Ballet d'été

With this first model, Virages inaugurates a watchmaking odyssey: a quest for the time we feel, a reading of the day as we experience it, not as the hands count it.

Here, the dial not only measures time, it draws it. Thanks to a bespoke module made in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the hand follows a conchoidal curve, an elegant and unique loop within the loop. Far from the rigid circles of classical watchmaking, time stretches and tightens, like our days and nights.

From 6pm to 6am, the hand traces a small loop, marked by the moon at midnight. Conversely, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., it widens to draw a large curve, guided by the sun at noon. These two loops each last twelve hours, but do not occupy the same space: day spreads out, night folds in.

At the bottom of the dial, the minutes are indicated by a three-armed hand, which completes one full rotation in three hours, covering a third of a circle each hour.

In this configuration, the hours of the day stretch out, reminding the long days of the summer solstice. In this moment of uninhibited freedom, the hand dances its own waltz around the dial, as if on a custom-designed dance floor.