Women’s preferences as regards watches are a debated question. The main dichotomy is between quartz and mechanical. Brands such as Glashütte Original use quartz for their Pavonina watches and say that women prefer quartz because the watch is always running and so doesn’t need fiddly adjustment on a small crown. But, talking to a woman who owns a few watches, she said that the really annoying thing for a woman is opening the drawer or the safe to take out a watch and finding that the battery has run down. So she thinks it’s more practical to have a mechanical watch that you just have to wave around a few times and then set the time and put it on. Whatever, Blancpain‘s watches for women are mechanical, such as the Date Moon Phases, with a small, attractive dial with two classic complications, date and moon phase.
Five interchangeable straps
With their Date Moon Phases, or Quantième Phases de Lune, Blancpain show that they are paying attention to the latest trends in the market. This steel model, part of the Villeret Collection, reference 6106-4628-95A, is supplied with a set of five interchangeable straps. There are three alligator straps, red, midnight blue and sky blue, a white ostrich leather strap, and a black satin strap. The wearer can remove and exchange the strap by pressing the catch at the back.
Case and dial
The case is 29.2 mm in diameter, 10.36 mm thick, with a bezel set with 48 diamonds. Another eight diamonds are used as hour markers, for a total carat weight of 0.60. The dial is matt white, with a hand indicating the date with a red crescent extremity. The moon phase includes Blancpain’s hallmark moon with a face, complete with beauty spot. The moon phase indicator uses a 59-tooth wheel, which approximates the lunar cycle to 29.5 days.
The movement is the self-winding Blancpain calibre 913QL, with 20 jewels, 246 components and a 40-hour power reserve. Accuracy is improved by the Glucydur balance wheel and silicon balance spring which are unaffected by magnetic fields and relatively little by temperature excursions.
The steel version costs $16,600, £12,100.
Red gold version
Another version of the watch, reference 6106-2987-55A, has a red gold case with opaline dial.
The watch has a sapphire case back revealing the movement, which has a red gold oscillating weight and meticulously-decorated surfaces with snailing, polished chamfers, and straight and circular Côtes de Genève patterns. The watch has a taupe-colored alligator strap.
The red gold reference costs $19,900, £13,900.
