{"id":2068860,"date":"2026-08-14T16:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T14:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/2026\/08\/14\/the-vanguart-orb-in-ceramic-or-the-question-of-the-portable-tourbillon\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T16:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T14:20:25","slug":"the-vanguart-orb-in-ceramic-or-the-question-of-the-portable-tourbillon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/2026\/08\/14\/the-vanguart-orb-in-ceramic-or-the-question-of-the-portable-tourbillon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vanguart Orb in Ceramic, or the Question of the Portable Tourbillon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A flying tourbillon comprising 395 components housed in a 41-mm case just 10.5 mm thick\u2014this alone is a design challenge that few independent watchmakers are willing to tackle without compromise. Vanguart, a Geneva-based workshop founded in 2021, now adds ceramic to the equation\u2014and with it, a stated goal: to makethe Orb<\/em> suitable for everyday use.<\/p>\n\n

The statement might seem trivial. It is not.<\/p>\n\n

The flying tourbillon\u2014a cage suspended in mid-air, without a closing bridge\u2014is, by definition, a technical statement. It exists to correct the effects of gravity on the balance wheel, but in contemporary haute horlogerie, it signifies something above all else: the acceptance of visible fragility as a mark of excellence. To say that such a mechanism is designed to be \u201cworn and lived with every day,\u201d in the words of CEO Axel Leuenberger, is to shift the focus from a collector\u2019s item to a tool for everyday life\u2014a culturally significant shift.<\/p>\n\n

Detail \u00b7 The function selector<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

Since its launch in 2024,the Orb<\/em> has been the first flying tourbillon watch to feature a dual winding selector: manual or automatic, at the wearer\u2019s discretion. The switch is operated via a pusher housed in the crown, which acts directly on the oscillating weight\u2014fixed in manual mode, it is released in automatic mode and begins to rotate. A PVD ring with three windows on the barrel (positioned at 12 o\u2019clock, laser-engraved) indicates the active mode: M, A, or H.<\/p>\n\n

For the two new versions \u2014 Vanguart Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium<\/em> and Vanguart Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold<\/em> \u2014, the central technical challenge lies in integrating the ceramic into the case sides and the crown push-button. Ceramic is a material with low flexibility, difficult to bend, and not well-suited to complex shapes. Vanguart reports that it took a year of research and development to adapt the material to the contours of theOrb<\/em>, with each piece hand-finished to reveal the bevels. The colored elements on the non-ceramic surfaces undergo a treatment borrowed from the automotive industry: high-precision micro-painting, developed over several months to reproduce the visual effect of ceramic on shapes that this material cannot accommodate.<\/p>\n\n

The mainplate, bridges, and tourbillon cage are made of Grade 5 titanium, featuring a combination of microbead-blasted, satin-finished, and mirror-polished surfaces, as well as hand-chamfered edges. On the rose gold version, a high-intensity PVD coating is applied before hand-finishing to reveal the bare titanium edges. On the blue version, the barrel bridge and tourbillon cage are treated with a gold PVD coating that highlights their presence within the movement.<\/p>\n\n

The oscillating weight is set with a brilliant-cut diamond\u2014a detail that captures light automatically and visually highlights the difference in power reserve. It is an elegant solution to a problem of functional readability.<\/p>\n\n

Both versions are limited to 25 pieces each. Material Good (New York) is the exclusive global distributor of the titanium version, which features an \u201cMG\u201d monogram engraved on each case back. The rose gold version is also available at Ahmed Seddiqi and directly from the brand.<\/p>\n\n

The question Vanguart raises with these two pieces isn\u2019t really about color. It\u2019s about the status of the complication: an object of contemplation or an instrument of presence? The answer offered bythe Orb<\/em> \u2014a flying tourbillon that you can choose to wind yourself each morning\u2014is, at its core, as much a philosophical answer as it is a mechanical one. What Vanguart has been building since 2021 may well be a definition of luxury watchmaking that makes the intimacy of the gesture\u2014and not rarity alone\u2014its main selling point.<\/p>\n\n

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A flying tourbillon comprising 395 components housed in a 41-mm case just 10.5 mm thick\u2014this alone is a design challenge that few independent watchmakers are willing to tackle without compromise.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2052927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30122],"tags":[80506,80507],"class_list":["post-2068860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-watches-and-jewelry","tag-ceramic-tourbillon-watch","tag-independent-haute-horlogerie-geneva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2068860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2052927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2068860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2068860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2068860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}