Laurent Ferrier's Classic Auto Horizon: A delightful blend of formal and casual
The Laurent Ferrier Classic Auto Horizon design represents the combination of its Classic case design with the automatic Swiss lever and date movement.
At Watches & Wonders 2025 in April, Laurent Ferrier presented its latest Classic Auto Horizon, a delightful blend of formal and casual, enabling it to easily become both a dress watch and leisure watch!
It's a new iteration in the brand's Classic Auto permanent collection that represents the combination of the brand's Classic case design with the automatic Swiss lever and date movement.
The new timepiece has a round stainless-steel case finished to a pebble-like shape and features an onion-style crown with a diameter of 40mm and a height of 11.94mm.
Its stunning dial colour of light blue lacquer is enhanced by a vertical satin-brushed centre.
The sapphire crystal caseback shows off a hand-decorated movement, with the highest attention to detail.
This is complemented by a circular satin-brushed 'railway track' design on the flange, drop-shaped white gold indexes, spear-shaped Assegai hands in white gold and a grooved small seconds sub-dial at 6 o'clock.
At its heart is the brand's LF 270.01 calibre automatic movement featuring a Swiss lever escapement and a unidirectional ball-bearing system.
The micro-rotor, crafted from 950-platinum, ensures optimal winding power and stability, providing a power reserve of over 72 hours when fully wound.
Meanwhile, a sapphire crystal caseback reveals the intricately hand-decorated movement with the highest attention to detail, showcasing Laurent Ferrier's renowned craftsmanship.
The cutting-edge self-winding micro-rotor movement ensures reliability and a practical date function.
Among the refined finishing techniques are bevelling and mirror-polishing, as well as rhodium-plated Côtes de Genève on all the bridges.
But the watch's key technical and visual highlight of the LF 270.01 has got to be its platinum micro-rotor with engraving illustrating bird feathers.
They are accompanied by chevrons indicating the winding direction.
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The Star
17 hours ago
- The Star
Laurent Ferrier's Classic Auto Horizon: A delightful blend of formal and casual
The Laurent Ferrier Classic Auto Horizon design represents the combination of its Classic case design with the automatic Swiss lever and date movement. At Watches & Wonders 2025 in April, Laurent Ferrier presented its latest Classic Auto Horizon, a delightful blend of formal and casual, enabling it to easily become both a dress watch and leisure watch! It's a new iteration in the brand's Classic Auto permanent collection that represents the combination of the brand's Classic case design with the automatic Swiss lever and date movement. The new timepiece has a round stainless-steel case finished to a pebble-like shape and features an onion-style crown with a diameter of 40mm and a height of 11.94mm. Its stunning dial colour of light blue lacquer is enhanced by a vertical satin-brushed centre. The sapphire crystal caseback shows off a hand-decorated movement, with the highest attention to detail. This is complemented by a circular satin-brushed 'railway track' design on the flange, drop-shaped white gold indexes, spear-shaped Assegai hands in white gold and a grooved small seconds sub-dial at 6 o'clock. At its heart is the brand's LF 270.01 calibre automatic movement featuring a Swiss lever escapement and a unidirectional ball-bearing system. The micro-rotor, crafted from 950-platinum, ensures optimal winding power and stability, providing a power reserve of over 72 hours when fully wound. Meanwhile, a sapphire crystal caseback reveals the intricately hand-decorated movement with the highest attention to detail, showcasing Laurent Ferrier's renowned craftsmanship. The cutting-edge self-winding micro-rotor movement ensures reliability and a practical date function. Among the refined finishing techniques are bevelling and mirror-polishing, as well as rhodium-plated Côtes de Genève on all the bridges. But the watch's key technical and visual highlight of the LF 270.01 has got to be its platinum micro-rotor with engraving illustrating bird feathers. They are accompanied by chevrons indicating the winding direction.
The Star
17 hours ago
- The Star
Laurent Ferrier's Basile Monnin is obsessed with the finer details of his craft
Laurent Ferrier is a relatively new kid on the watchmaking block that has gotten everyone's undivided attention lately. The Swiss-based manufacturer was only founded in 2009 in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva. Named after its founder, the brand takes pride in showcasing timeless elegance evident in its designs, combined with avant garde manufacturing technique. This has allowed Laurent Ferrier to become − in just over 15 years − a stalwart brand in the world of watchmaking, and certainly a noted one among horological fans all over the world. Son and grandson of master watchmakers himself, Ferrier has been immersed in the world of complications and movements since he was a child. In 1968, for instance, as a 16-year-old he designed a pocket watch during his apprenticeship, one that he now fondly recalls as the Montre d'École or the 'School Piece'. Then, for the next 37 years, he worked in Patek Philippe as its technical director. Robert Bailey, head of sales at Laurent Ferrier, presenting the finer details of the brand to media members in Kuala Lumpur. This was when his passion for cars – also developed from a young age – led him to compete in local races before moving on to car endurance competitions. He experienced firsthand the many similarities between racing and watches: it was essential to seek perfection in execution and precision in results for both worlds. In racing, just like in the measurement of time, details are everything and even a millimeter's margin of error is big enough of a mistake to cause failure. So, it's really no surprise that Basile Monnin, the brand's head of watchmaking, is also a keen devotee in the art of infinitely detailed finishings as well. Monnin oversees all the work dedicated to the production, assembly and decoration of the brand's timepieces. 'Yes, every bit of detail means the world to me! 'Each one of our LF270.01 calibre requires more than 139 manual finishing operations, and a key element that makes a Laurent Ferrier watch so attractive to collectors,' he says proudly. Checking the dimensions of a watch's raw main plate. The concept of 'finissage' Recently in Kuala Lumpur as a guest of Sincere Fine Watches, Monnin was keen to talk about the concept of finishing – derived from the French word finissage –which represents the pride of the Laurent Ferrier design team of 15 watchmakers and eight decorators whom he leads. 