Ultravox 2019

Designers: Les Ateliers Louis Moinet SA., St-Blaise, Switzerland
Manufacturer: Les Ateliers Louis Moinet SA., St-Blaise, Switzerland

“The hour-strike is an extremely rare speciality, and the configuration used by ULTRAVOX is in fact unique. The mechanism has been revealed, enabling it to be admired in all its complexity. The magic of watchmaking mechanics is embodied by the spinning inertia wheel, the moving yokes, and the hammer that marks out the hours. Two hundred years ago, Louis Moinet’s clocks and pocket watches chimed the hours for leading figures of his day. Now, his name has been associated with that of Eric Coudray, an outstanding present-day watchmaker, to create a new masterpiece in the same spirit,” explains Jean-Marie Schaller, CEO of Ateliers Louis Moinet.

ULTRAVOX is an exclusive creation, designed to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Louis Moinet’s birth. The inventor of the chronograph also designed striking clocks which adorned the drawing rooms of the world’s greatest leaders: Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Alexander I, US presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, and many others besides. These works of art are now to be found in prestigious private collections – as well as in the White House, the Louvre, and the Hermitage Museum. Ateliers Louis Moinet also have a large historical collection at their head office in Saint-Blaise.

“This tangible heritage has enabled us to design an Hour Strike drawing inspiration from Louis Moinet whilst also being undisputedly rooted in the twenty-first century. Louis Moinet was both an artist and a scientist. With this in mind, we decided to lay bare all of the mechanics of this complication – a world first,”   adds Jean-Marie Schaller.