The Black Hole Tourbillon is the debut product family from the newer luxury watchmaker Vanguart. I met up with the company at Dubai Watch Week 2023 and was impressed by its interesting-looking and operating spaceship-style watch that is a horological homage to astrophysics. The dial of the watch is meant to evoke the look of space collapsing into a black hole. With that said, in defiance of physical laws as we know them, the tourbillon can escape the strong pull of the universe’s most intense gravity and spins asymmetrically in the center of the concave dial structure as it protrudes upwards. The surrounding curved face is also the dial for reaching the time, as it is comprised of three concentric turning discs which allow for the time to be read “digitally” near the arrow, which is located on the left side of the dial.
Developed in-house by Vanguart, the movement inside the Black Hole Tourbillon is known as the caliber T-1701. It is a manually wound mechanical movement with some proprietary technology and patents in it. The movement includes a 3Hz operating flying tourbillon, 42 hours of power reserve, and functions that include semi-jumping digital time and a power reserve indicator. The lower crown is referred to as a “joystick” by Vanguart and is used to wind the movement or adjust the time. Note that the crown system has been specially developed to allow for advancing the time forward or backward. The upper crown is to quickly adjust the hours only, moving the disc forward in one-hour increments with each press of the button. Not sure how many people will agree that the Black Hole Tourbillon is an ideal travel watch, but it is nice to know that the functionality exists.
The overall movement is slick-looking and clearly needs a lot of power to operate. What I like the most is the emphasis on legibility as well as artistry. While I am not always a fan of reading time on discs, in this particular style, reading the time is both intuitive and visually attractive. I would go even further to suggest that Vanguart might want to consider getting rid of the tourbillon altogether in future watches and simply emphasizing this neat case shape, as well as the interesting way to read the time. While I understand the marketing purpose of placing a tourbillon in this high-end creation to justify the price, the mechanism doesn’t really seem to go with the personality of the watch. The tourbillon is an often staid way to suggest that a timepiece is high-end and doesn’t always neatly integrate with the personality and poise of a watch. It would appear to me that a version of the Black Hole watch sans a tourbillon (and half the price) could be a great supplement for Vanguart in addition to this high-end Black Hole Tourbillon halo model. That plan could make sense given that each version of the Black Hole Tourbillon is currently limited to eight pieces each.
Much of the dial and movement inside of the Black Hole Tourbillon is produced from titanium, while the case exterior is available in titanium, 18k gold, or even platinum. The pictured versions include an 18k rose gold model as well as a matte black-coated titanium version. The watches come on rubber straps with a proprietary quick-release mechanism. I’d be afraid to ask what replacement straps cost, but the idea here is that you can switch up the look of the Black Hole Tourbillon with additional strap options made available by Vanguart. I will say that the Black Hole Tourbillon cases are very comfortable on the wrist — all things considered in terms of the large and wide shape. Oddly, Vanguart offers no case dimension numbers in its documentation about the volume of the case, aside from mentioning that the entire watch is comprised of 775 components. I can only assume that this was an intentional move because people reading the size dimensions without trying the watch on might get spooked when thinking about the size. Though really, when wearing a spaceship on the wrist, do you want it to be small or prominent for everyone to see? This is a showy watch, so why not make it large enough to show off?
With a high-end price and very small production numbers, Vanguart is trying to make a space for itself within the niche world of modern-looking ultra-high-end luxury watches. I’ve always had a soft spot for timepieces in this category, as they inspire my emotions and imagination much more than a classic watch or one with more traditional forms. That said, it is often an uphill battle for brands like Vanguart during their first few years of operation as they both seek their brand voice and their audience. The price for the Vanguart Black Hole Tourbillon watch in black-coated titanium is 290,000 Swiss Francs and 320,000 Swiss Francs in 18k rose gold. Each of the models is limited to eight pieces. Learn more at the Vanguart website.
