If you’ve got $57,000 lying around, I’ve got a watch for you. The HL is Hautlence’s first “round” movement and this new model includes a few clever additions to the standard HL line including jumping hours, retrograde minutes, and a full calendar. It’s also got a quick date corrector so your manservant doesn’t have to scroll through all the possible days and dates while setting your collection.
It’s 44mm and it’s actually quite handsome in a Jules Verne sort of way. If they could get the price down and build it in steel I’d totally rock it out while doing yard work.
HAUTLENCE HLQ* CLASSIC (*Q for “quantième” – French for calendar)
In 2009, HAUTLENCE created a stir by presenting its first ever round movement at Baselworld. Part of the HL family which already included the iconic HL and HLS models, the HLQ line featured its characteristic visual codes: jumping hours and retrograde minutes, enhanced by an instantaneous date, all within a diameter of 44 mm.2011 brings a touch of sobriety and elegance. HAUTLENCE is expanding its HLQ line and endowing it with a classic air. Having explored the skeleton aesthetic, the brand has pared down the unrivalled HLQ Classic, twinning it with distinguished, simple dials. A style which is both informal and refined, with echoes of the HLC, the little sister of the HLQ, with its discreet elegance contained within 41 mm and exhibited at last year’s Baselworld.
The HLQ Classic line is available in 18-carat white gold (HLQ 01 Classic), 18-carat rose gold and titanium (HLQ 05 Classic), 18-carat rose gold (HLQ 06 Classic) and titanium (HLQ 07 Classic and HLQ 08 Classic – seen above).
HAUTLENCE MOVEMENT
HAUTLENCE developed and produced its own movement in 2004 for the HL and HLS lines. The HLQ is its second in-house-developed caliber. A hand-wound mechanical movement, it incorporates the following functions: jumping hours, retrograde minutes and instantaneous date, with a special instantaneous calendar system guided by jewels (jewel rollers). The Neuchâtel-based brand is securing its place in history thanks to its in-house movements and expertise.SWISS WATCHMAKING
HAUTLENCE timepieces are created and produced with respect for the purest traditions of Swiss watchmaking. With the exception of the straps, all the components in the HL family are developed, produced and assembled in Switzerland – 90% of those in the canton of Neuchâtel.EXCLUSIVITY & AVAILABILITY
As with the HL, HLS and HLC lines, the HLQ Classic line has been produced in limited editions of 88 pieces with reference numbers. It will be available in autumn 2011 from the brand’s approved retailers.THE MOVEMENT UP CLOSE
To preserve the link between the old hand-wound calibers and the new movement, HAUTLENCE’s team of developers worked to incorporate the existing visual codes while introducing a new gear train for reading the time.The round hand-wound caliber – in this configuration integrating a calendar disc – uses a gear train with sector development coupled with a calibrated micrometric toothed gear which engages with the minute hand axis.
This arrangement optimizes the space and increases the size of the minute reading sector. The jumping hour and retrograde minute are still controlled by the ingenious HL patented mechanism, which combines the slide bar’s translation, driven by the retraction of the snail’s feeler spindle with a gold inertia block acting as an inertia wheel and providing the energy needed to make the disc jump. For date setting, the in-house designers have incorporated an instantaneous corrector in the shape of a carefully positioned push-piece accessible between the lugs at 12 o’clock.
HAUTLENCE, CONTEMPORARY WATCHMAKING WORKSHOP
Founded in 2004, HAUTLENCE – whose name is an anagram of Neuchâtel – pays tribute to the cradle of watchmaking. By infusing the watchmaking art with a new dynamic, the brand has earned the recognition of watch collectors and connoisseurs.HAUTLENCE has pushed the stylistic boundaries of traditional watchmaking, taking inspiration from the past and incorporating its own innovative mechanical solutions borrowed from other industrial sectors to establish new approaches to time reading. The company designs and develops its own movements in their entirety, allowing it to produce some of its components in-house thanks to successful integration in its Contemporary watchmaking workshop situated in the Watchmaking Metropolis.
