The just released Louis Moinet ‘Only Mexico’ watch is a unique piece that pays tribute to roots of Mexican culture. Ateliers Louis Moinet painstakingly gathered information and sought out the most typical materials for Mexico and then blended them together in this spectacular, original creation. One key highlight is the presence of the Allende meteorite, found in the State of Chihuahua. Released on the occasion of the SIAR 2019 —Salón Internacional de Alta Relojería México—, the Louis Moinet ‘Only Mexico’ is fitted with Louis Moinet’s mechanical tourbillon calibre LM35. This mechanical manual wound movement won the gold medal at the most recent International Chronometry Competition.
Louis Moinet’s legendary NEO case, cut from polished, satin-effect 5N rose gold, accentuates the imposing character of the piece. It owes its distinctive silhouette to the application of a large number of brand-new technologies. Everything is constructed around two horizontal bridges, spanning the piece and securing the strap in place at each end of their lugs. Each component of the design reflects Mexico’s very special culture and history.
At the centre, the dial depicts the Sun Stone or Aztec Calendar, one of the best-known and most iconic works of Aztec art. It was sculpted during the reign of the Aztec Emperor Axayacatl between 1469-1481 A.C. to commemorate the New Fire ceremony in 1479. The enormous disc which is 3.6 meters in diameter and weights 24 tonnes —approximately 50,000 pounds—, was cut from a single block of olivine basalt lava. Today, the Sun Stone is on display at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico city.
The Sun Stone comprises eight concentric circles, each with a whole host of references to Aztec cosmogony, describing how the World was formed. The second circle is especially noteworthy, displaying the symbols of the deities Ehecatl, Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, and Chalchiuhtlicue, and evoking the legend of the suns, a cosmogonist myth based on the creation and destruction of several successive worlds.Beneath the engraving of the Sun Stone lies is a dark-colored piece of meteorite honoring the Allende meteorite.
The Allende meteorite is the oldest known material in existence, estimated to be 4.567 billion years old —making it 30 million years older than the Earth itself. When it fell at Allende in the State of Chihuahua on February 8, 1969, it weighed almost two tonnes, also making it the largest chondrite meteorite ever to have been found. It is considered to be the most-studied meteorite in history, yielding so much information about the formation of the solar system that cosmo-chemists view it as their ‘Rosetta Stone’.
Located beneath the second concentric circles of the Sun Stone, the Toluca iron meteorite has been given a blue treatment, making it truly resplendent. The Conquistadors revealed its presence to the wider world in 1776, but it probably fell to earth over 10,000 years earlier and for several centuries, it was used by the local populations to make a wide variety of tools. The engravings on the case draw inspiration from the typical architecture of the geometric friezes found on buildings in the Pre-Columbian city of Mitla, occupied by the Zapotecs in the state of Oaxaca.
Some believe these bas-relief friezes form a mosaic symbolizing the image of the Feathered Serpent. As far as the case lugs, these depict the Maya deity Chaahk, as observed on the monument at Kabah known as Codz Poop, the Palace of the Masks, in Yucatán. Chaahk is the rain god and protector of the harvests, striking the clouds with his thunder axe to produce rain and thunder.
Turning the watch over reveals the exquisitely finished manual wound tourbillon calibre LM35. This manual wound 19-jewel movement beats at a frequency of 21,600 vph and provides a power reserve of 72 hours when fully wound. The movement is finished with circular Côtes de Genève and anglage. The watch is delivered on a dark brown alligator strap with folding clasp in matching 5N rose gold and this unique piece is exclusively sold in Mexico.
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