Louis Moinet pays tribute to Alexey Leonov

Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov and Louis Moinet are joining forces in making an indelible impression on the course of history. The story is above all that of an individual, a tale of humility: that of Alexey Leonov, now 83. On March 18^th 1965, he became the first man in the world to perform a spacewalk. While he may not be the best-known of spacefarers, often overshadowed by those involved in the moon race, he was a vital pioneer, in whose footsteps they followed.

The destinies of Moinet the astronomer and Leonov the cosmonaut have been brought together in “Spacewalker”. This exceptional contemporary creation is dedicated to Alexey Leonov, a man who was not only the first to walk freely in space but also the initiator of one of the most symbolic gestures in all history – an interstellar handshake with his NASA counterpart in 1975, at the height of the Cold War, which went on to experience an unexpected thaw.

Louis Moinet’s SpaceWalker commemorates this unparalleled hero. The timepiece features an outsize tourbillon at 12 o’clock, representing Alexey Leonov’s spaceship on his Voskhod 2 mission. A diamond revolves around the tourbillon, representing Alexey Leonov himself, floating in space outside his spacecraft. The decision to use a diamond was quite deliberate: “Almaz-2” was Leonov’s code name during the mission (his partner was known as “Almaz-1”) – and “almaz” is the Russian word for diamond. The picture would not be complete without an evocation of the vastness of the cosmos – represented by an aventurine background that becomes transparent when exposed to light.

The SpaceWalker dial is also an all-new creation by Louis Moinet. It makes use of an exclusive, secret graphic composition, depicting an artistic view of the starry heavens in which Leonov drifted at will for 12 minutes and 9 seconds on March 18^th 1965.

In celebration of those 12 minutes spent in the freedom of space, Louis Moinet has produced two limited editions, each comprising 12 engraved watches in rose or white gold, alongside two other limited editions comprising 18 non-engraved pieces, also in white or rose gold.

April 19, 2018