HAUTLENCE Vagabonde Tourbillon Series 3
Featuring a sculpted superconductor dial crafted in collaboration with James 'Black Badger' Thompson, this series stands out for its space-age aesthetics and intricate engineering. Share
Hautlence, since its inception in 2004, has been a bastion of avant-garde watchmaking, consistently pushing the boundaries of traditional horology with its innovative time-telling mechanisms and distinct aesthetics. The Vagabonde Tourbillon Series 3 epitomizes this ethos, blending a unique wandering hours display with a sophisticated flying tourbillon, all set against a dial crafted from a cutting-edge superconductor material.
The Vagabonde Tourbillon Series 3, limited in production, merges art with innovation. Its standout feature is the dial, a marvel crafted from a copper-niobium superconductor typically used in particle accelerators. The intricate honeycomb pattern, a hallmark of Hautlence’s design language since 2004, is more than a visual motif in this timepiece—it forms the structural base of the dial.
Collaborating with James “Black Badger” Thompson, known for his work with groundbreaking materials, Hautlence transforms the superconductor into a sculptural masterpiece. The process involves cutting the material at a specific angle and then acid-bathing it to reveal a mesmerizing contrast between the copper and the resilient niobium, resulting in an organic, metallic lattice.
The visual appeal of the Vagabonde Tourbillon Series 3 is further heightened by a ripple-like pattern on the dial, evoking the dynamic movement of water. This backdrop creates a perfect stage for the watch’s innovative time display, which includes three jumping hour satellites and a central minute disk. The wandering hours are reimagined by Hautlence, featuring stationary hour disks and a moving minute track on transparent sapphire crystal, with minute numerals in Globolight, a luminous ceramic compound.
Encased in Hautlence’s signature TV-shaped case, the Vagabonde Tourbillon Series 3 combines elegance with rugged practicality. The case, water-resistant to 10 ATM, is coated in midnight blue PVD, and paired with a white rubber strap and crown grip, accentuating the watch’s dynamic contrasts and textures.
At its heart lies the D30 automatic movement, visible through the sapphire display back. This movement, boasting a bidirectional pawl winding mechanism, ensures a power reserve of over 3 days. A highlight is the one-minute flying tourbillon with a double hairspring, housed in an open bar-shaped carriage, all intricately produced by Precision Engineering AG, Hautlence’s sister company.
