$1.2M accordioning brass musical watch

Manufacture Royale's Opera $1.2 million tourbillon watch accordions open to create a resonating chamber for its little repeaters -- the minute hand is in C#, the hour is in A: "The watch case itself is 50mm wide done in 18k rose and gray gold. It has three sapphire crystals and 60 pieces in its construction. Everything about this watch is crazy. It is weird and wonderful. Ugly and beautiful. A novelty for true collectors, only 12 of these watches will be made - making way for other future Manufacture Royal watches. I really do appreciate the audacity of the men behind this watch and brand. There is a hefty amount of silliness here. They make little attempt to hide the fact that this is one eternally ostentatious toy. The watch comes in a veneered wooden box that is said to be a reproduction of the Bastille Opera House in Paris. In case you didn't detect it yet, the French are behind this timepiece."

Manufacture Royale Opera Time-Piece Watch (Thanks, Ariel!)

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dross1260

The truly sophisticated require it to play “Lady of Spain”
Anonymous

For $1.2m I’d expect at least for the screw heads to be uniformly oriented when tightened, jeez.
- arhooley
  
  It would also be nice if you could tell what time it is when you glance at the clock face.
GeekMan

But is it steampunk?
Clayton Hove

Daddy needs this squeezebox!
Anonymous

“Tourbillon” and it’s American-bastardized “tourbillion” are in fact both correct, as a tourbillon is a device within the watch mechanism that prevents constant gravitational deviations to the balance wheel by turning it “like a whirlwind.”
- Anonymous
  
  “a tourbillon is a device within the watch mechanism that prevents constant gravitational deviations to the balance wheel”
  
  That’s what a tourbillon is *supposed* to do. What it *actually* does is prove that you have the money to pay for this intricate, hard to manufacture device that has no impact on the accuracy and precision of a timepiece whatsoever.
Ali

I really hate to be pedantic on my first comment here, but it’s “tourbillon,” not “tourbillion.” Tourbillon = whirlwhind. Just FYI.

Oh, and I love that this is from the country with the 35-hour work week.
- Cory Doctorow
  
  Thanks!
Anonymous

I’d like one for Xmas please.

And Ali… I bet Cory knows that its not tourbillion, I’m guessing typo. :D
Phikus

Why work toward solving the ills of humanity when you could buy a watch?

Anyone owning this timepiece truly does not know what time it is.
- murray
  
  “Why work toward solving the ills of humanity when you could buy a watch?
  
  Anyone owning this timepiece truly does not know what time it is.”
  
  Are you saying rich people are immoral unless they give away all of their disposable income?
  
  Suppose Bill Gates buys himself one of these watches… Would that be okay with you? Have YOU donated over $28 billion to charity lately?
phead

and in 3…..2…..1…..Replica now available on replicawatches_r_us.com for $34.33!
oh not anymore

“For $1.2m I’d expect at least for the screw heads to be uniformly oriented when tightened, jeez.”

Yeah seriously. ESPECIALLY the ones around the face. Just a common courtesy.
frogmarch

“In case you didn’t detect it yet, the French are behind this timepiece.”

Which explains why it says “Swiss made” in big capital letters at the top of the dial, and the manufacturer’s web address ends in “.ch”

I guess you could say that the French are behind this watch if you are holding it upright to face across Lake Geneva…
- Anonymous
  
  “I guess you could say that the French are behind this watch if you are holding it upright to face across Lake Geneva…”
  
  He didn’t say that it was *French made*, only that they were behind it. Almost all high-end watches are made in Switzerland, no matter where the people behind them are from. The “French are behind this timepiece” quote came from Ariel Adams’ site, and he knows his stuff.
pKp

Yeah, this is a Swiss watch. The Manufacture Royale brand is actually a new outfit created earlier this year by Tec Ebauches SA, a Swiss company that constructs (but does not design) small-run series of watches (5 to 50.000 pieces). This was designed by another Swiss company called La Fabrique du Temps (The Manufacture Of Time).

It’s also really over the top. But I guess that’s the point. Reading TFA, you’ll also observe that it came with a 9-pages (!) press-release…quite a far cry from the usual Swiss Calvinist moderation.
rebdav

Exclusive artificially scarce works of art just make me sad. It is fun having something unique but most art and art appreciation is a way to bludgeon those who cant afford it and prove your divine right to stolen wealth. I get tired watching the class divide open even further especially in the last few years. As much as I like the watch I see this only as a toy for a welfare daddy, you know bailout socialism for the ultra rich like at Goldman.
- Pantograph
  
  An object that takes a team of craftspeople months to design and build can hardly be called artificially scarce.
  Overpriced toys, whether it be FabergÃ© eggs or Cellini’s salt cellar have always been made for the rich and powerful. They have put food on the table of craftspeople for centuries and have survived to be enjoyed by people long after their original owners have turned to dust.
  
  Rejecting this is to wish for a world where everything is made by mass production. A bland corporatist nightmare world.
Anonymous

‘the men behind this watch and brand’ – what were the women doing, making the tea?