Favre Leuba follows last year’s acclaimed Chief Tourbillon with a second edition of 25 pieces, now crowned by a hand-guilloché dial cut on a late-19th-century rose engine. Same heart, sharper poetry.
The Chief Tourbillon Guilloché keeps the caliber FL T01 – developed with Jean-François Mojon and based on Chronode C502 – and the refined 41 mm cushion-shaped steel case. The movement runs at 21,600 vph, uses 23 jewels, and offers about 60 hours of power reserve. Nothing showy here, just a confident architecture with purpose.
The dial does the speaking. A blue grain d’orge pattern radiates from the center, each dial requiring five to six hours at the lathe, where a steady hand has no safety net. The light plays across the grooves with a quiet shimmer, like ripples on a lake at dawn.
Applied rhodium-plated indexes and central hands are finished with care – polished, brushed, and sandblasted – then filled with Super-LumiNova C1 X1 for a blue glow. At six, a flame-blued small seconds rides the tourbillon cage, itself framed by an hourglass-evoking upper bridge that doubles as the small seconds rehaut.
Finishing is deliberate: horizontally brushed surfaces along the 3 o’clock-9 o’clock axis, a circular-grained outer edge for the seconds track, and blue screws that nod to the brand’s long practice. Through the back, a spiral-relief hourglass over a laser-engraved satin-like field keeps the motif consistent without shouting.
The watch ships on a brushed and polished steel bracelet with H-shaped links and a folding clasp, plus an integrated blue FKM rubber strap. Water resistance is 10 ATM. Dimensions are 41 mm by 11.45 mm under a curved sapphire with anti-reflective coating, with a sapphire caseback to complete the view.
Price for the Chief Tourbillon Guilloché Dial, limited to 25 pieces: 26’000 CHF; 26,000 GBP; 30,000 EUR; 34,500 USD.
Technical notes: FL T01 manual-wind tourbillon – hours, minutes, small seconds with one-minute tourbillon rotation – Geneva stripes, anthracite finish, engraved ratchet wheel.
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