Blancpain

As I am posting this, a thought occurs to me.  The range of Blancpain Tourbillons is really extraordinary.  I haven't done a count of all of the different models, offering different complications alongside the tourbillon itself, but the number would be large. 

This watch is the Tourbillon Semainier.  The featured additional complication for the Semainier is the week of the year complication.  There is actually a bit of a story to be told here concerning the number of possible weeks in the year.  We were all taught in school that the year has 52 weeks.  Good convenient number to remember, 52.  Trouble is that number is really not correct.  In many years there are actually 53 weeks.  If you have Microsoft Outlook you can check that because the software will display the week number.  Turns out every 4 or 5 years or so a 53 week year comes along.  So appropriately the Semainier allows for 53 week years.  Oddly there are a bunch of watches from famous brands that offer week of the year indications.  And they all only go up to 52.  So basically on those 53 week years, those watches show "Week 1" in December.  Frankly, that's bad form. 

A couple of other details on this watch. It's diameter is 40mm, whereas until now the Leman Tourbillons were 38mm.  And the watch has both a large date and power reserve indications.

 

Jeff

Thanks for the education about the numbers of weeks in the year.  I was not aware of this semainier either (I am still a newbie, I guess). You mentioned that there were a bunch of other brands with the calendar week complication. So far, I am aware of this one, the Glashuette Original (my personal favorite) and the Lange, which operates on the analog basis as this one does with a pointer indicating the week at the outer rim of the dial.  The GO may also indicate the 53rd week as well, but maybe someone else can confirm this, as I am not positive about that at all.

At any rate, this BP semainier is gorgeous -- wow, and it also has a tourbillon as well?  Hardly noticed that. LOL. ;-)

Thanks for sharing it.

respo

…with this complication, respo.

 

Do you know its name?

 

Marcelo

Marcelo, I believe it is a LE of 50 in yellow gold.  I think it is the 1815 Kalenderwoche. I don't have a photo to share, but perhaps you can find one with a search. I would love to see photos of others. I think perhaps AP has made one, and perhaps some other brands...?

Best,

respo  

and of course it has 53 weeks:



The watch was issued to celebrate the 150th anniversary of famous Munich retailer Andreas Huber.

Best,
Magnus

I found it. Thanks!

What a gorgeous piece - the one in rose gold with gold and blue hands

Marcelo

Suprising, because the Semainier is not a complication we often see, indeed.

It is even strange, when you think 2 minutes about it, to conceive such a complication.

For what purpose?

I would answer " Why not? "!!!

The Date, the Day, the Month, ...Why not the week, indeed?

The tourbillon is the cherry on the cake ( or the cake under the cherry, if you consider it as more important than the semainier...: ) ), beautiful as often at Blancpain, nicely exposed on a dressy dial and an elegant case.

The pic: Gorgeous, as always.

Well, you put a smile on my face, today.

Thanks!

Best,

Nicolas

e.g. to fix delivery dates: "Machine to be shipped week 53" - "Wow, err, that doesn't work as we are closed between Christmas and New Year!"...

Cheers,
Magnus

I did a consulting service for Unilever and worked six months for ArcelorMittal – both use the business week system.

 

In my opinion this superb Blancpain tourbillon is the ultimate dress watch for a corporate senior manager

 

Marcelo

I often use a similar system...I now want a watch featuring Julian Days, then everyone can understand...

In all seriousness, the JD system is often used in serial production.

which is quite interesting. Quote from Wikipedia:

The ISO week-numbering year starts at the first day (Monday) of week 01 and ends at the Sunday before the new ISO year (hence without overlap or gap). It consists of 52 or 53 full weeks. The ISO week-numbering year number deviates from the number of the calendar year (Gregorian year) on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, or a Saturday and Sunday, or just a Sunday, at the start of the calendar year (which are at the end of the previous ISO week-numbering year) and a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, or a Monday and Tuesday, or just a Monday, at the end of the calendar year (which are in week 01 of the next ISO week-numbering year). For Thursdays, the ISO week-numbering year number is always equal to the calendar year number. Examples:

• 2008-12-29 is written "2009-W01-1"
• 2010-01-03 is written "2009-W53-7"

The 53-week ISO-week-numbering year can be described by any of the following equivalent definitions:

• all years starting with Thursday, and leap years starting with Wednesday
• years with the dominical letter D, DC or ED (see note below)
  
• years in which 1 January and/or 31 December is a Thursday

All other week-numbering years have 52 weeks.

Note: Dominical Letters are letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G assigned to days in a cycle of seven with the letter A always set against 1 January as an aid for finding the day of the week of a given calendar date and in calculating Easter. A common year is assigned the dominical letter of its first Sunday. For example 2003 has January 5 as its first Sunday, so it has dominical letter E. Leap years have two dominical letters: the first for January and most or all of February and the second for March to December, e.g. 2004 has DC.

Best,
Magnus

This message has been edited by Magnus Bosse on 2009-09-24 07:59:44

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don't stop :0)
BP is in my Top 5 manufactures list
Thank you for sharing.
Looking forward more nice pictures of nice pieces
Damjan