What could be more useful to a frequent-flying globetrotter than a watch that tells the time in two time zones? How about a watch that tells the time in two time zones and has an alarm that can wake him up as his plane is landing? That’s what Blancpain offers up here with its new Blancpain Villeret Réveil GMT, this week’s Watch to Watch.
The Blancpain Villeret Réveil GMT is a member of Blancpain’s Villeret collection, the brand’s most classically styled haute horlogerie family. Its signature feature is a mechanical alarm function, which uses a subdial at 3 o’clock, with 12 hour markers and two hands, to display the time programmed for the alarm. A push-piece at 8 o’clock, which engages a column wheel, is used to set and activate the alarm. An “On/Off” indicator at 1 o’clock shows the wearer at a glance whether or not the alarm is activated or not. The alarm’s chime is produced by a hammer striking a gong.
The watch’s GMT or “Double Timezone” function uses a center-mounted, blued serpentine hand (a Blancpain hallmark) to indicate the time in a second time zone on a 24-hour scale; the numerals 1 through 24 are on an inner ring beneath the dial’s applied Roman hour numerals I through XII. The gold hour and minute hands display the current local time. In addition to the mechanical alarm and GMT complications, the watch features a date display (in a window at 6 o’clock) and a power-reserve indication (between 10 and 11 o’clock). The Blancpain Villeret Reveil GMT has a 40.3-mm-diameter case (12.1 mm thick) in either 18k rose gold or stainless steel. It is water-resistant to 30 meters and has a clear sapphire caseback. Its timekeeping and other functions are powered by the Blancpain manufacture Caliber 1240H, a self-winding movement with a silicon balance spring and a power reserve of 45 hours. The movement measures 31.7 mm in diameter and 6.20 mm in thickness and contains 392 components, including 36 jewels. As in other Blancpain watches with alarm functions, the movement is equipped with two barrels — one for supplying energy to the movement, the other to store energy for the alarm’s striking mechanism. Caliber 1240H’s automatic winding system winds them both simultaneously. The watch is available on an alvazel-lined alligator strap with a folding clasp or a “Milanese” mesh bracelet in either steel or gold.
The Blancpain Villeret Reveil GMT in steel is $24,700 on a strap and $27,000 on a bracelet; the rose gold model is $36,400 on a strap and $55,700 on a bracelet.
This is similar to Breguet’s Reveille du Tsar. Almost identical.