It’s been two years since Christophe Claret has launched its first ladies’ timepiece named Margot. This feminine watch tried to find the answer on romantic question through a “he loves me, he loves me not” game. This year, the Swiss watch manufacturer offers a new variation of this exquisite watch featuring oriental colors. Just like its predecessor, this newcomer is issued in the limited series of only 20 pieces worldwide.
The elegant and romantic Christophe Claret Layla timepiece boasts a clever mechanism which provides that a simple press of the pusher located at the 2 o’clock position brings the watch to life. With each press, a petal or sometimes a pair of petals (it is difficult to predict), discretely disappears under the dial in a smooth action, perfectly illustrating the delicate undressing of the flower.
The answer on the question “Does he love me?” in this game of love appears randomly in calligraphic Arabic letters on the dial at the 8 o’clock position: a little – a lot – passionately – madly – not at all! The big challenge for the Christophe Claret’s team was to adapt the movement of the new watch to match the right-to-left direction of Arabic script.
With every press of the pusher, a distinct, crystalline chime resonates, aurally signaling the pace of the game. The hammer is encrusted with a prong-set ruby.
On the watch’s case band there is a window located at the 8 o’clock position which offers a glimpse of its vertically eye-catching cathedral gong above. By pressing the reset push-button located at the 4 o’clock position, all petals promptly reappear around the pistil and turn the ‘sentiment’ display at the 4 o’clock position to an ellipsis shown by three little dots.
Underneath the front sapphire glass lies a feminine pink mother-of-pearl dial which displays delicately engraved verses penned by the Arab poet, Qays Al Mulawwah. His poem tells the story of Qays, a young poet and son of a glorious family of Bedouins, who falls in love with his cousin Layla. In this culture, feathers decides about marriages and in this case the young woman’s family refuses this match. Graceless Layla weds another guy and leaves the region. Several days later, Qays’ lifeless body is discovered protecting an ultimate poem dedicated to his loving Layla.
The gorgeous dial of the new Christophe Claret Layla watch also comprises three emeralds located at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions, thus poetically underlining the scene.
The second ladies’ watch from the house of Christophe Claret is housed in 18-karat rose gold case with a curved profile to sport even the slimmest ladies wrist. Its elegant case measures 38.4mm in diameter and 9.76mm in thickness.
The heart of this beautiful wristwatch is the self-winding caliber EMT17 that promises up to 72 hours of power reserve. The impeccable mechanism features two barrels and oscillates at the rapid frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz).
At first glance, it is simply impossible to see the crown because it has been hidden and placed on the back right to the upper lugs. The center of the space between the lugs is decorated with an emerald, while baguette-cut diamonds also create a scintillating play of light across the bezel.
From the rear, the view through the sapphire display back reveals the self-winding rotor, a delicately carved, flower-shaped carousel of colors symbolizing sentiments of love, with a central cabochon concealing the rotor’s ball bearings. Each of the eight resplendent triangular gemstones symbolizes a feeling – hope, passion, tenderness – which are also translated into Arabic.
The retail price of the Christophe Claret Layla timepiece is approximately $282,000.
