Spring has sprung, and with it new colors are everywhere. Arnold & Son has given us a spring of its own: the La Chaux-de-Fonds brand just introduced three new variations on its renowned UTTE model. Here’s a look at the new hues and materials Arnold & Son has on offer.
Arnold & Son created great buzz in 2013 when it launched the UTTE – a name that stands for “Ultra-Thin Tourbillon Escapement.” In fact, you could say that the UTTE was a major part of Arnold’s rise to prominence as a small, high-end Swiss brand. The UTTE movement is something to behold: it’s just 2.97 mm thick. Cased up, the watch is still only 8.34 mm thick. It has a 42-mm-wide case and a dial that leaves plenty of open space so you can admire the workings of its flying tourbillon, which rises above of the dial at 6 o’clock.
Until now, the UTTE has only been available with lighter, engraved dials: a guilloché, for instance, or a wave pattern. Now Arnold & Son is introducing three new versions, each with a fresh look for the dial.
Two of the new versions come in mother-of-pearl. One is in white mother-of-pearl with silver-colored opaline, making for a more reserved and elegant dial that nonetheless glows in the light. It’s fitted in a rose-gold case and comes on a brown hand-stitched alligator strap. Another version has a dial combining silver-colored opaline with Tahitian mother-of-pearl, which has an almost anthracite-like coloring and looks strikingly subterranean.
The third new UTTE take a different tack. Here the opaline dial is combined with black lacquer, creating a sharp contrast to the white background of the hour/minutes display and to the transparency of the tourbillon escapement. Both this version and the black mother-of-pearl have palladium cases and hand-stitched black alligator straps. Both the palladium and the rose-gold cases have been used previously on earlier UTTE models.
The new versions of the UTTE are priced similarly to other editions of the watch. The gold-case, white mother-of-pearl version costs $71,250. In a palladium case, the UTTE costs $64,950 with a Tahitian mother-of-pearl dial, or $64,200 for a lacquered dial.
Truly outstanding watches created by Arnold & Son, unfortunately I cannot buy any of these unless I win a lottery.