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Haute Horlogerie: An Intrinsic Movement.

The world of Haute Horlagerie confronted me at a recent corporate golf event. My Android battery had passed away in the depths of my pocket somewhere between the twelfth and thirteenth hole.

“How much time ’til dinner?” I asked the VP of Marketing beside me at the bar. He held his wrist towards me as he drained his scotch. He nodded to the bartender for a refill. My jaw dropped. Envy nudged me. Staring at me was the most stunning face since Carmen Electra batted her eyelashes from the cover of Maxim when I was a teen.

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“It’s Roger Dubuis’s ‘Excalibur’ from Geneva. It has a skeleton double flying tourbillon and a 48-hour power reserve.” Beneath the beveled crystal, 319 mechanisms spun and swayed; 400 baquette-cut diamonds ensconced the case and sides, secured by an ebony hand-stitched alligator strap.

“You need another beer, Mr. I.T.,” the VP smirked. Android had retired my last watch; Excalibur had defibrillated my fashion pulse.

I turned to the Legal Counsel on my other side. “So what’s the story on yours?” I eyed the bright, clean dial, characterized with a small second index at 6 o’clock beneath an antireflective sapphire crystal.

“‘Opera Three’ by Girard-Perregaux, famous makers of pre-19th Century pocket watches,” he smiled. “Same principles of a music box, it plays Mozart or Tchaikovsky on the hour by way of a miniature carillon with a 20-blade keyboard and one drum set with 150 pins.”

During the first course, I met the self-winding, 239- part Blancpain “Calibre 25A,” whose manufacturer’s precedential gem-setting techniques have hallmarked the baquette-cut diamond of global watchmakers. By dessert, I honed in on a “Piaget Dancer.” Her lashes weren’t quite as electra, but her movement and symmetry, hugged by 800 brilliant diamonds, called for a fresh round of scotch.