OMEGA: Dark Side of the Moon 'Black Black'.
In the early seventies, my way to school led me past the large GM garage. Oh, how I marvelled at the Opel Mantas and Gts. All of them in the flashiest colours: neon yellow, grass-green, bright orange. In those days, only state cars or hearses were black. Today, the streetscape is dominated by grey tones and black – and very few of these cars belong to the state or funeral services. Black has become our favourite colour – if it would be a colour. And it really has something to it. It connects us to something mysterious, and that in itself is always fascinating. Back in the sixties, Star Trek began to explore the ‘infinite vastness of space’. The nylon pullovers of the crew in their muted hues were the only dash of colour in the darkness of space. Lurking out there is “the black hole” that swallows everything, even light.
Just recently, watchmaker H. Moser & Cie. Created a kind of ‘black hole’ for the wrist that they introduced in Schaffhausen: the “H. Moser Endeavour Small Seconds Total Eclipse“. The watch was created in collaboration with the exclusive Hongkong menswear company “The Armoury”. Since not just the clothes, but also the watch is meant to be exclusive, the edition was small and sold out within hours of its release. Alas! Not even the author was fast enough. The watch is really special with its dial that swallows any light it receives and is therefore the blackest black - the ‘darkest of the dark’ – that we can imagine. This effect comes from the so-called Vantablack coating on the dial. A layer of light-absorbing carbon nanotubes. This substance was developed in Great Britain. Whether “Q” from James Bond had his hands in the making of this…in any case, the whole thing comes across as very mysterious.
Quelle: OMEGA
It gets even more mysterious with a watch from the workshop of a very small manufacturer along the shore of Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland. This is where Beat Haldimann is located. His watches bear his family name and are titled in the order of their creation. The Haldimann H9 is the pinnacle of his work so far – and in some way also the endpoint. It is the last of a series of timepieces with an unusually complex mechanism. The so-called tourbillon is a filigree mechanical solution to a problem that precision watchmaking faced in its beginnings. At the time, it was not possible to create a completely accurate balance wheel; there was always the tiniest imbalance that could disturb the smooth functioning. Joined by gravity this imbalance creates the so-called positional error. Two hundred years ago, genius watchmaker Abraham Louis Breguet created his “Régulateur à Tourbillon” with the idea to rotate the entire balance wheel (including the escapement and escapement wheel) around itself.
In this way, inaccuracies are compensated. For modern watches, this mechanism doesn’t make technical sense anymore; nevertheless, almost every watch manufacturer offers a model equipped with a tourbillon. Now let’s remember how the lion roars at the beginning of every Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production? „Ars gratia artis, l’art pour l’art!“. It is about art and that’s enough. No need for further justification.
Back to Haldimann. He went a step further and built the tourbillon on the dial side in the middle of the watch. The first of the series – the H1 – conventionally displays hour and minute with the respective hands. The next model forgoes any display of the time: ‘only’ the Tourbillon mechanism is to be seen and marvelled at. The third model, the Haldimann H9, is like the first one, except that the dial and the mechanical marvel are hidden underneath a black sapphire glass. There is nothing to be seen – neither the tourbillon nor the time! What is this? Haldimann likes to speak of the sound of the mechanism. It is about rendering the tourbillon sonorous and with the H9 nothing distracts from the acoustic experience. One thing is clear: this mysterious object on the wrist emanates fascination. Sadly, the watch is also very costly. But then, why should a wearable black hole be inexpensive? However, fret not, there is also something like a democratisation of ‘the black hole’ for the wrist: a watch, that is affordable.
It is the OMEGA Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon ‘Black Black’ (Ref. 311.92.44.51.01.005). An exceptionally beautiful black piece, and, when held at the right angle against the light, it even displays the time. What more can one want? Worn in a bright green Opel Manta, with an elbow leaning out the window, this piece would definitely come to full effect!
From the German original by Bruno Pfaff
