Blancpain @ Le Brassus Carrousel Minute Repeater

Blancpain has been presenting the world of Haute Horlogerie with countless world firsts, many of them complications that are rarely found on ordinary timepieces. It has achieved another world first by reviving the carrousel, almost forgotten for more than a century, and using it in a wristwatch. Like the tourbillon, the carrousel counteracts and neutralises the effects of deceleration and acceleration of the balance wheel caused by the gravitational attraction of the Earth. The balance wheel and escapement, the regulating organs of a watch, are influenced by gravity when they are positioned vertically. But when rotated by a tourbillon or a carrousel, they pass through all vertical positions in succession, cancelling out these inaccuracies. The watchmaking brands capable of making a movement with a one-minute flying carrousel are already exceedingly rare. Blancpain is the only Manufacture to have developed an entirely new minute repeater mechanism with cathedral chimes and to have combined it with a one-minute flying carrousel. When designing the avant-garde.calibre housed in the Le Brassus Carrousel Minute Repeater, Blancpain contributed a number of outstanding innovations to the construction of a minute repeater, such as the system by which the cathedral chimes are fixed in the case so as to obtain unparalleled sound quality, and the device that protects the movement if the crown should be manipulated while the chiming mechanism is in operation. In addition to endowing the timepiece with a one-minute flying carrousel and a minute repeater mechanism, Blancpain has created a moving erotic scene on the back of the watch. When the minute repeater is activated, the lady and a man in the scene will move their bodies. To drive the mechanism behind the moving scene while activating the minute repeater gongs at the same time is a serious challenge to the power distribution of the movement. The Blancpain Calibre 232 in the Le Brassus Carrousel Minute Repeater has conquered the difficulty, showing the manufacture’s unparalleled watchmaking prowess.