Blancpain Le Brassus watches

Blancpain Le Brassus watches are grand complications: carrousels, tourbillons, minute repeaters, perpetual calendars and split-seconds chronographs. The line takes its name from Le Brassus, in the Vallée de Joux, where Blancpain set up production. The company, a Swatch Group subsidiary since 1992, is headquartered in Paudex and Le Brassus.

The carrousel is the thread running through it. Like the tourbillon, it is a regulator meant to reduce the effect of gravity on the movement's rate. Blancpain revived and reworked the carrousel in 2008, the year it produced the first movement with a one-minute flying carrousel. The Carrousel Volant Une Minute (00225-3434-53B), named for that one-minute flying carrousel, shows the mechanism through a skeleton dial in a 43.5 mm platinum case, limited to 288 pieces.

From there the line adds functions. The Carrousel Répétition Minutes (00235-3631-55B) pairs the carrousel with a minute repeater in a 45 mm red gold case with an enamel dial; the 0233-6232A-55B sets the bezel with diamonds over an ivory dial, and the 00232-3631-55B is a unique piece that adds an automaton. The Carrousel Répétition Minutes Chronographe Flyback (2358-3631-55B) was the first to join a flying carrousel, a minute repeater and a flyback chronograph in a self-winding movement, with cathedral gongs fixed inside the case and grand feu enamel markers. The Tourbillon Carrousel (2322-3631-55B) was the first wristwatch to combine both regulators; its 44.6 mm red gold case is 11.94 mm thick.

The 42 mm perpetual calendars form a second group. The Quantième Perpétuel Chronographe Flyback à Rattrapante (4286P-3642-55B) is a split-seconds flyback chronograph with a perpetual calendar, and the 4289Q-3642-55B adds a tourbillon to the same combination. The Tourbillon Quantième Perpétuel 8 Jours (4225-3642-55B) pairs a tourbillon with a perpetual calendar.