ROMAIN GAUTHIER IS NOT FAMOUS AS CARTIER BUT HEY, WE HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE AND I KINDA LIKE THEIR DESIGNS! AND THE FACT THIS MODEL HAS A BEZEL MADE OF GENUINE METEORITE MEANS THE WATCH IS LITERALLY OUT OF THIS WORLD AND IF YOU BUY IT, YOU WILL BE JUST 1 OF 10 LUCKY OWNERS! AROUND RM 277,000 IN SWITZERLAND BUT BOUND TO BE MORE IN MALAYSIA

KEE@FSWMAG.COM

Prestige HMS Stainless Steel – featuring stunning dial crafted from ultra rare, visually arresting meteorite Prestige HMS Stainless Steel – Romain Gauthier’s first series watch in this material – features a stunning dial crafted from ultra rare meteorite. Prestige HMS Stainless Steel by Romain Gauthier THIS METEORITE WATCH COSTS RM 277,000 IN SWITZERLAND SO SHOULD BE MORE IN MALAYSIA  Discovered in 1931 at the Henbury crater field in the Northern Territory of Australia, this meteorite boasts exceptionally coarse intersecting bands of nickel-iron crystal that spectacularly shimmer as the wearer turns the watch.   HMS stands for hours, minutes and seconds. Hours and minutes are displayed in the large subdial at 12 o’clock, with small seconds at 5 o’clock.  Prestige HMS Stainless Steel on the wrist The hands are all in blackened steel, with the hour-minute hands Super-LumiNova-filled to stand out against the meteorite, while the white gold applique hour markers also feature this lume. Prestige HMS Stainless Steel by Romain Gauthier Given the ferrous content of the meteorite dial, Romain thought it made perfect sense to pair the dial with a case also made from a ferrous substance – stainless steel – the first time the watchmaker has created a series watch in this material. The 43mm-diameter case is distinguished by pure, clean, unbroken lines around its full perimeter. It is the absence of a ‘normal’ crown protruding at 3 o’clock that signals something special might be going on around the back of the watch. The 'flat' caseback crown of Prestige HMS Stainless Steel In fact, Prestige HMS is wound using a ‘flat’ crown on the caseback. This increases winding efficiency because, unlike a traditional caseband crown, energy need not be transmitted through 90°. The large diameter and undulating profile of the crown enable effortless winding, even while on the wrist. The back of Prestige HMS Stainless Steel Turning over the watch, it is not just the caseback crown that we see, but also the in-house Calibre 2206 HMS on show through the display back. Virtually every component of this innovatively engineered, superlatively hand-finished movement bears Romain's distinctive touch. In total, as many as 60 hours have been devoted to hand-decorating the movement, even those components that are not visible.  A milling tool cuts out a disc of meteorite used to make the dial Apart from the piece used here, the only other known sample of this Henbury meteorite is housed in the South Australian Museum of minerals, meteorites and rocks in Adelaide. A disc of meteorite used to make the dial of Prestige HMS Stainless Steel Indeed, this particular meteorite specimen is extremely rare and it is remarkable for the coarseness of its nickel-iron crystal bands, producing a really eye-catching Widmanstätten pattern.   Prestige HMS Stainless Steel is a 10-piece limited edition.