Ludovic Ballouard's Half Time With Jumping Hour Movements

Driven by his original idea and philosophy, Ludovic Ballouard went on to create his second model, the Half Time, which was presented in January of 2012. The Half Time continues with the idea of presenting time in an unusual way with a highly complicated jumping hour movement, which perpetually reminds the viewer that the most important time is the present.

All numerals are divided in half on two disks that rotate in opposite directions, making the numerals unreadable, except for the present time which is whole at the position of 12 o'clock. The minutes are presented in retrograde, which is set on a 120° arc at the position of 6 o'clock. The patented manual winding complication by Ludovic Ballouard is calibre B02. All cases and crowns are engraved by hand in Geneva.

The principle is simple: all the hour indexes are divided in two, therefore unreadable… All except the one showing the current hour. The rotation of two disks "reconstitutes" each index, allowing the time to be read. The watch, therefore, carries no hour hands. A retrograde hand, set on a half-circle at 6 o'clock, indicates the minutes in a classical manner. The numeral that gives the viewer the time is whole at the position of 12 o'clock, while the rest of the numerals are cut in half, perpetually reminding the viewer that the most important time is the present. Ludovic Ballouard had the choice of including the minutes in the middle of the dial; however, he opted for making the movement even more complicated by integrating the retrograde minutes, staying true to his desire of continuously adding complications to his timepieces.