Vianney Halter, an independent Parisian watchmaker who has collaborated with the likes of Breguet, Audemars Piguet and Harry Winston, presented in 2013 what until a few months ago was considered his most representative model, the Deep Space Tourbillon, a watch that in the same year triumphed in the 'Design & Innovation' category at the GPHG in Geneva. The design is inspired by Star Trek's Deep Space 9 space base, and on the dial the absolute star is the 3-axis tourbillon device, which makes a complete rotation every 30 minutes around the first axis, every 6 minutes around the second and every minute around the third, beneath a large domed sapphire crystal. Recently, Halter presented a reinterpretation of this model: the Deep Space Resonance Prototype, which combines two balances, thus exploiting the phenomenon of resonance to self-regulate them. The idea first occurred to him back in 1996. The project was then shelved until 2016, when news emerged of the detection, by a team of international researchers, of gravitational waves produced by the collision of two black holes. As mentioned, the starting point was the Deep Space Tourbillon, and reasoning about the four dimensions that make up the fabric of the universe (deformed and shaped by gravitational waves) Vianney Halter decided that resonant oscillators would be placed at the centre of the Deep Space Tourbillon Resonance. Working on the project throughout 2020, the French master watchmaker kept the 46 mm case in titanium, verifying that the acoustic synchronisation would work properly once the watch was worn on the wrist. Every part of the movement is decorated and finished by hand and the three-axis tourbillon structure is designed with as many concentric cages. The innermost one, consisting of 162 elements, contains the balances and weighs only 0.6 grams (it rotates in 60 seconds.); the second cage rotates around its own horizontal axis in 6 minutes and is mounted on the outer one, which rotates on its own vertical axis in 30 minutes. The entire 3-axis system consists of 371 elements.
The movement of the Deep Space Resonance Prototype is hand-wound and has a power reserve of 65 hours. And here is the most interesting element: the two balances begin to resonate as soon as the energy given by the winding is sufficient to set them in motion and remain synchronised until the entire mechanism stops. The balances (which oscillate at a frequency of 21,600 vibrations per hour) initially oscillate with a variable frequency, independent of each other. But shortly after they are set in motion, each balance wheel transmits its movement to the shared bridge. In this way, the two oscillators influence each other and quickly enter into resonance, oscillating stably at the same frequency. It should be noted that the version visible here of Vianney Halter's Deep Space Resonance is still a prototype, particularly with regard to the dial.
