Portraits


Portraits

Dominique Renaud

THE ROOTS OF A REVOLUTIONARY

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By Pierre Maillard / Pictures by Guillaume Perret, Lundi13
February 2018


Dominique Renaud

"I would like to open new horizons for mechanical watchmaking,” Dominique Renaud told us a year ago when he presented us with the first prototype of the DR01 Twelve First. Mission accomplished!

T

he watch is truly otherworldly, featuring a movement encapsulated in a sapphire tube that may be pivoted to 360° and a radical alternative to the centuries-old balance spring, an otherwise unshakeable fixture of the traditional mechanism: an indestructible micro-pivot, spatially pivoting blade resonator and lost beat detent escapement.

With the DR-01, Dominique Renaud and his companion Luiggino Torrigiani are truly opening a new chapter in the history of the mechanical watch, demonstrating that the concept is far from stale. But, like any revolution, this hasn’t come out of left eld. It goes way back to its roots, as shown by the few objects that Dominique Renaud has chosen to reveal and explain to us.

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