Romain Gauthier is an exclusive high-end watch manufacture based in the Vallée de Joux, Switzerland. Here is its first ladies’ watch – the Insight Micro-rotor Lady.
With its visible, intricately engineered, automatic movement featuring snow-set micro-rotor and its shimmering mother-of-pearl dial, this watch is for those women who want their timepieces blessed with more than just a pretty face.
Insight Micro-Rotor Lady’s hour-minute subdial and small seconds are crafted from mother of pearl exuding a gorgeous iridescent sheen, indications powered by an in-house calibre that boasts a bidirectional micro-rotor made from 22k gold.
The front of this oscillating weight is spectacularly decorated with round brilliant-cut diamonds of varying sizes.
The time is displayed on two off-center, overlapping subdials, one for hours and minutes, the other for small seconds. Also showcased on the front of the timepiece are the movement’s balance, at 6 o’clock, which beats at a frequency of 28,800 vph; the circular cutout in the movement mainplate that frames the swaying micro-rotor; and a golden plaquette engraved with the Romain Gauthier “RG” logo. All of these elements are surrounded by curved, hand-beveled bridges that echo the contours of the 39.5-mm case and are covered by a bombé sapphire crystal that rises gradually toward 12 o’clock before steeply dropping again.
Measuring the same 39.5mm across and 12.9mm high as the men’s model, the watch is mechanically identical to the Insight Micro Rotor introduced at Baselworld last year. But, there are a few subtle design changes from the men’s model, with the main difference being the dial layouts and the materials. Previously, where there had been a minute track and Roman numerals to mark the hours on the upper subdial, there is now Arabic numerals marking 3, 6, 9, and 12, with no minute track. Similarly, the second track on the lower subdial has been removed and the numerals have been condensed to only mark 15, 30, 45, and 60 seconds.
The watch is available in two iterations – a red gold case with either a Tahitian black mother-of-pearl dial or Australian extra white mother-of-pearl – in a limited edition of 10 pieces each, priced at CHF 83,000.