Ref. 2040

Available in 40 mm or 43 mm

Small series of 50 timepieces only

Total Price 2,150.00 Euro

(NET excluded VAT)

Delivery time 4 weeks

Shipping free worldwide via DHL or FEDEX

The watchmaking era of Art Deco is just as short as in other areas with this style. After World War I until before During the Second World War, a style spread all over the world and in all areas of everyday life. Art Deco stylistic elements flowed into architecture, furniture, clothing and every conceivable commodity. With Art Deco, everything superfluous was seen as necessary. The stylized and two-dimensional depiction of floral and organic motifs is characteristic of Art Deco. This lack of shadow and naturalness conveys the modern and often bold impression of the art of that era. In the middle of this epoch, the Art Deco pocket watches were created, which were characterized by the renunciation of functionalism and the worship of technology. Completely in the style of Art Deco, these pocket watches had clear shapes and a pure surface effect of the materials. For the first time, applied numbers - so-called appliqués - were used. These Art Deco pocket watches should not be confused with the mostly small and angular women's wristwatches that were appearing at the same time. At this time, the man was still carrying his pocket watch in his waistcoat pocket. It was not until 1940 that the wristwatch also became popular among men, but by then the small, angular design of wristwatches was already outdated. Wristwatches for men between 1940-1960 were mostly round and slightly larger. Just like their role models, the Tourby Art Deco watches also draw on these style elements. Despite the simple design, but through the use of precious materials, a very decorative and elegant look is achieved. The rose gold appliqués and numbers look extremely high quality and are extremely complex and expensive both in terms of production and assembly. The rose gold leaf hands "Feuille" fit this style perfectly. It is important not to produce both the appliqués and the hands flat, but to give these parts volume. Therefore, curved materials are used in both cases. This design is also available in a rhodium variant, where the appliqués and hands are rhodium-plated and the dial has a sunburst finish with a technical look. Of course, the dials are made of the highest quality 925/000 sterling silver, as Art Deco dictates. The numbers on the dial should not only stand out in color, but also stand out from the overall picture due to their shape. This resulted in a clear and high-quality design.

The hands are made of stainless steel and then hard gold-plated. Normally, steel hands are only used if you want to blue them afterwards, since only steel hands can be blued using temperature. For non-blued hands, you actually only use the cheaper brass hands, since stainless steel is unnecessary here. Brass hands are on the one hand cheaper and on the other hand much easier to gild. However, Tourby spared no expense with the Art Deco models and used steel hands, although this is not technically necessary. But in the world of luxury, it's often the less necessary things that make it so appealing. Nevertheless, steel hands always have an advantage over brass hands. Steel hands are more robust and often survive assembly without damage, while brass hands usually have to be replaced in a later revision because they bend or scratch during assembly. The connoisseur can always tell steel hands from brass hands, even if both are subsequently gold-plated. Just looking at the base of the hands reveals the quality of steel hands. With brass hands, the circle around the holes is often bent during assembly, while steel hands cannot be bent due to the robust base material. Of course, you can only see something like this on closer inspection, but the differences are often in the details. Especially with luxury items, the customer will inspect the goods very carefully.

The crystal of the Tourby Art Deco watches is a strongly curved sapphire crystal and its shape is reminiscent of old pocket watches. In the case of pocket watches, the crystals were mostly made of plastic and were very cheap to manufacture. A strongly curved sapphire crystal, on the other hand, is extremely complicated and expensive to produce. These special lenses cost four times as much as traditional sapphire lenses and hundreds of times as much as plastic lenses. At the same time, strongly curved sapphire crystals should not be confused with simply curved sapphire crystal. There are also significant price differences here. With a strongly curved sapphire crystal, not only is the outer surface curved, but also the inside. This creates a kind of cylinder shape, which is very difficult to produce. Due to this very special shape, narrower cases can be used, which looks better with classic watches. With such a construction, the dial sits much higher and makes the watch look more elegant. The technical advantage of these strongly curved glasses is that the actual thickness of the watch can be concealed. Above all, classic watches should appear very flat and not obtrusive. Technically, this is difficult to achieve because the movements are usually very thick. Viewed from the side, a watch consists of a case-back, middle part, bezel and crystal. The thickness of the caseback and middle can hardly be reduced, but the bezel and crystal can be used to give the watch a slimmer look. To do this, you use a very narrow and flat bezel and set the dial up to this height. Now only the hands stick out at the top. And this is protected by a strongly curved sapphire crystal without impairing its function. Since the Crystals are anti-reflective, they are hardly noticeable to the viewer. The eye then only sees the steel frame of the watch, which looks very flat. Although the watch - measured with crystal - has the same height as other watches, it looks much flatter.