Faberge Visionnaire DTZ Dual Time Zone Agenhor Rose Gold Titanium, 2016

Dealer description — S.Song Watches

Fabergé is a name most closely associated with the extraordinary objects created by Peter Carl Fabergé for the Russian Imperial family, most famously the legendary Imperial Easter Eggs. Its modern return to serious watchmaking, however, has resulted in some surprisingly interesting watches, particularly when you look beneath the surface. The Visionnaire DTZ is perhaps one of the best examples of this. Introduced in 2016, the DTZ, short for Dual Time Zone, was created as an unusual interpretation of the travel watch, displaying local and home time in two completely different ways. More importantly, it was developed in collaboration with Agenhor and Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, one of the most inventive and important movement constructors in modern independent watchmaking. Rather than simply supplying a module, Agenhor designed and manufactured the entire movement specifically for the watch. The result was the Calibre AGH 6924, an unusual automatic movement built around a ring-shaped architecture that allowed the centre of the watch to be used for its second time zone display. The example you see here today combines a 43mm pink gold and titanium case with an incredibly architectural, multi-layered dial. Local time is displayed through two large central hands extending from underneath the central dome towards the sapphire chapter ring, while home time is displayed digitally through an aperture at the very centre of the watch. Using an instantaneous jumping hour on a 24-hour scale, a '20', for example, immediately tells you it is 8pm at home rather than 8am. The way Agenhor achieved this display is particularly clever. Rather than placing the second time zone disc directly beneath the dial, it is located at the very bottom of the movement. A specially designed magnifying lens sits high above it, enlarging the numeral and creating the illusion that the home-time indication is floating deep within the watch. The second time zone can then be independently advanced in one-hour increments using the pusher at approximately 10 o'clock. Perhaps even more unusual is the automatic winding system. There is no conventional rotor visible through the caseback. Instead, the rotor has been moved to the dial side and effectively disguised as part of the dial itself. The large silver-toned disc beneath the sapphire hour ring is actually the winding rotor, gently oscillating as the watch moves on the wrist. Turning the watch over gives an uninterrupted view of the AGH 6924. The movement is highly architectural and distinctly modern in appearance, with large bridges and exposed wheels rather than an attempt to imitate traditional Geneva movement design. There are also wonderfully unnecessary details hidden within. The lever responsible for activating the jumping second time zone is shaped like a peacock, one of Fabergé's recurring historical motifs, which appears to feed from a snail cam shaped like a bushel of wheat. The automatic AGH 6924 offers approximately 50 hours of power reserve, and the quality and originality of the concept was recognised almost immediately, with the Visionnaire DTZ winning the Travel Time Watch Prize at the 2016 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève. There is something particularly appealing about watches like this today. The Visionnaire DTZ is far more than an unusual Fabergé travel watch. Underneath is a genuinely interesting movement conceived and manufactured by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht and Agenhor, combining clever engineering with the slightly eccentric approach to complications that has made their work so important to modern independent watchmaking. It is one of those overlooked watches where what lies beneath the surface is arguably far more significant than most people realise.