The best ultra-thin timepieces that fit ever so discreetly under your shirt cuff
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The best ultra-thin timepieces that fit ever so discreetly under your shirt cuff
Information technology'southward no longer enough to make watches slim and dressy. For these brands, their ultra-thin pieces need to break world records, and your brain.
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic has the honour of existence the world's thinnest mechanical chronograph. (Photo: Bulgari)
08 Oct 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 04 Jul 2022 x:30PM)
There are people who like their watches large and hefty, perhaps stemming from a desire to have the fruits of their labour have a not-metaphorical weight on their wrists.
And then in that location are those who similar their timepieces so lean that they have no problem disappearing nether shirt cuffs. Simply these ultra-thin watches have a unlike kind of presence, i that comes from the technical mastery needed to make a timepiece no thicker than a couple of credit cards both feasible and reasonably durable.
The thinnest mechanical sentinel in existence is currently Piaget's Altiplano Ultimate Concept, a hand-wound ticker at an alarmingly skinny 2mm, but until the prototype is complete, here are the other record-breakers you can acquire in the meantime.
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Automated/TOURBILLON
Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automated Carbon
Case: iii.95mm
Movement: i.95mm
The title of "thinnest automated watch in the globe" bounced around a little between Bulgari and Piaget not too long ago. At Baselworld 2022 information technology belonged to the sometime, with the Octo Finissimo Automated coming in at 5.15mm and a movement just two.23mm thick. Information technology was bested by Piaget's Altiplano Ultimate Automatic 910P (where the movement was role of the case) at SIHH 2018, which measured four.3mm. But when the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic launched a few months after, information technology took the crown dorsum with an additional world record for thinnest flight tourbillon (or any tourbillon) around. Like the ultra-thin repeater, this year's edition shaves off extra grams by introducing it in carbon.
CHRONOGRAPH
Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic
Case: 6.9mm
Move: 3.3mm
Chronograph movements are among the most challenging to make among complications, and making them automatic and ultra-sparse is a gauntlet not many watchmakers are willing to take on. Which explains why ebauche manufacturer Frederic Piguet (now Manufacture Blancpain) held the title for the thinnest cocky-winding chronograph movement – the 5.4mm thick Calibre 1185 – for 31 years earlier Bulgari finally wrested information technology away this year. This Octo Finissiomo's 42mm diameter feels near too large for a picket this frail, but was necessary to make room for its platinum peripheral rotor, which was cardinal to its svelteness. The BVL 318 calibre also includes a GMT, and the boosted 60 minutes can be adjusted via a pusher at ix o'clock.
READ> Baselworld 2019: Bulgari debuts the world'southward thinnest mechanical chronograph
Transmission-WINDING Infinitesimal REPEATER
Bulgari Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater Carbon
Case: six.85mm
Move: 3.12mm
One of the well-nigh compelling things about the 2022 Bulgari Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater isn't (just) its slim contour; its blueprint just doesn't fit the traditionally dressy, precious metal-clad chiming watches we've come to expect in this industry. Not that it needs to, because the spotter'due south almost entirely unpolished titanium facade and elementary cut-out indexes emphasise its incredible engineering. Its successor, released two years later, continues this theme with a rugged looking Carbon Thin Ply case. Thanks to this high-tech textile, which performs solidly in terms of sonority, it weighs fifty-fifty less than its predecessor while retaining the aforementioned dimensions.
MANUAL-WINDING TIME-Only
Piaget Altiplano 900P
Instance/Motion: 3.65mm
Piaget is facing stiff competition from Bulgari in this department but there's no withal no doubtfulness about the brand'southward merits of being a "Primary of Ultra-Thin". For its 140th anniversary in 2013, information technology released the Altiplano 900P, which still remains the slimmest (non-concept) mechanical picket in existence. The trick was to accept the caseback serve as a baseplate for the movement too as the dial. A patent-pending mechanism also had to exist created to enable the hands to sit below the master bridges instead of to a higher place, so that the watch crystal could be fitted as close to the motility as possible. Equally remarkable is its 38mm diameter, where a larger but less dressy case size would have been easier to piece of work with.
PERPETUAL CALENDAR
Audemars Piguet Purple Oak Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin
Case: 6.3mm
Movement: 2.89mm
Perpetual calendars are useful, just the elaborate mechanisms required to brand 1 means they're rarely slight. So we're glad that Audemars Piguet's Majestic Oak RD#2 Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin concept, starting time introduced at SIHH 2018, actually made it to production this year with all its delicacy intact. The differences are mostly cosmetic: brushed titanium example with platinum bezel and bracelet centre links instead of existence fully platinum, and a vertically brushed punch rather than the "petite tapisserie" guilloche. The Calibre 5133 that powers it is actually based on the long-established Calibre 2120, which was first produced in 1967 and was the thinnest full rotor movement in the world at the time.
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SELF-WINDING Minute REPEATER
Piaget Emperador Coussin Ultra-Sparse Infinitesimal Repeater
Case: ix.4mm
Movement: 4.8mm
Information technology was in 2010 when Piaget decided that its next minute repeater was non only going to be the brand'southward showtime in-house 1, but besides the thinnest automatic repeater in the world. It took six engineers three years to make it a reality, and the effect was, and notwithstanding is, stunning. The case, which has been hollowed out to maximise resonance, was the result of one,400 hours of development and the Calibre 1290P's mitt-finishing required 70 hours to complete. While some may argue that precious metals (rose gilt in this case) aren't the most optimal for a chiming shell, this repeater has a respectable intensity of 64 decibels, which is just a little louder than a normal conversation.
SPLIT-SECONDS CHRONOGRAPH
Vacheron Constantin Harmony Ultra-Sparse Grande Complication Chronograph
Case: 8.4mm
Movement: 5.2mm
The rattrapante sits at the top of chronograph hierarchy thanks to a level of complexity that rivals repeaters and tourbillons. So an ultra-thin, automatic, split-seconds chronograph is practically a unicorn – one that took Vacheron Constantin seven years to brood. Launched in commemoration with the brand'south 260th anniversary in 2015, the mono-pusher chronograph is cased in platinum with a restrained, vintage-inspired dial that belies the mod engineering lying beneath it which, thankfully, can be seen through an exhibition case back. Information technology'southward an insider'south watch through and through, and the lucky 10 to get their easily on 1 will also receive a alphabetic character signed by ex-CEO Juan-Carlos Torres.
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