Thinking out of the box. The Weap-One, imagined by Rebellion, and revealed in 2017, makes this ambition reality.
A slimline titanium case hosts a surprising calibre. Two “wheel-nut” shaped crowns top this cylinder. The right-hand one is dedicated to winding the movement whilst the left-hand one for setting time. The hours and minutes are displayed by two rollers placed at each extremity. Between this time data, an asymmetrical flying tourbillon, revolving at a speed of 60 seconds, comes into play on several axes majestically. Behind the apparent simplicity is a savvy assembly of some 529 components. The hand-wound movement is the fruit of a development masterminded hand-in-hand with the team from Concepto. Another highlight of this timepiece, its ability to metamorphose. The case is snap-cliqued to the strap via a support. It can easily be removed and turned into a table clock.
Rebellion, forever questing performance, wished to go beyond the realms of the possible. Although its Weap-One Diamonds hosts the 40 mm-long, 25 mm-diameter case, we perceive an omnipresence of sapphire which now also adorns the crowns. Another difference, when compared with the previous model, is in the regulating device with its diamond-fashioned carriage. But not just any diamond… here, it’s a high-tech material used in the aerospace sector for its multiple properties and which has the particularity of being unbreakable. The Swiss brand called on a Japanese firm Adamant Namiki Precision, which uses a patented production method to produce this surprising flat-shaped atomic diamond.
The method used for creating it is highly-spectacular and it requires a good deal of patience to obtain the length desired. The Japanese company chose the hetero-epitaxial option, a process which prompts the growth of fine layers a few nanometres thick from the perfectly-polished surface of a monocrystal. And, the result? This material takes longer than a plant to grow. Judge for yourselves! A millimetre of this synthetic diamond takes 40 days to produce. The equivalent of 280 days was required to obtain the seven millimetres necessary for the tourbillon component.
80 days more were added for delicate polishing, performed using a plasma fusion CMP process. The creation of this carriage, the only one of its kind in the world, took a whole year, something totally unheard of until now.
Price upon request rebellion-timepieces.com
By Dan Diaconu