Blancpain has been creating special edition watches for St Valentine’s Day since over a decade, beginning 2001. Elegant and exquisite with recurring heart motifs, these aren’t just things of beauty but precision and complexity as well, for the watches use mechanical movement designed specifically for ladies
Blancpain has been making the St. Valentine’s Day special edition watch for over a decade, since 2001. Perhaps that might not be so unique given that V-Day special editions abound among luxe brands, but the really special thing about these watches is that they come with great precision and complexity, and mechanical movements designed especially for the lady. Blancpain, in fact, lays claim to having created the first automatic watch for ladies.
The movements used for the Blancpain St. Valentine’s Day watches are all mechanical – Blancpain has never made a quartz movement – most designed specifically for ladies’ watches. Since the Blancpain St. Valentine’s Day watch was first introduced in 2001, it has been powered by several different movements, most with center seconds hands, which is rare on a ladies’ mechanical timepiece The calibers used in the past Blancpain St. Valentine’s Day watches include the ultra-thin automatic Caliber 1150 with 100-hour power reserve; Caliber 6763 automatic day-date, with pointer-type date display; Caliber F185, a flyback chronograph, originally used by the brand in 1998 to power the world’s first ladies’ flyback chronograph; the “Lady Bird” Caliber 6150, which at the time it was introduced (in the 1950s) was the world’s smallest automatic movement (15.7mm diameter).
The 2017 Blancpain St. Valentine’s Day edition priced at $14,900 comes with a 29 mm steel case case that features 68 diamonds over the steel bezel and lugs and another 8 diamonds on the mother-of-pearl dial. It also boasts 50-meter water resistance, and an automatic movement, the ultra-slim Caliber 913. It has a glucydur balance wheel fitted with micrometric regulating screws, and a balance spring made of silicon, the low density of which makes it particularly light and shock-resistant. Silicon is also anti-magnetic. The gold rotor is given a snailed bevel and polished angles, as well as straight and circular Côtes de Genève patterns.
Every year since the first, Blancpain has kept the ‘heart’ as a recurring motif in each edition, positioned artfully on the watch. For the 2017 watch, the heart stands encrusted in a cluster of 19 rubies within the dial at 12 o’clock. The rubies are buff-top cut, a cut that makes light return even when a gem is set flush into metal – particularly when it is set into a thin layer of metal, such as a watch dial, where no light penetrates the pavilion.
The Blancpain logo is red to match the ruby heart on the dial. It comes with two interchangeable alligator leather straps, one in red and the other in white. The watch is a numbered limited edition one, engraved with numbers ranging one to 99. The seconds hand is shaped like a Cupid’s arrow, with a red tip.
This watch is sure to be Cupid’s favourite accessory!
