News A gift to Quebec from the watchmaker based in Les Breuleux and the Canton du Jura gave to mark the city’s 400th anniversary, and was officially presented in Porrentruy. Development, machining and assembly of the monumental clock, called Porte-bonheurE, will have taken six years for Richard Mille engineers to complete, in partnership with Porrentruy Technical College and Neuchâtel’s Haute Ecole Arc.
The first clock designed and produced according to the demands and codes of Haute Horlogerie required 6,570 hours of development and 3,950 hours of assembly and adjustment, and contains 5,450 parts. It measures 3.50 x 2.50 x 1.30 metres and weighs 1,913 kilos. Compared to those of a watch, its components are between 300 and 500 times larger and around 100,000 times heavier.
Movement engineers at the watchmaking firm took a leaf from the book of grand complications to ensure optimal chronometric properties. For example, the constant-force device overcomes different negative effects caused by the weight of the hands, and force variations resulting from the many toothed wheels.
The clock has two faces and presents two displays: one side shows hours and minutes, while the other combines hours, minutes, seconds and a perpetual calendar. To remind everyone of the clock’s symbolic significance and origin, a second time-zone, set to the Swiss Jura and displayed in a glass column, is revealed by the upward movement of an aperture.
Hand-finished decorations visible on the entire movement and cabinet enhance the timepiece. Satin-finishing, micropeening, polishing and surface treatments showcase the work of watchmakers, decorative artists and students.
The clock will be on show in Porrentruy until 3 May. It will then take up quarters in the gardens of Quebec Town Hall, where it will embody the ties of friendship between Quebec and the canton of Jura.
March 19, 2014