'What we call anglage in French, is what you may know as chamfering. This is the act of creating an edge between two faces of an object,' he explains. 'It's actually one of the most prized techniques in fine watchmaking. 'If you look at the bridges of a Laurent Ferrier movement, you'll notice this 45-degree angle that uniquely captures the light.' Monnin emphasises that this detail is not merely aesthetic. In technical terms, the angulation on the plates and bridges helps prevent stress concentrations in the watch material. 'The process begins with the removal of scratches and imperfections from the upper edges of the bridges. 'The edges are then smoothed and contoured using a file, forming a uniform angle with perfectly defined parallel lines. 'There's also the curved outer bevels, visible on the balance bridge of each watch's micro-rotor movement. 'This actually represent one of the greatest challenges for us as it cannot be executed by machinery, but must be worked on exclusively by hand,' says Monnin. Looking into the process of black polishing a watch's balance cock. Geneva Stripes The conversation then shifts to the Côtes de Genève or 'Geneva Stripes'. This is a decorative finish comprising a series of parallel, wavy lines that are applied to the bridges and plates of a watch movement. 'Originally, their function was to prevent the accumulation of dust and particles in the gears,' Monnin elaborates. 'But since many of the contemporary watch cases feature advanced seals, the Côtes de Genève have become more of an emblematic decorative technique of fine watchmaking.' Monnin explains that the pattern is applied mechanically using a steel cylinder with an abrasive belt moved over the bridges to create straight or circular lines. 'The lines should be uniform in width, but slight imperfections may be seen as a sign of hand finishing.' He draws attention to the satin finish on each Laurent Ferrier watch case. 'This sort of finish is common on many watch cases, but for us at Laurent Ferrier, it is used on a much smaller and more precise scale. 'A fine example is our Calibre LF270.01, in which the bridges feature an anthracite (dark greyish) satin finish, providing an elegant contrast with the micro-rotor bridge, and polished to black. 'We also use a circular finish, widely known in fine watchmaking as 'cerclage'. 'This finish creates fine lines by circular sanding on the metal surface. 'For round components, the lines are concentric and generate a characteristic light reflection, enhancing the aesthetics of the watch movement. 'Then, there's also the sandblasting technique – a type of finish that gives surfaces a smooth, matte appearance to further highlight the polished details of the movement.' Monnin adds that the last process involves projecting a volume of compressed air and fine sand onto the watch surface, creating thousands of micro-craters that are invisible to the naked eye. Brushing and polishing of surfaces set a hand-built and in-house movement apart from mass-produced calibres. —SAMUEL ONG/The Star Art of mirroring He then takes everyone through the ubiquitous watchmaking art of mirroring, or black polishing. This is the act of creating a perfectly smooth, nearly mirror-like surface on a watch. The technique's name comes from its ability to reflect light so that when viewed at a certain angle, the surface appears completely black. 'The process is extremely delicate,' says Monnin. 'The piece in question is first polished on a zinc plate with abrasive diamond paste. 'Then, controlled circular movements are made, gradually reducing the size of the abrasive grains. 'This is done until a perfectly flat and mirror-like surface is created which is, again, impossible to achieve by machines. 'At the end of it all, this art of hand-finishing not only embellishes the fine watches from Laurent Ferrier, but is testimony to a commitment to tradition and watchmaking excellence. 'Completing each one of our masterpieces requires decades of experience, thousands of hours of work and meticulous attention to detail by everyone in our team. 'And for the collectors who celebrate fine watchmaking, these finishes not only represent luxury and exclusivity, but also the true essence of Swiss artisanal savoir-faire,' Monnin concludes, with more than just a hint of satisfaction.
New Straits Times
2 days ago
- New Straits Times
Ferrari heading for a hat-trick at Le Mans
SARTHE, France: Defending champions Ferrari were heading for a third straight win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, after leading the 93rd edition of the race through the night and into today at the Sarthe circuit. With six hours remaining, the number 51 factory 499P car of 2023 winners Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado led the number 83 AF Corse entry of Robert Kubica, Yifei Yi and Philip Hanson by some six seconds. The number 50 factory car crewed by last year's winners Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina completed the lockout of the podium places. Porsche Penske's number six hypercar, which had led at the halfway stage after a safety car period, was fourth and Toyota's number eight car fifth. With six hours being the regular length of a World Endurance Championship race, and temperatures rising, there was however still plenty of room for late drama. The number 51 Ferrari had already fought back from eighth place after a puncture, a five second penalty and 20 second stop and go punishment to retake the lead by dawn. Swiss tennis great Roger Federer had waved the French flag to get the race underway on Saturday afternoon, with Porsche immediately seizing the lead from pole-sitters Cadillac. Cadillac had swept the front row in Thursday's qualifying but any advantage was short-lived as Porsche Penske's Julien Andlauer slipstreamed into the lead from third on the grid before the first chicane on the opening lap. "We're trying to hang in there, but it's tough out on track to be honest," said Sebastien Bourdais, who shares the number 38 Cadillac with 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and was in ninth place. "We're struggling with tyre degradation. And we're struggling with the balance." Ferrari worked their way to the front and Fuoco took the lead in the third hour on the run from Mulsanne to Indianapolis with the three Ferraris running 1-2-3 at the quarter distance. The BMW driven by Italy's MotoGP great Valentino Rossi had to retire in the LMGT3 category. The race at the circuit in north-west France features 62 cars shared by 186 drivers from 34 countries, and is the fourth round of the World Endurance Championship, with 21 hypercars in the battle for overall victory. Organisers have put the total weekend attendance at more than 300,000 spectators.
