Julien Coudray 1518 - Manufactura 1528, solid gold for Only Watch

The 2013 edition of the unbelievable charity auction bid “Only Watch” will take place for the fifth time in Monaco on the coming 28th of September. About thirty chosen Swiss watchmaking brands will send only unique pieces. The result of the sale will be used for the research on the Duchenne muscular dystrophy via “l’Association Monégasque Contre les Myopathies”.

Oeuvre Manufactura exclusive pictures by Watchonista

In exclusivity for Watchonista, which travelled all the way to Le Locle, Julien Coudray 1518 lifts the veil on its solid white goldŒuvre Manufactura 1528.

Just like the other pieces made from this material, more than a kilo of Pd125 solid gold was needed to reach the total mass of the piece weighing approximately 110 grams. Being a particularity of this brand, which has seriously started to make the purists and collectors crazy, the movement is also worked in solid gold, even in platinum when the case is of this same material.

Draw me a happy child

What could this 5 year old toddler be thinking when he drew two characters, a boy and a girl, on a piece of paper? Were they adults, brothers and sisters? After all, who cares ?! It is all about the spontaneous expression of a naïve generosity, one of a child from a day nursery in the vicinity, which tallies particularly well with the sincere vocations of the biennial sale launched by Luc Pettavino, the former boss of the Monaco Yacht Show, and under the high patronage of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco. This personally concerns M. Pettavino since his son suffers from this rare autoimmune disorder.

Julien Lamarche, founder of the Le Locle brand, loyally replicates this childish sketches straight from the interlacing of the gear trains of this hand-wound mechanical watch, with a power reserve of 55 hours, hand-engraved, recognizable by its “grand feu” enamel domed cartouches where black on white Roman numerals are fitted. A decoration visible through the sapphire transparent back which is added to all the subtleties of a piece consisting of hours, minutes and seconds at the center, equipped with a solid gold dial base too, of a service indicator fitted at the 12 o’clock position.

At the heart of the piece, a guilloché pattern which, like a miniature stained-glass window, holds a blue translucent enamel. A risky technique, mastered in-house. The hands of the hours and minutes are two-toned – white gold and blued angles – while the seconds hand is blued. The leitmotiv of Fabien Lamarche is that the manufacturing of every Julien Coudray 1518 saves on any kind of chemical residue and lacquer.