Independents

foversta
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The Upside Down by Ludovic Ballouard

I must confess I'm very happy to present you the first watch by Ludovic Ballouard in the context of his own company.

Ludovic Ballouard is a talented french watchmaker, born in Brittany, who started his career in Switzerland with Franck Muller. He after worked for François-Paul Journe during seven years, assembling a large range of watches from the Octa to the Grande Sonnerie.

When you work during more than 3 years on the most prestigious complication, in the special world of striking watches, in one of the most renowned manufactures,  it gives you a lot of trust and the will to fly on your own wings.    

Ludovic has released his first watch, the Upside Down at the beginning of the year. You don't see very often such appropriate name for a watch. No, no, the watch doesn't come from Australia. It gets its name because, if you carefully look at the dial all the figures are upside down. All figures ? No ! The figure of the right hour is displayed  the normal way. So, you quicky understood it with the absence of the hour hand: we are entering the world of jumping hours watches. To improve the readability of time, to bring a better contrast between the right figure and the eleven other ones, a black dot is displayed next to it. When the end of the hour comes, the disk where the figure does a half-revolution in order that the figure becomes upside down. The disk of the figure of the starting hour at the same time also does a half revolution and the figure is normally displayed with its black dot. Did you catch the trick ? In fact, the black dot when the figure is upside down is hidden below the bezel.




Well, a small movie is better than a thousand words, it clearly explains you how the watch works. You will notice that the black dot seems to navigate around the dial with the flow of time... Please note that we can set the time only by turning the crown in one way, the opposite way is not functional.




What was Ludovic's objective when he dediced to create such watch and complication? The idea was to introduce a fun watch which brings a new time display in a quite simple context. The context had to be simple first of all to take into account some economic realities (it is very difficult to start with a watch complicated like a gas plant) and also to release a watch which had to be reliable, easy to service or to fix. And thanks to his relationships, Ludovic has managed to work with providers who are friends.




It is the reason why at first glance, the watch seems to be simple. Of course, the dial had to be the most spare as possible to highlight the time display. For example, you won't find any minutes graduation here. It is a bit complicated to read the exact minute at the beginning but when you are used with it, there is no trouble.




The dial is made of painted brass. You will notice that the second hand subdial has exactly the same size than the hour disks. The hands are made of blued steel.

The case is more subtle. Its shape, its curved sides and lugs make it very comfortable to wear. The bezel is rather thick but as I told you before, one of its purposes is to hide the black dot when the figures are upside down. Case diameter is 41mm and it is only available in platinum. The buckle and the crown (yes, the crown) are also made of platinum.




Now, time is coming to have a look at the caliber and... what a suprise ! We have the feeling to almost  get a mirror view of the dial. The idea from Ludovic was to put the complication caliber side and not dial side. In fact, this layout makes the things more difficult. The twelve Maltese crosses which aim is to animate to hour disks give an impressive visual effect to the caliber. But the consequence is that twelve vertical pinions have to go through the movement to reach the hour disks.




At the center of the movement, you may recognize the wheels: in fact, caliber base is the famous and reliable Peseux 7001 which is also used, for example, by Urwerk. Caliber is powerful enough to animate two hour disks per hour with a power reserve of 42 hours.




It is obvious: thanks to its golden brass plates, its fine decoration and its layout, I've never seen a caliber which looks like this one before.

The case shape allows to wear the watch with comfort and like a lot of jumping hours watches, it is always funny to feel the change of hour without having a look at the watch.








Ludovic has delivered 20 watches for the moment, the first 12 watches were sold directly to collectors who knew Ludovic's talent and who were seduced by his project.

Masaki Saito is Ludovic's associate in the company and is in charge of the commercial side. Masaki's objective is to expand the retailers network which is currently composed by one AD in Spain, one in Switzerland and one in Asia.




Ludovic and Masaki expect to reach an annual production of 100 watches but not more.

The Upside Down is sold with a price of around 50,000 CHF without taxes. The watch is delivered with a pouch which is made of the same leather used for the strap.

So what would be the next steps ? Of course, for the moment, the goal is to keep on producing the Upside down. But a 100% in-house movement will come later and we are a bit obliged to think that a striking watch would come one day due to Ludovic's background. Be sure that in that case, the watch would be as original and special like the Upside Down is.




It is always a bit moving to see the first watch of a company or of an independant watchmaker. It is the reason why I was so happy to discover the Upside Down and of course, I wish the best to Ludovic and Masaki for the future.

Fr.Xavier

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