LE DUEL PERPETUEL

INSIGHTS

L’Epée 1839 is the only clock manufacturer to create a masterpiece watch table and makes the fascination of a swashbuckling historical romance alive. The Journey begins with an array of visual effects: The escapement balance wheel, the two sword-shaped retrograde second hands fly back every twenty seconds in an eye-catching fencing display. The mechanical beauty of the core movement, a double Power Reserve animation and the In-line perpetual calendar and its jumping disk.

The perpetual calendar
Desirous of asserting its expertise and drawing its inspiration from its long tradition of horological innovation, L’Epée has completed its Le Duel collection with a movement comprising a perpetual calendar. The designers and clockmakers have chosen to display the day, date, month and year in a linear fashion, from left to right, notably by means of six jumping disks. 
The gear train accumulates energy throughout the day, enabling the disks to perform an instant jump at midnight.
When the clock stops, the calendar information is reset using the unique L’Epée key in the same way the clock time is set. The day, date, month and year system does not become desynchronized, even at the start of a new year or during leap years, which is a remarkable feature for this type of complication. 

The double retrograde seconds  
The double retrograde second hands placed at 12 o’clock, above the hours and minutes display, are two swords that gradually approach and cross over for a 20-second period, before snapping back to the vertical to take up the “en garde” position – like a pair of musketeers.

The double power reserve animation
The two power-reserve hands, placed at six o’clock at the bottom of the movement, move simultaneously from 1 to 0. They rotate through 300° and indicate the remaining autonomy. Proud of their power reserve and prepared to fight it out for 40 days, the two swords cross and point towards the 1. When these two same hands are pointing downwards towards the 0, forming the inverted logo, they evoke a musketeer giving up the fight.