Horological Meandering

mkt33
[PuristS]
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Villemont's Vltime- Is it ready for Prime Time? A review

About two years ago a new watch brand, Villemont, was first introduced on ThePuristS. This launch was a landmark event as it represented, for the first time, recognition from the watch industry that the internet community of collectors is an important group to address. Up to that time the internet was considered an electronic tool to distribute press releases but Villemont envisioned ThePuristS as a valid and direct link to serious enthusiasts who would cherish Villemont's fundamental values: " Rigour and perfection, unique aesthetics, exclusive material of the highest quality and noticeable attention paid to details".

Through a series of six articles Mr. Oliver Muller and Mr. Alex Ghotbi revealed the slow, methodical, and often painstaking decision that went behind the creation of a new brand.  From the company logo to the design of the cases and buckle, Mr. Muller provided PuristS with an intimate inside look at processes which are usually considered company secrets.  Indeed through the series of six articles, I felt the same allure to Villemont as I did with independent watchmaking.  The honesty, transparency, and desire to succeed was evident in Mr. Muller's words and the candor was refreshing.   I knew that I needed to take a closer look at the new and small brand.

When Villemont introduced the Vltime (actually the name is Ultime where the V is a romanized U)  I knew that this would be an interesting piece to test my hypothesis.  If Villemont's concept based on  Esprit des Artisans (Spirit of the Artisans) was successful then theoretically this small brand could create timepieces which were as unique as those found in the world of independent horology.  I purchased an example to add to my collection sight unseen.  Now seven months later I would like to share my ownership experience with the rest of the community. 

Before I begin to review the watch these are my observations about Vltimum ( or Ultimum) the exclusive alloy that Villemont developed in conjunction with Metalor.  Vltimum is an alloy consisting of 95% Palladium and 5% Platinum and Ruthenium.  Although Mr. Muller's goal with Vltimum was to push the concept of luxury by expanding the definition of  precious metals it was hypothesized that the development of this alloy was a practical business decision. Since Palladium costs three hundred and twenty US dollars an ounce compared to Gold and Platinum which cost six hundred and one thousand US dollars an ounce respectively (spot prices in October 2006 when the Vltime was introduced) money could be saved.  Some enthusiasts also thought that Vltimum was created as a marketing tool since its material properties were not as ideal for use in a watch case compared to exisiting precious metals. 

In reality Palladium manufacturing costs are much higher than that of gold.  Palladium is a sponge for oxygen and hydrogen during casting. These gasses are trapped inside the metal when it is poured and form tiny bubbles that only become apparent when the metal solidifies. As a result,  tiny pits form on the surface of the piece and create voids throughout its interior.  Skilled craftsman have learned to minimize, and even eliminate, porosity by starving palladium of oxygen and hydrogen using vaccuum casting techniques and bench tools such as a laser welder.  Taking these manufacturing costs into consideration,  Vltimum will never be a precious metal used in regular production for Villemont as it costs more than gold to create its unique Aston R case.

(Top to bottom: Stainless steel, Vltimum, Rhodium plated white gold)

 From a practical point of view, I've enjoyed the palladium alloy .  Eventhough Vltimum is softer, I have not noticed any more scratches or dings on the Vltime case compared to other watches worn with the same regularity.  In my opinion Vltimum has a look resembling that of Titanium (dark grey) but on the wrist it wears much lighter than white gold. The light weight would have bothered me a few years ago but I've realized heavier watches tend to roll on my wrist unless I pull the strap tight. The Vltime's weight was just right.  Heavy enough for me to know I'm wearing a well constructed watch but light enough to wear comfortably all day.  The dark chocolate colored hand stitched alligator band is matched perfectly to the greyish hue of Vltimum.  Interestingly the tang buckle was made of 18k white gold instead of Vltimum.  The authorized dealer was unable to reach Villemont for an explanation for this substitution. 

The Case

The most attractive aspect of the Vltime, in my opinion, is the case.  The Vltime is based on the Aston R design which is modular and consists of four pieces: the bezel, the body, the lug plate, and the back plate. The case diameter is suited for current tastes at 43mm. The Bezel is engine turned with a proprietary pattern : "Clous de Villemont".  Visually the bezel looks serrated as a result of this design, lending more of a modern flair to it's appearance than the traditional knurled pattern.  Take a close look: see the V and M pattern which makes up the Clous de Villemont?

