It was only a year ago that H.Moser & Cie. revealed the Endeavour Flying Hours timepiece at SIHH 2018. Its take on a wandering hour display was unlike anything we had seen at the time. Soon after that initial announcement in Geneva, we saw Moser’s sister brand Hautlence borrow the unique time-telling display for its own distinctive treatment in the HL Vagabonde 01 and 02. At SIHH 2019, Hautlence updated the watch with a 5N red gold case and a tourbillon.
The Hautlence HL Vagabonde Tourbillon
Before delving into the watch’s specs, here’s a quick refresher on how to tell time on the various Flying Hours and Vagabonde iterations. Take a quick glance at the dial of the Hautlence Vagabonde Tourbillon pictured above. There are three separated skeleton disks set underneath a sapphire minute disc that rotates on a 240° arc all laid out on top of a blue PVD dial that has gone through an extensive microblasting treatment. The satellite discs have a sunray finish, while the central disc features an anti-reflective coating on both sides and a filigree honeycomb pattern.
On a typical wandering hour display ? such as on the Arnold & Son Golden Wheel ? the time is read through a jumping digital hours indication. The difference between the Golden Wheel and the Endeavour Flying Hours and HL Vagabonde is that where the Arnold & Son model has the hour disks on a single carriage, the H. Moser and Hautlence versions have three separate hour dials that each ro...