Blancpain Le Brassus Swiss High-End Watches Review

Blancpain Le Brassus is a collection that continues what Villeret started by injecting an energizing variety of designs and complications.

This line accommodates all the complications, and especially design elaborations that would compromise the austere spirit of Villeret: it is a broader collection in term of stylistic ground covered; it's not unlike Leman in that it includes some dressier models – but is more focused, offering only men's watches.

Le Brassus watches exhibit some of the busiest and loaded dials the Swiss brand ever made, combining such complications as the tourbillon with a perpetual calendar, a power reserve, and other features

Blancpain made Le Brassus an outlet for the engineering and technological creativity of the company's watchmakers. The main idea behind the collection is to incorporate as many complications as possible in one timepiece, sometimes in surprising combinations.

For example, one watch includes a perpetual calendar and a chronograph: two extremes of measuring time, one being in the longest range of one year, the other in the shortest of a few seconds. Another model adds a tourbillon on top of that (the chronograph has been upgraded to flyback); and, yet another variation includes a minute repeater complication.

Finally, one of the most complex pieces the company ever produced, Carrousel Volant Une Minute (Karrusel) includes, beside a power reserve, a balance that presents an alternative to the tourbillon – all visible through the half-open-worked dial.

Perhaps in a tribute to Villeret, platinum became the most widely used precious metal in Le Brassus. Though often more expensive than gold, it lacks the festive yellow-reddish sheen of the latter, projecting such traits as restraint, downplayed elitism, refined aristocratic taste.

With the exception of one model (of the currently produced), the timers don't include diamonds; as with most collections, the stress is made on the movement and the featured complications. Blancpain declare the style of Le Brassus as “discreet” -- and platinum, no doubt, plays a major role in achieving this stylistic goal.