Curious? I bet you are, since any watch bearing the Dolce & Gabbana name should always deserve at least a few seconds of your time. Dolce & Gabbana Alta Orologeria is a collection of four unique watches, each of them opulent in its own way, peppered with gemstones and hewn from precious metals. Ostentatious and benefiting from the traditions of 19th-century Italian goldsmiths, the Alta Orologeria collection seems to be out of time and out of place within this digital universe we live in today.
Inspired by the works of famed Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, the overall aesthetics of these timepieces are complemented by three classic high complications: an automatic tourbillon, a tourbillon with a monopusher chronograph, and a tourbillon with a minute repeater. The aforementioned calibers were the responsibility of Manufacture Hautes Complications, a company that specializes in high-complication movements.
Each of the Alta Orologeria watches have been named after one of Verdi’s classic operas: Otello, Nabucco, Macbeth, and Don Carlo. The first timepiece, inspired by Otello, displays a 38 mm case and seems to be a modest example of 17th-century Venetian Baroque jewelry. It was fitted with a restored manual-wound movement and a mother of pearl dial.
Next, the 44 mm Nabucco features an MHC-manufactured micro rotor-powered tourbillon and an engraved Archangel Michael at the top of the bezel, which required a few months of painstaking goldsmithing and hand-engraving. That could be said about the 46 mm case of the Macbeth too, although the 100-hour power reserve is also impressive.
Last, but not least, Don Carlo shows off a 46 mm hand-engraved 18k gold lid fitted with a series of cushion-cut emeralds. Hiding under that precious lid is a laser-carved jade dial, matching the 2.2-karats of emeralds found elsewhere on the watch. Pricing for the Dolce & Gabbana Alta Orologeria watches stands between €115,000 and €690,000, depending on which opera you enjoy best.
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