One of Switzerland’s most innovative Grand Complication manufacturers is Rudis Sylva, a small, independent brand which focuses on making the world of timekeeping a much better and fresher place. The watches crafted by Rudis Sylva are famous for their Harmonious Oscillators, innovative features that fuse together high end exquisiteness with top notch technologies.
They have recently unveiled the brand new RS12 Grand Art Horloger featuring a specifically stunning mechanism. Furthermore, one of the most important things we shall mention, and according to Rudis Sylva, is that many of the world’s master manufacturers of timepieces consider the Harmonious Oscillator the most significant invention since the Tourbillon was brought to life by Breguet in 1801.
The innovative mechanism was first unveiled on the occasion of the Baselworld 2009, within the RS05 timepiece. The complication focuses on improving the accuracy of the watch than the tourbillon, therefore it has been positioned vertically. Whereas the tourbillon takes a full minute to compensate for the effects of gravity, the Harmonious Oscillator completely counters its effects, thanks to a resonance system with two mechanically interlinked balances driven by just one escapement. The principle is somewhat controversial, though, as it adds a supplementary stress to the balances.
The seconds indicator bridge is machined from titanium and hand-bevelled. It is positioned at 6 o’clock and comprises a whopping 28 internal angles. According to Rudis Sylva, the time it takes to create a sharp internal angle in titanium is 10 times longer than to manufacture a round corner in steel.
Additionally, the main plate, on its lower part, has been garnished with a hand-crafted guilloche decoration of tapering pyramids. Each guilloche pyramid contains 60 pyramids, counting from the edge to the centre of the piece, with each pyramid slightly smaller than its neighboring one. The guilloche decoration was done by the acclaimed master craftsman Georges Brodbeck in his famous Saignelégier workshop.
Some other exquisite features of Rudis Sylva’s RS12 Grand Art Horloger with Harmonious Oscillator are the fine markings on the double barrel bridge and caseback sundial, inscriptions, extremely precise engravings done under the microscope and laser engravings, all proving the effort invested into the manufacture of such an exquisite model.
Furthermore, artisan Sophie Cattin Morale has manually crushed silica stones and mixed them with water, dried them out and then heated them in a kiln at 840 degrees. Therefore, a superbly honed enamelled half-moon has been finished, on a flat surface and then introduced back into the kiln for a penultimate glazing operation. The finishing process of the vitrified surface consists of a final polish.
Here is a very short list of technical details – manually wound Harmonious Oscillator movement, patent no. 575/09, 44 mm red or white gold case, 14.3 mm thick, frequency of 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz), double barrel with 70 hours of power reserve, 90-degrees positioned pallet fork, a cage that turns 360 degrees in exactly 60 seconds etc.
We thereby end this short description with the anxiously awaited price of its “main character”. The Rudis Sylva RS12 Grand Art Horloger with Harmonious Oscillator costs 250,000 Swiss francs, around €207,000 or $270,000. It can be acquired from Westime Beverly Hills, in the USA.
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