Arnold & Son Reveals New Ultrathin Flying Tourbillon Skeleton Timepieces

Swiss watchmaker Arnold & Son has revealed two new Ultrathin Skeleton timepiece models ahead of Watches and Wonders 2024. The exceptionally thin skeletonized ultrathin flying tourbillon timepieces, offered in red gold and platinum, feature new cases measuring a mere 8.4 mm thick and 41.5 mm in diameter - and housing one of the world's thinnest flying tourbillon movements.

The new Arnold & Son Ultrathin Tourbillon Skeleton is defined by its ultra-slim profile and its graceful curves and wide apertures. Its new case, with a diameter of 41.5 mm and a thickness of 8.4 mm, presents the flying tourbillon caliber A&S8320 in its purest expression.

The Ultrathin Tourbillon Skeleton collection, adorned in red gold (5N) red gold or platinum (PT 950), is issued in two limited series featuring 28 watches apiece. Encased in this precious housing, Arnold & Son’s flying tourbillon stands out for its finesse and precision. 

Its finesse is revealed in the caliber's ultra-slim profile. Measuring just 3.3 mm thick, it is one of the slimmest skeleton tourbillon calibers in existence. The one-minute flying tourbillon attests to the caliber's precision, assembled with a variable-inertia balance for enhanced calibration stability.

A skeletonized movement can convey a mood or a message - chaotic, orderly, geometric, or minimal. Here, elegance is the watchword. The curvilinear skeletonized caliber reveals pronounced arcs and numerous inflection points highlighted by an original finish. On both the Ultrathin Tourbillon Skeleton Red Gold and Platinum, the bridges are decorated with radiating Côtes de Genève stripes and treated with rose-gold PVD (4N).

The flange around the caliber adopts this same finish, clearly revealing the Arnold & Son signature at 6 o’clock and enabling the off-centered white opal dial to be displayed in its purest form. 

At the heart of Ultrathin Tourbillon Skeleton beats the A&S8320 caliber, whose elegant architecture and slim profile are its principal attributes. Designed without an upper bridge to minimize its thickness, the caliber is classed as a flying tourbillon. 

The variable-inertia balance with inertia blocks ensures more precise calibration over time. The slender triangular carriage is supported by a double arrow, which is actually a counterpoise. The arrowhead on the staff of the escape wheel serves as a seconds pointer, as the carriage completes one rotation per minute. 

The changes to the tourbillon carriage and regulating organ give the A&S8320 caliber a power reserve of 100 hours. While this is a larger power reserve than for standard tourbillons, particularly slim ones, it is entirely in line with the performance regularly achieved by Arnold & Son calibers.

About Arnold & Son

Arnold & Son is named after John Arnold, a renowned English watchmaker of the 18th century. The golden age of maritime explorations and discoveries ushered this precision into a new technical ideal – determining longitude at sea. Its immediate corollary was the identification of local time, which changed constantly as the observer moved along an east-west axis. Astronomy, chronometry, and what we now call world time are thus inextricably linked within one and the same question, to which John Arnold and his son devoted their lives, their art, and their genius.

This is how these three dimensions – Astronomy, Chronometry and World Time – have come to be embodied in the House's contemporary timepieces. Echoes of John Arnold's inventions and preoccupations, these principles represent the foundations on which the Arnold & Son collections are based. The twenty-plus calibers presented to date by Arnold & Son have all been designed and developed in-house and produced by its sister manufacturer, La Joux-Perret in La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland). This independence and creativity demonstrate the House’s ability to perpetuate John Arnold’s exceptional inventions.

For more information, visit arnoldandson.com.