Louis Moinet SKYDANCE
Skydance is a women’s watch by the brand Louis Moinet SKYDANCE presented on occasion of the Geneva show SIHH. In addition to the Richemont Group brands – Panerai, Cartier, Piaget, Van Cleef & Arpels, Vacheron Constantin, IWC and so forth – SIHH also presents some smaller, artisanal brands. LVMH brands Hublot, Zenith and Tag Heuer are present on a boat moored on the lakeside, and yet more watch companies, such as Bovet, Louis Moinet, Manufacture Royale and Claude Meylan, exhibit at hotels. Skydance is the first new women’s watch presented by Louis Moinet since 2013, and it is a very attractive piece, in three colours, red, blue and green, with visual links to the vastness of the universe. Its size, 36 mm in diameter, is perfect for women.
The Louis Moinet SKYDANCE of the name refers not to the sky, but to the unfathomable immensity of sidereal space. The three colours are themselves beautiful, and the brand refers to the green and blue as Magic Green and Magic Blue, because they are proprietary colours attained using a secret composition, perhaps some treatment of the metal used for the dial. They say that it is “unlike anything achieved using enamel, lacquer, or galvanisation,” and they were giving no clues as to how it is made.
The small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock is in the shape of the sun, with a long ray indicating the seconds. The hour and minute hands have dewdrop tips – a Louis Moinet hallmark – filled with a luminescent coating. Hour markers take the form of diamonds, and there are another six on the bezel. The case, in steel and titanium, has an interesting engraving on the caseband, a motif resembling the double helix of DNA even though I don’t think that this was the inspiration. The drilled holes in the lugs for the springbar are also topped by diamonds. The result is a case that combines simplicity with a lot of well-orchestrated details.
The Louis Moinet SKYDANCE movement is a standard self-winding calibre running at 28,800 vibrations per hour, 4 Hertz, with 28 jewels, power reserve 42 hours. The oscillating weight that winds the watch automatically is finished with a representation of the sun and the moon. The watch has an alligator strap, in red or blue for those two dial colours, and in black for the green watch, though the matching green strap is also available. The strap has a clasp with the Louis Moinet fleur-de-lys symbol, which also appears on the crown. Water resistance is 5 atm, 50 metres.
