirely restored in keeping
with the noblest shipbuilding traditions
and christened Over the Rainbow, is moored
in the Monaco harbor.
Jean-Michel Folon and His Serene Highness
Prince Albert II.
Produced in a limited numbered edition of
150, the Léman Aqualung Monaco Yacht
Show 2005 is distinguished by its case-back
engraved with the legendary Monaco lighthouse
and by the Monaco coat of arms
adorning its ebony black dial. Each watch in
this limited series is accompanied by a portfolio
on lighthouses illustrated, numbered
and signed by artist Jean-Benoît Héron.
Nicolas G. Hayek Sr and Marc A. Hayek
Welcoming more than 300 members of the
press and collectors from around the world,
Blancpain brought its 270th Anniversary
celebration to a climax with two spectacular
openings on October 6th and 7th.
Long a home to the creation of its most
64 | 65
BLANCPAIN CELEBRATES THE RE-OPENING OF THE LE BRASSUS ATELIER
AND THE DEBUT OF THE EXHIBIT “TRADITION OF INNOVATION”
complicated watches, the Le Brassus workshop,
lovingly called the “farmhouse” within
Blancpain, has become a symbol of the
manufacture. Blancpain’s CEO Marc A. Hayek
accompanied by Nicolas G. Hayek cut the ribbon
to formally reopen the atelier whose

SHORT TAKES FROM THE BLANCPAIN NEWS-WIRE
restoration has lasted more than a year.
Coincident with the reopening of the
Le Brassus atelier, Blancpain debuted its
exhibit “Tradition of Innovation”. This exhibit,
accompanied by a commemorative
book, assembles together for the first time a
chronicle of Blancpain’s many innovations. In
its gallery, the exhibit includes many world
firsts and world records which Blancpain has
created and pioneered over its history.
Following the formal ceremonies and tour of
the exhibit and farmhouse, Blancpain’s
guests were treated to a gala evening of
champagne, dinner and dancing until the
early hours of morning.
The grey mare Emandoria, winner of the
Prix Blancpain delivered to Jerzy Bialobok
OFFICIAL BLANCPAIN PRIZE AWARDED AT THE
WORLD ARABIAN HORSES CHAMPIONSHIP 2005
Inspired by a shared love of beauty and the
tireless pursuit of perfection, Blancpain was a
partner in the World Arabian Horses
Championship held in Paris (France), from
December 9th to 11th, 2005.
The Official Blancpain Prize rewards an
exceptional purebred Arabian horse and
highlights the constant search for perfection
and the philosophy of excellence binding the
equestrian world to that of the Manufacture
in Le Brassus.
Blancpain presented Mr Jerzy Bialobok, director
of the Polish Stadnina Koni-Michalow
Breed and lucky owner of Emandoria, a grey
mare yearling filly, with an 18-carat red-gold
full-calendar “Hunter” watch, featuring a
100-hour power reserve, a blue dial and gold
applied facetted hour-markers.

BLANCPAIN OPENS ITS FIRST
BOUTIQUE IN SWITZERLAND
Following on from Cannes, Paris, New York,
and Munich, Blancpain has set up its very first
Boutique on Swiss soil, located on the corner
of the Rue du Rhône and the Place de la
Fusterie, Geneva. The collections of the
world's oldest watch brand are showcased in
a 53 sq.m. boutique which opened on
December 16th. Reflecting the philosophy
prevailing in the Manufacture in Le Brassus,
Blancpain boutiques convey the same spirit
that pervades the workshops of its masterwatchmakers.
Crafted by a skilled cabinetmaker
from the Vallée de Joux, the interior design
of the boutique is imbued with the flavor of
the traditional watchmaking country side.
Cherry wood is the predominant theme, clothing
the walls and furniture with its warm
amber tones. Comfortable leather chairs welcome
visitors, who can thus savor a “lounge”
atmosphere in which to discover Blancpain’s
hand-finished and decorated timepieces.
At the back of the boutique, an authentic
antique solid oak and pewter bar found in a
Parisian brasserie provides an area conducive
to “watch talk” with collectors.
66 | 67
GENEVA, PARIS, NEW YORK,
CANNES AND NOW A
NEW BOUTIQUE IN MUNICH
December 9th, 2005 marked the much anticipated
opening of Blancpain’s first boutique in
Germany, located at the prestigious Maximillianstrasse
in Munich (no. 14). This address
is where the celebrated artist Rudolph Moshammer
had his studio, and it is here where
Blancpain has outfitted the space with the
warm wooden décor recalling its Vallée de
Joux roots. Blancpain has taken two floors.
The ground floor is home to the cases displaying
Blancpain’s Haute Horlogerie collection
of timepieces. One floor above, is the
reception area and workshop for Blancpain’s
German after-sales service.

