Marcus Hanke
[PuristSPro Moderator]
11515
Sorry, I fail yet to see anything substantially new ...
.... except a nice dial - exclusively from a cartographical point of view. What is so new about this watch, justifying a price of about 10,000 Euros? The replacement of a common 24 hours-hand with a time zone disk? There is nothing new about that, revolving depictions of the the globe, seen from the North Pole have been used in watches for many decades.
I tried to find out something from the "manufacturer's" website. There is absolutely nil info about how this watch is expected to work. There is the claim that the mechanism is patented, yet I could not locate any such patent in the files of the German patent office. The videoclips that can be accessed on Blancier's website do not work on my computer, the printed press reports reproduced on the website only repeat the advertising text that can be read above as well.
I found a patent for a mechanically rather simple mechanism permitting the 24 hour "hand" - or disk - revolving counter-clockwise, as the Earth does, when seen from the North Pole. Aside the fact that watches with this "feature" have been seen already (UN, Christiaan van der Klaauw, Magellan (?) maybe some others as well), adding an intermediary wheel to change the direction seems to me not so special. But I am a layman in this respect, and possibly I am absolutely wrong here.
The other watches offered in the online-shop of the "manufacturer" are simple (yet not unpleasant) watches, equipped with the Russian Molnija pocket watch movement.
Consequently, I would be very curious to get some more substantial information about this miracle worldtime watch.
Best regards,
Marcus
Blancier launches a patented Worldtimer (BWT 1)
