TheOne_22_The_Watch

M A L A C H I T E

I S S U E

•

n° 2 2 •

2 0 2 0

[ THE WATCH ]

The Da Vinci Code Powered by a scrupulously Swiss in-house movement but dressed with purely Italian taste. Sicilian, in fact, as Dolce & Gabbana have put their name to Leonardo, the new creation from the Manifattura Italiana collection

by Diego Tamone

114

F

ashions come and go. Not style, though. Style has always been style, regardless of the periods and cultures that have influenced it or the tastes that

have interpreted it. In Italy, a country where style has always played an important role in the cultural basis of the national heritage, it has retained its place in the exclusive circle of excellence. For Dolce & Gabbana, it is interpreted through the artistic forms of a mental, manual, versatile art, becoming the perfect complement to fashion and watchmaking. Fashion is a well-known, even obvious example, while high horology remained largely unexplored until 2012, but it was then elevated and perfected during a brief five-year period through unique pieces that have become established elements of the prestige watchmaking

Above, a detail of the D&G Leonardo from the back reveals the new in-house automatic movement with micro-rotor. To side, a detail of the case, engraved by Italian artisans

115

[ The WATCH ]

world. This was all finally legitimised in a reputational crescendo culminating in the recent Manifattura Italiana collection. These watches, which combine an artisanal element displaying clear Baroque influences on the cases and dials, have permitted themselves the luxury of a mechanical innovation, the arrival of the first in-house movements. In the watchmaking industry, this is an essential, determining credential in obtaining a free pass to the private attic of prestige watchmaking, a privileged location where Leonardo, the latest addition to the collection, has found its own space. This watch is a synthesis of strictly Italian artisanal skills, clothed in a finely engraved 45 mm rose gold case, complemented mechanically with topclass technical content in the form of an exclusive Swiss made automatic calibre.

The precision movement has been developed by expert Genevan watchmakers, who set themselves the task of animating the dial (decorated with a reproduction of a technical drawing included in Leonard Da Vinci’s Codex Atlanticus, celebrated in the name of the model launched five centuries later) with artistic moon phases and an additional 24 hr indicator powered by a helical transmission. All in all, an attractive practical application of an idea - the perpetually variable transmissionthat sprang from the mind of a true master, the undisputed Renaissance genius.

www.dolcegabbana.com

Below, the manually-applied decoration of the Leonardo by Dolce & Gabbana.

Opposite page, from top, the new DG 01.05 movement at the technical design stage and in its final configuration, framed in a rose gold caseband

116

117