The Laurent Ferrier Galet Traveller Globe Night Blue offers a good reason for creating a watch with the on-trend blue dial colour. In this piece, the view of the dial depicts the earth as seen from space, with deep blue oceans and tiny specks of gold representing the lights of the cities. The craftsmanship used to create the dial is traditional enamelling, made more complicated by the convex curve of the central part of the dial, suggesting the curve of the earth’s surface. The white gold dial is worked by hollowing the areas that will become the seas and oceans, before the blue enamel is applied. The enamel is thickest at the central parts of the oceans, and so becomes darker. The edge of the painted part of the dial seems to dip under the peripheral ring bearing the slender hour markers, whose tips are suspended above it. The design heightens the three-dimensionality of the dial.
The case is in white gold, not rhodium-plated, 41 mm in diameter and 13.7 mm thick. It has a blue alligator leather strap with Alcantara lining, and a pin buckle or clasp in white gold.
The watch keeps track of a second time zone and enables the traveller to rapidly adjust local time as he passes from one time zone to another. The two rectangular pushers on the left-hand side of the case adjust the local time, shown by the central hour hand: the upper pusher moves the hand one hour forwards, the lower pusher moves it an hour back. The minutes hand continues its course unaffected. The local time is shown in the window at 9 o’clock, with a 24-hour set of numerals so that there is no need for a separate day/night indicator. This window is balanced by the date window at 3 o’clock.
The watch is powered by the self-winding Laurent Ferrier movement, Calibre 230.01, which incorporates the brand’s characteristic natural escapement (in which the balance receives two impulses every oscillation instead of the usual one) and micro-rotor, as well as the dual-time complication. Power reserve is 80 hours. The balance runs at 21,600 vibrations per hour, 3 Hertz, and the movement has 288 components and 44 jewels. The sapphire caseback provides a view of the movement, with its Côtes de Genève on the bridges and circular graining on the mainplate. At 31.6 mm diameter, it is a perfect match to the case size.
Price and reference
The Laurent Ferrier Galet Traveller Globe Night Blue is reference LCF012-G, and it costs 75,000 Swiss francs. Read more on the Laurent Ferrier website.