 The surface crystal is domed and has antireflective coating on both sides.

The body and lug plate should be considered as one unit.  From the dial view the Vltime appears like a simple three hand watch with a date function but turn the watch on its profile and it looks completely different.  The body of the case forms a bowel which is cradled by the lug plate.  These two components are held tightly together with six screws. 

 The lugs and lug plate are manufactured as a single unit out of Vltimum.  Again looks are deceiving.  A frontal view gives the illusion that the lugs are fused onto the case, but in profile the difference can be appreciated.  A tremendous amount of finishing work went into this portion of the case construction.  The edges are polished  and the lugs have alternating brushed and polished finishes to achieve a chevron pattern.

 The back plate is screwed onto the lug plate and contains a sapphire crystal through which the vintage movement can be admired.

The crown also has the Villemont motif machined into the ridges.  Set slightly into the case to decrease the overall dimensions of the watch, the recessed crown is difficult to pull out to set the time and date.  In the neutral position the decreased size also makes it difficult to manually wind the watch if needed. So artistically the crown is well integrated with the rest of the watch but functionally the design needs improvement.

 The Dial

The concept of focusing on artisan skill can also be appreciated by recognizing the difficulties that went into the production of the Vltime dial.  Constructed out of white gold, the dial is multilayered and plated with black gold to achieve an anthracite color.  A date ring with the same colored background as the dial and white numerals is a harmonious change from the initial press release pictures which showed a date ring with contrasting white background. There is no luminous material on the dial so legibility is hampered under low light but I was plesantly surprised by how well the rose gold hands and rehaut ring reflected the available ambient lighting.

To cut through some of the marketing descriptions I have to point out that black gold doesnot exist.  There are several electroplating solutions on the market for the deposition of black coatings, but the most popular are those based on rhodium or ruthenium with special blackening additions. The ruthenium bath gives slightly harder coatings than rhodium and the coatings range in color from grey to anthracite black. The blacker the color, the less wear resistant is the coating. The hardness of the coating ranges from HV 230 to 310 and is inversely proportional to the level of blackening agent. Overall, wear resistance is not high and so rubbing or abrading conditions should be avoided.

Three unique design features stand out: the rehaut ring, the hand engraved name plate, and the prominent rose gold hands.

The large 5N rose gold rehaut ring contrasting against the grey dial is a beautiful sight. It is hand filed and mirror polished on the sides.  Even through the smallest curves the quality of the mirror polish is consistantly fine.  The printing on the rehaut ring is evenly spaced.  As a fan of Jaquet Droz, I know that this rehaut ring must have been difficult to make and expensive for Villemont to acquire and incorporate into the Vltime.

The hand engraved name plate is probably one of the most controversial design components.  I know some enthusiasts have commented that this detail was superfluous and distracting.  Actually in the metal, the engraved logo is quite discrete and not as obvious as the CAD images or any pictures would imply.  The logo shimmers and dance because light reflects off of the angles on the sunburst engraving but the lettering remains subdued.  As the circular name plate sits directly above the microrotor, it mimics the microrotor design onto the dial.

The rose gold hands are bold and beautifully shaped.  They have slightly more body than the usual baton design.   Notice the subtle "Villemont V" at the tail of the seconds hand.

The Movement

The "Esprit des Artisans" collection was created to appeal to the educated watch enthusiast by either using vintage movements or specially conceived ones.  For the Vltime a vintage Buren caliber was chosen, elaborated, and redesignated as the VM106.  After a long search Mr. Muller was only able to acquire thirty two "new old stock" Buren movements.  Twenty eight were used for the series, the remaining four are being held in reserve for afterservice parts.

Vintage Buren cal. 1280  (caliber 1322 had more jewels and a calender function)

When press releases touted the Buren  as a horologically significant movement, I took this praise with a grain of salt until I confirmed it with my own research.  I was amazed to find that this was one of the first microrotor watch movements and it was designed to be one of the thinnest bidirectional automatic caliber in the world.  Running at a unique frequency of 19,800 VPH, the caliber 1322 has a power reserve of 54 hours and to Villemont's credit they used the highest quality Buren ebauche ever made at the time with 30 jewels. Interestingly the hairspring is blued (has anyone ever seen a blued Nivarox hairspring? I suspect it is an Isoval variant).

