de Grisigono Meccanico dG Arrives in White

de Grisigono has revealed its Meccanico dG in white. The Meccanico dG is something of a living legend within the horological circles of today. I say this because, in 2008, when the original Meccanico dG was revealed to the watch world, it was a sweeping hit. The watch featured in countless magazines and blogs, and created quite a stir. The Meccanico dG gave the watch world something quite different. A mechanical movement quite unlike any other seen before. It was not just a interesting watch with a cute design, it was, and still is, a mechanical marvel. In fact the Meccanico dG won the Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie in 2009.

The original version - to your right glows green - however there are no tiny LED lights embedded in its dial, and no quartz battery within its case. The watch, brain child of Fawaz Gruosi - founder and chairman of de GRISOGONO, is completely mechanical under the disguise of a digital.
The upper half of the watch is your conventional analog display, and the bottom portion is a numerical display controlled by 651 mechanical components. 23 cams connected to a set of gears collaborate in unison to trigger the change of hours and minutes The digital display utilizes 23 horizontally and vertically positioned micro segments. The Vertical segments are 9 mm high and weigh 25 milligrams. The Horizontal segments are 2.90 mm lengthwise and weigh a mere 10 milligrams. The segments have four sides: two opposing visible faces with colored strips and two opposing unmarked faces. As the time changed, the segments rotate by 90°, thereby displaying the correct change. The change, which can include 1 to 12 segments, occur in a blink of an eye. The watches digital numbers provide an illusion of the quartz watch, as the strips create a vivid contrast to the interior blackness of the watch.

This watch boasts a 35 hour power reserve, quite remarkable if you think about the two completely different displays.

The newer version -stark white against matt black- will be revealed at Baselworld. Baselworld is the leading annual watch and jewelry industry fare. This year BaselWorld runs from March 24th to March 31st in Basel, Switzerland.