François (foversta) introduces the Fonderie 47 Inversion Principle, a watch with a unique humanitarian mission. His post delves into the watch's design, its innovative time display, and the horological talent behind its creation, offering a detailed look at how its aesthetics and mechanics serve a deeper purpose.
Preamble: the pictured watch is a prototype with non-final finishings.
Fonderie 47 is a project led by American entrepreneur Peter Thum whose vocation is to develop companies with social and humanitarian dimension. Peter Thum thus created Ethos Water, now a subsidiary of Starbucks, whose part of the turnover is dedicated to the financing of water treatment programs and access to drinking water in Africa and in other disadvantaged areas.
Fonderie 47 uses a similar approach in order to help to tackle the scourge that plagues Africa: the proliferation of assault rifles. The economic model is not however the same as Ethos Water, which is based on the distribution of a cheap consumer product: a bottle of water. Fonderie 47 finances the destruction of the assault rifles AK-47 ( aka the Kalashnikov) through the sale of high-end jewelry and of an exceptional watch available in 20 pieces, the price being set at $ 350,000. Obviously, the watch had to be at the height of this high price and of the context for which it was created.
Its name, "Inversion Principle" reflects the objective: the guns are destroyed, the stainless steel is smelted and used again as part of the movement. At the beginning, steel is a component of a war weapon, then it becomes a part of a peaceful and quiet object that has the sole purpose of displaying the passing time. The name also refers to the way the time is displayed: the jumping hours displayed in the window on the upper part of the dial seem to fade against the predominance of the 240 degrees minutes scale, which is overlapped by a retrograde hand. Finally, all this time display is located on the background because the part that immediately catches the eye is obviously the central Tourbillon: all the time display is spread around it.
The watchmaking interest of Inversion Principle is real. Firstly, some particularly gifted fairies have been there at its inception. The design of the watch was created to Adrian Glessing who through his company Virtualideas participated in many horological projects. The design of the movement was achieved by David Candaux that after 15 years at Jaeger-LeCoultre has decided to found his own company. David Candaux also created the spectacular movement of Ivresse from Badollet therefore it has participated for the second time in a very short time to the development of a very specific movement which can be distinguished by both its technical performance but also by its lay-out.
The design of the watch, full of curves and of feelings of depth aims to position on the foreground the Tourbillon and the three bladed second associated to it. The bezel extends itself on the glass to separate the dial in two areas: one dedicated to the jumping hours display, the Tourbillon and the second hand, the second devoted to the minutes display.
If jumping hours are displayed in a traditional way through a window, the Tourbillon is much more particular. The shape of the opening that reveals it is reminiscent of a rifle sight. But there is more to say. It evolves much slower than a standard Tourbillon, performing a complete revolution in 3 minutes. This speed is reminiscent of the external cages of the Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon (one revolution in 4 minutes). As there is only a single cage here, it gives to the Tourbillon some originality to assess perhaps with more details than usual while having a speed high enough to appreciate the revolution and to feel it. It also leads to the use of a three-bladed second hand, the seconds scale drawing an arc of 120 degrees.
The display which combines jumping hours and retrograde minutes is obviously not new, since, for example, several Gérald Genta watches used a similar system. However, it is very appropriate to the context of Inversion Principle as instant and violent jumps recalls how a rifle works.
The minute hand is rather discreet but minutes can be read without difficulty. After a short period of habituation, the full time display is legible without any trouble.
The manually wound movement has a power reserve of six days. Strangely, the watch has two power reserve indicators, with exactly the same function. The first is housed in the left caseside and it can be observed through a side opening. The second is less original although still unusual lying on the movement plate. I tend to understand this dual display as the one located on the movement embellished a bit. The presentation of the movement is indeed a bit austere even if the sunlight finishings decorate it nicely. The most interesting part is, just this once, the ratchet. It is covered with a black plate made from the steel of the destroyed rifle and whose serial number is engraved on the plate (here: 56-3701F42).
Inversion Principle is a rather strange watch on the wrist. Indeed, the success of the design lies in the fact that everything seems to converge towards the raised Tourbillon. While the glass is slightly curved, the watch gives the impression of being a real dome. The hours and minutes are read without any issue even if I find that the hours window is a bit stuck with the graduation of the second hand. The dimensions are reasonable (42mm diameter, 14.6 mm thickness) for an original watch featuring such a volume effect. This is good news because I was expected some bad surprises on this field when I read the press release several weeks ago.
I believe that Peter Thum and his fellows managed to achieve the challenge by creating a watch meets its ambition. The reminders of the context are subtle and fit perfectly into the design. The slow behaviour of the Tourbillon, the way it is highlighted and the distribution of the time display around it make Inversion Principle a successful watch. I find, however, that it is overpriced because the Tourbillon remains "simple" despite its reduced speed. But we have to consider here that we are not facing a mere watch. Its goals give it a perspective that goes beyond the simple watchmaking dimension. And this perspective can justify for those who are attracted by Peter Thum's approach, the price positioning that can not be analyzed with the usual criterias.
Inversion Principle is available in 10 pieces in white gold and 10 pieces in rose gold.
I would like to thank Peter Thum for the time he spent with me.
Pros:
+ the goals followed by Founderie 47
+ the way the Central Tourbillon is highlighted and its particular rotational speed
+ the curves of the case and the feeling of depth
+ the rather long power reserve
Cons:
- the jumping hours window a bit too small
- the price remains high for a single cage Tourbillon but there is the context behind.
Fx