NEWS
SHORT TAKES FROM THE BLANCPAIN NEWS-WIRE
BLANCPAIN HONORS WORLD CHESS CHAMPION
VLADIMIR KRAMNIK WITH A UNIQUE WATCH FOLLOWED
BY AN EVENING OF CHESS FOR COLLECTORS
The Moscow luxury goods speciality boutique
Mercury played host to a very special day of
watches and chess on November 24th. The
guests of honor were World Chess Champion
Vladimir Kramnik, Blancpain CEO Marc A.
Hayek and thirty privileged watch collectors.
Marc A. Hayek presents Vladimir Kramnik
his special Villeret Time Zone Watch
Vladimir Kramnik challenged by thirty simultaneous chess matches
The most celebrated name in all of
chess, Vladimir Kramnik has
been reining champion since
2000 when he defeated Garry
Kasparov in London. At times,
Champion Kramnik likens his
chess to a “fighting game”
but more often to an art that
is simply “felt”. Drawing an
analogy to a painter, he has said
that “A painter never asks people what
they want to see. He paints”. For many years
the art on Vladimir Kramnik’s wrist has been
a watch from the Blancpain Villeret series. To
honor his continued successful defenses of
his world title, Blancpain created a special
watch which was presented by Blancpain
CEO Marc A. Hayek. Given a choice from
the Blancpain collection, Vladimir Kramnik
selected a Villeret Time Zone in white gold.
Kramnik has long been drawn to the classicism
of the Blancpain Villeret series which is
personified in the Time Zone, ref. 6260.
In recognition of Vladimir Kramnik’s achievements
and his many years devotion to Blancpain,
the model presented by Marc A. Hayek
featured a unique winding rotor bearing the
image of Vladimir Kramnik in a contemplative
chess pose. This special time piece was
created by Blancpain’s master
engraver in Le Brassus.
Following the presentation of
this unique Blancpain watch,
Vladimir Kramnik played an
exhibition chess match simultaneously
against 30 watch
collectors.
Publisher
BLANCPAIN SA
Le Rocher 12
1348 Le Brassus
Switzerland
Tel.: +41 21 796 36 36
www.blancpain.com
pr@blancpain.com
Editors in chief
Christel Räber
Jeffrey S. Kingston
Concept, Graphic Design, Realisation
thema communications ag, Frankfurt, Germany
Art Direction
Frank Dillmann
Pre-press
DigitalRepro96, Frankfurt, Germany
Printing
Caruna Druck, Kleinheubach, Germany
Photographers
Blancpain, Claude Bossel, Corbis,
Pierre-Michel Delessert (Flaveurs),
Getty Images, Thierry Gaudillère,
Alban Kakulya, Jeffrey S. Kingston,
Kobrand, Wolfgang Oberle, Christel Räber,
Mark Shaw, Johann Sauty,
Vallée de Joux Tourisme
Blancpain wishes to thank the photographers
for the Arabian Horses Championship and
for the Kramnik events.

BLANCPAIN. TRADITION OF INNOVATION. SINCE 1735.
All chronograph commands
– start, stop, reset – are made
by a single button
The idea of a chronograph mechanism that can be operated by a single push-piece goes back to
the time of the pocket chronograph. Its refinement and elegance is appreciated as much today as
when it was invented. It inspired us to produce the “Villeret Single Push-Piece Chronograph”
(Ref. 6185-1546-55). A reminder of the origins of the house of Blancpain.
BOUTIQUES BLANCPAIN
GENEVA • PARIS • NEW YORK • MUNICH • CANNES