 Villemont embellishes the VM106 by plating all the bridges black,  manually engraving  champleves, and adding 18K rose gold screws.  The old rotor weight has been replaced with a platinum micro rotor hand engraved with the V de Villemont emblem.  One of the most captivating visual detail is the floating pinion bridge with its large jewel. 

The black gold plating is a unique solution to the problem of aesthetic finish.  While I am sure that Villemont refinished the vintage Buren movement, the plating and champleve engraving effectively hides any blemishes at 3x magnification. 

The visual impact of the VM106 is dramatic.  At 3x magnification, I could appreciate the extra work that went into improving the look of the VM106.  At 10x magnification however I began to see some issues that could have been addressed in the quality control department.  There where also areas where Villemont chose not to refinish. 

Take a close look at the following cropped macro photo which illustrate some the problems seen at 10X

Notice there is tarnish on some of the rose gold screw heads and a few of the screw slots are slightly damaged.  There are also small areas where the plating is not uniform and the undercoat is seen.  I do not know if these are systemic problems associated with the plating process or isolated to this sample alone.

Close inspection of the wheels show that the teeth still retain their functional finish. 

I recognize that the industry standard for visual imperfections is at 3x magnification and that the Buren ebauch is over forty years old but I note these findings because any serious watch enthusiast willing to spend CHF 26,000 will see them with a 10X loupe.  Although these aesthetic lapses would not affect the watch's overall function I hope Villemont will tighten its quality control.

On the wrist the VM106 is holding steady at +6 sec per day with the Isochron regulation system this variation could easily be adjusted and improved if desired. 

There are some practical challenges with the use of the vintage Buren movement. The date mechanism is of the slow change variety and takes over twenty minutes to adjust.  The most aggrevating aspect of the calender mechanism is that it is not rapid setting. The owner will need to manually wind through the entire calender wheel to achieve the right date if necessary.  Combined with the small crown this is a time consuming process.  As a result the Vltime is the only automatic watch that I keep on a winder continuously. 

The winding efficency of the microrotor is also disappointing.  Despite upgrading the movement with a heavier platinum rotor, wearing the Vltime all day (fourteen working hours) only gives the watch  a power reserve of 26 hours on average.  This inefficient power transmission is due to Buren's original design which allowed the movement to be wound bidirectionnally but introduced more friction as a result of the engineered solution.  Like all microrotor movements, the smaller rotor has a higher breaking point before it starts to wind and this also contributes to the decreased winding efficency.

Thus while the Buren Microrotor movement was ahead of its time in the 1950's, I can appreciate the engineering innovations found in modern movements which make todays watches more user friendly.  I cannot fault Villemont's constructeur (a movement designer who previously worked for Patek Philipe) for respecting the integrity and history of the original movement.

Conclusion:

Is the Vltime compatible with the timepieces being produced by independent watchmakers given Villemont's concept of  Esprit des Artisans? 

In some aspects Villemont exceeded my expectations but there were areas where the differences are noticeable.  Villemont achieved a distinct look and feel with the Vltime and it's development of Vltimum was an accomplishment which could not have been duplicated by small independent ateliers.  Overall the watch successfully showcase the talents of different artisans working together in the industry.

But Villemont could not meet my expections due to a lack of focus on the movement.  If vintage movements are used without technical improvements then Villemont needs to redirect more effort towards functional and cosmetic finishing to attract the serious watch collector.  An example would be the work that Kari Voutilanen puts into the  Peseux 260 for the Observatoire series.  The overall cost may increase but the intense dedication to the movement would bolster Villemont's desire to celebrate the watchmaker's spirit. 

Technical improvements on a vintage movement would also lend weight to Villemont's Esprit des Artisan collection.  These changes would demonstrate engineering initiative from a small brand to improve on prior horological innovations.  Otherwise Villemont might be considered a manufacture that simply recased movements albeit in amazingly well constructed watch cases.

Villemont is off to a great start as a new fledgling company.  Honestly I don't think I would be as critical if they had not named their high end line "Esprit des Artisans" because it sets the expectation level very high in my mind.  To Villemont's credit the Vltime is an impressive timepiece with more details well executed than not.  I eagerly anticipate Villemont's next model in this collection.

Copyright February 2008 - Michael Ting & PuristSPro.com - all rights reserved

Comments, suggestions, and corrections to this article are welcome.   

 

For those interested in reading the birth of Villemont please  click here

Photocredit for the stock Buren Movement: John Davis

Photocredit for the Vltime disassembled dial: Alex Ghotbi

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