he new model of the Swiss brand BA111OD is a tourbillon, a watchmaking complication usually offered by the biggest brands at prices unattainable by the general public. Thomas Baillod, founder of a watch sales concept turned into a brand, unveils “Chapter 4, The Veblen Dilemma Tourbillon”, priced at CHF 3’920 (ex VAT).

With this 43 mm diameter tourbillon entirely produced in the canton of Neuchâtel and its nearby surroundings, Thomas Baillod is claiming uncompromising chronometry, a definitely contemporized fundamental aesthetic as well as the tangible demonstration of the sales concepts he has been teaching for several years. Solutions that provide encouraging systemic answers to the actors of the local industrial fabric, the suppliers, and to those of the global distribution, the retail market.

This hand-wound tourbillon calibre, which runs at 21,600 vibrations per hour, is the result of an encounter between the experienced watchmaker Olivier Mory (La Chaux-de-Fonds), and a well-respected captain of industry who has turned into a business angel.

Today, this highly complicated movement is being offered by the BA111OD watch brand in a customized version, as the BA.01. It has successfully undergone the steps for its reliability, these watchmaking tests that intentionally mistreat watches and high quality mechanisms in order to ensure their durability, trustworthiness and precision values.

With a two-year warranty, with 105 hours of power reserve (more than four days) and a shock tolerance of more than 5,000 G, the hand-wound tourbillon is offering a rotating cage that turns in 60 seconds. Fine complicated watchmaking that also offers the full range of traditional finishings and decorations: polished-blocked, chamfered and blued screws, double-sided ringed gear train, rolled pivots, etc. The case is made of grade 5 titanium. It is coated with a DLC Black Ice treatment.

In addition to this fusion of age-old know-how and experienced industrial intelligence, a logic of short supply chains has been accelerated by the current context: an incredible pool of motivated suppliers, all anchored in the Neuchâtel fabric. Their enthusiasm and responsiveness led them to embrace the adventure wholeheartedly.

Already in the early days of watchmaking, the concept of the Manufacture Horizontale provided history with glorious times: in Geneva the Cabinotiers, in the mountain regions, the farm workshops. The timepieces were produced from workbenches to workbenches and not within the walls of a factory where all the skills were in-house and verticalized. Indeed, confined by the rigorous winters or urban pragmatism, the Ancients practiced their Art in turn, adding to each piece in the process their respective levels of skill and mastery.