Lang & Heyne, a German manufacturer based in Radeberg, near Dresden, customised its Friedrich III watch at the request of one of its customers. The result is the Orient model, a unique piece featuring a white enamel dial made using the champlevé technique and painted on the edge with grass and flowers in shades of blue.
The refined design, created by a porcelain painter, was inspired by an ancient ceramic bowl on display at the Musée Guimet in Paris where one of the largest collections of Oriental art outside Asia is housed.
Without indices or small seconds, the dial features only slender blued steel hands, as well as the logo and the inscription 'Made in Saxony' at 12 and 6 o'clock respectively.
An 18-carat white gold case with a diameter of 39.2 mm, crown set with a blue sapphire and an alligator leather strap.
Through the sapphire glass opening in the case back, it is possible to admire the movement used: it is the hand-wound Calibre VI, with a 55-hour power reserve and 18,000 vibrations per hour, and which, instead of being gold-plated, has been rhodium-plated and engraved with the words 'Orient' and 'pièce unique'. What immediately catches the eye is the polished surface of the three gold wheels and the transparency of the bearings (instead of the traditional rubies).
