The independent master watchmaker continues to push the boundaries in ultra-complicated watchmaking with his new Deep Space Resonance Tourbillon.
When Vianney Halter unveiled the Régulateur watch created in collaboration with the watch brand Louis Erard in December 2020, he promised the public that they would have the premiere of a much more complicated model to look forward to in the near future. And he kept his promise. At the beginning of 2021, the Deep Space Resonance Tourbillon was unveiled — a watch which is nothing short of a model that can explain the structure of the universe.
Halter has combined several of the discoveries he made through his own research in one watch. First of all, it includes the master's favorite triple-axis tourbillon, and secondly, it features two acoustically synchronized balance wheels. This is how Halter brought his conceptualization of the three dimensions to life, highlighting the importance of the acoustic component for virtually all phenomena on the planet.
The watchmaker has revealed that he became interested in resonance after having to learn how to tune a piano by himself. He was so impressed by the workings of the musical instrument that he decided to transfer the idea of resonating harmonic strings from the piano to a watch movement.
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics offered further inspiration. It was jointly awarded to Americans Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne, who proved the existence of the gravitational waves which had been predicted by Albert Einstein. These waves generated by the collision of two black holes change the space around them and their dimensions.
This definitively confirmed Vianne's belief in the all-consuming power of acoustics. It also convinced him of the value of having a watch that you don’t just wear on your wrist, but one that can remind you of how external waves can shake something to the core. Following lengthy experiments with the balance wheels of Soviet "Poljot" deck watches, Halter achieved his desired result and fitted two balance wheels in the movement of the Deep Space Resonance Tourbillon.
They synchronize with each other but don't necessarily oscillate in the same direction at the same time: the direction depends on the given position the balances were occupying when they started beating, and can change the next time the watch is wound. The tourbillon provides a three-dimensional demonstration. Its innermost carriage with the balance wheels rotates inside the traverse every 60 seconds, which completes a rotation around a second horizontal axis every 6 minutes, and finally the main element of the three-axis system is demonstrated as the cradle the traverse is mounted on rotates around its vertical axis every 30 minutes. The entire three-axis system consists of 371 parts.
What about the fourth dimension — time? Halter hasn't forgotten about indicating that either. The hours are shown by an arrow on a scale aperture on the upper part of the dial, while the lower aperture is reserved for the minutes. You can accurately tell the time by reading the hours and quarters at the top, and then you need to glance down below. Every observant watch owner should be able to discern the value where two marks meet and become almost one straight line on the bottom aperture, and this minute reading should then be added onto the hour reading from the upper aperture.