Art in Time x Moritz Grossmann Date Pink Pièce Unique

The manufacture Moritz Grossmann and the watch gallery Art in Time unveil a unique piece for the Princess Grace Foundation. This model continues the charitable sales tradition initiated by ART IN TIME since 2019. Emphasising its local connections, the watch gallery unveils today a creation paying tribute to childhood innocence.

German watchmakers Moritz Grossmann are following in the footsteps of Chopard, Ferdinand Berthoud, Ressence, Urwerk and Bovet 1822 in an initiative that once again aims to raise funds for a local nonprofit: the Princess Grace Foundation, which this year celebrates sixty years of providing charity and humanitarian aid for children.

For the occasion, Moritz Grossmann’s unique piece DATE Pink is here decked out in intense pink, a delicate hue symbolising the candour and innocence of a child. The lively dial is further enhanced by its guilloche finishing, radiating out from the small seconds display at six o’clock like a rising sun bathing a new day in the rosy shades of dawn. All the decoration is intricate in the extreme, nowhere more so than in the centre where the patterns draw ever closer together, calling for exceptional precision and dexterity when engraving the solid silver dial. The hands have been crafted and flat polished by hand; an art that is a true aesthetic signature of the German house, is entirely carried out from start to finish in its Glashütte manufactory.

The Moritz Grossmann Date model is very sleek and nonetheless exemplary in term of creativity and mechanical ingenuity, not least in the distinctive winding and adjustment mechanisms for its 100.3 calibre. Pulling the crown halts the movement, allowing the time to be set. The crown immediately returns to its usual location, where it can then be rotated to position the hands with great accuracy; they can then be restarted at exactly the right moment by pressing the pusher next to the crown, engaging the movement once again. This system overcomes two potential sources of error: it prevents unwelcome particles from entering the case (as they would if the crown was pulled in conventional way) and also prevents the hands from being inadvertently moved when it’s pushed back in.

The jumping date display is another distinctive feature, located around the edge of the dial and read off through a date marker in bracket shape; the date itself can be manually adjusted both forwards and backwards from 1 to 31 using a dedicated separate crown at ten o’clock. One special feature is that because of the jumping date the time and date can be adjusted just before midnight and straight after midnight. The hand is positioned exactly on the right date via a click spring.

The peripheral date location allows the dial to be that much purer and more expressive and the system is simple, easy to use and safe, with a position locking system ensuring the right numeral is always perfectly centred in its display window – here done out in purple, Moritz Grossmann’s signature colour. Indeed, the future owner of the piece will find the same colour on the rear; in a touch that’s most unusual in watchmaking, most of the screw heads are purple too, securing a typical Glashütte-style movement featuring a two-third plate and a hand-engraved balance cock.

This unique piece comes in a stainless steel case and is complemented by a fine, hand-sewn strap made from black alligator leather. The back of the strap is in the same pink colour as the dial.

Part of the proceeds from the sale of this unique piece will go to the Princess Grace Foundation; every year, the Foundation provides direct aid for humanitarian initiatives benefiting children and cultural projects targeting students.

Technical specifications

Art in Time x Moritz Grossmann Date Pink

Unique, one-off piece

Case

• Material: Stainless steel
• Diameter: 41.0 mm
• Thickness: 11.85 mm
• Glass/display back: Sapphire crystal, antireflective coating on one side

Dial and hands

• Dial: Solid silver, guilloché
• Hands: Handcrafted, steel polished; hour, minute and seconds, date marker violett annealed

Movement

• Manufactory calibre 100.3, manual winding, regulated in five positions
• Number of parts: 259
• Number of jewels: 26, of which 3 in screwed gold chatons
• Escapement Lever escapement
• Oscillator: Shock-resistant Grossmann balance with 4 inertia screws and 2 poising screws, Nivarox 1 balance spring with No. 80 Breguet terminal curve, Gustav Gerstenberger geometry
• Balance: Diameter 14.2 mm, frequency 18,000 semi-oscillations per hour
• Power reserve of 42 hours when fully wound

Functions/Indications

• Hours and minutes, subsidiary seconds with stop second, date display
• Grossmann manual winder with pusher

Strap and buckle

• Hand-stitched alligator leather with prong buckle in stainless steel

MSRP: EUR 70'200 (incl. 20% VAT)

For more information, please visit art-in-time.com