Horological Meandering

I recently received my copy of "The Hands of TIme", a book celebrating the 25th anniversary of the AHCI. It is a wonderful "shopping guide". It has little tidbits about each of the members and a wonderful display of their work. Under each member's picture there is some interesting statistics about the person. Included are their horological influences and horological highlights.

Well, on page 80 Philippe Dufour is pictured. Amongst his horological highlights it says, "...Tag Heuer, V4..." Well I must say I read that a couple of times. I know that when I first read it I was tired but sure enough there it is! So, the question is, what role did Monsieur Dufour play in the development of the V4? And, for those less fascinated by the V4, does it change your opinion?

I highly recommend the book as a representation of the finest of watch craft. Of note, for those contemplating the Daniels new watch, it is fascinating how many of the AHCI mention Daniels as one of their horological influences.

Best wishes to all,

Mitch

who is behind the Cabestan (or one of the people behind it, depending on your source). He then asked Dufour for his comments, which were apparently positive. TAG Heuer then picked it up and Dufour helped them realise the working watch somewhere along its development.

- SJX

surmise that it is on the technological side as the finishing of the watch is not "Dufourian".

I am kind of surprised by this. I would have thought that many of the more "classical" masters would not be in favor of the belt driven movement. It is fascinating that some one of Dufour's stature is involved in something so avant garde (?). I now, more than before, would like to hear the take on the V4 by the master watchmakers - is the V4 ridiculous or brilliant?

Mitch
.

in the 3 or 4 years between concept and delivery TAG Heuer sought his help to make it work. I don't think the exact details were ever revealed.

- SJX

the thing wouldn't work reliably.

Other highly regarded independents around these here parts had tried and couldn't get it to work.

Above has been posted more than a few times in the past years.

See, Mitch, what you miss when you don't check in everyday and read every post?

problem.

mitch

Aw, Mitch, you know I luv ya, man! Just teasing, of course.

Sounds like an interesting book.  I am looking forward to learning more about the Daniels/Smith collaboration.  What's been revealed thus far is quite intriguing.  The Dufour-V4 connection (I think) has been mentioned somewhere here in one of the posts about the watch.  It's certainly worth noting.

Cheers,

Daos

I do know that it will be a one off movement designed by Daniels. What is interesting is that the Millenium watch was based off an ETA movement with the co-axial added in. This is going to be a ground up movement. It will be certainly something special to see.

Best regards,

Mitch

The story floating around was that Dufour had been pulled into the project rather last minute to get it running. And it was barely running reportedly; with something like 9 or 10 hours power reserve. Whether that story was exactly true or to what extent he might have truly been involved before or after that is unknown to me.

As I was directly impacted by that little maneuver, as I've written before in various threads on the subject.



:-(

TM

We internetizens have short memories and sometimes miss stuff.

Don, the moderator, shall interview Dufour to get the real story out.  No more surmise or ... in future.

Regards

Ling