Ressence Type 3 wins Horological Revelation Prize at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix

	Ressence founder Benoît Mintiens was honoured to receive the prize for best Horological Revelation at the 2013 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPdG) recently. The prize, which was awarded for the first time this year, is for a watch by a brand that commercialised their first model less than 5 years ago.
	The red carpet prize-giving ceremony took place in front of more than 1,500 guests at Geneva’s Grand Théâtre. A worldwide audience also followed the ceremony via a live video link to New York and live streaming on Euronews.com, Worldtempus.com and the GPdG website.
	The international 23-member jury included French designer Philippe Starck; international director of Christie’s watch department, Aurel Bacs; musician and watch collector, John Mayer; and highly respected watch industry editors, journalists and specialists.The Ressence Type 3 seduced the jury with its innovative fluid-filled dial that transports time from the surface of the dial to the top of the sapphire crystal by significantly minimising refraction. The Type 3 offers a tangible feeling of being able to touch time itself.
	Discs displaying hours, minutes, seconds and days revolve under the domed sapphire crystal, while the date is read from the perimeter of the dial at 6 o’clock. The indications discs continually revolve, as does the whole dial. The face of the watch is constantly changing in the same way that a human face is transformed by each passing emotion.The indications and their mechanisms are mounted inside a bubble crafted from extremely tough, anti-reflective sapphire crystal. The complication and indications follow the shape of the crystal. The mechanism is enclosed in an upper compartment filled with a naphtha-type liquid that has a more similar index of refraction to the sapphire crystal than air. Refraction bends light when it passes from one material to another, e.g. air-to-glass or glass-to-air. With the fluid-filled dial indications, refraction is greatly minimised, thus tricking the brain into seeing the dial in two-dimensions rather than three. A thermal valve automatically adjusts for any expansion or contraction of the fluid.The complication module and indications are separated from the movement by a hermetic titanium membrane that prevents any physical connection, so information is transmitted magnetically. The magnetic fields are tightly focused to eliminate any risk that they affect the timing.The Type 3 provides proof of Leonardo Da Vinci’s adage that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”, because in order to take this new step forward, Benoît Mintiens had to develop some very original technical solutions.
	The complete sapphire caseback rotates and takes the role of the crown. A gravitational gearing system allows the indications to be adjusted separately: with the dials facing up, it is possible to change the time and date; with the back up, the watch can be wound.For watch lovers in Singapore, all of the prize-winning watches in each GPdG category will be on display from the 21st to the 28th of November at L’Atelier by the Hour Glass.