LE MANS TO GENEVA IN ONE WATCH
From victory on the racetrack to the beauty of a watch: the adventure of an amateur racing driver turned watchmaker, encapsulated in a piece clad entirely in gold and equipped with a self-winding manufacture movement.
It all began like an adventure novel when three young motor racing enthusiasts, Laurent Ferrier, François Servanin, and François Trisconi, took third place on the podium at the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans. This feat led two of them to embark on a race against time by founding a watchmaking manufacture in Geneva 15 years ago. From the outset of this new adventure, the watches produced by these workshops have captivated with their discreet aesthetic and mechanical perfection, a charm that continues to work its magic, as demonstrated by the new Sport Auto 79, whose name is a nod to that victory 46 years ago.
True to Laurent Ferrier‘s refined style, this timepiece features a 41.5mm diameter, 12.70mm thick cushion-shaped case in 5N red gold. It is topped with a square bezel with softened corners and punctuated by a fluted ball-type crown. It houses a in-house movement, the self-winding caliber LF 270.01, which beats at a standard frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour, incorporates a platinum micro-rotor, and delivers a power reserve of three days. The dial combines an off-white hue with a silver and rose-colored galvanic treatment and an opaline finish, a delicate ensemble that blends beautifully with the warm caress of the red gold of the case and link bracelet. The time is displayed by spear-shaped hands coated with white Super-LumiNova® pointing to a cluster of drop-shaped hour markers and a gray powdered minute track, while the seconds tick away in an azure counter at 6 o’clock and the date appears in a window at 3 o’clock.
