Richard Mille Gifts Quebec City With Porte-Bonheur Clock

Richard Mille has teamed up with Switzerland’s famous Canton of Jura to honor Canada’s French-speaking province. This week the luxury watchmaker himself was on hand to present L’Horloge Porte-Bonheur, a gift from Richard Mille and the Canton of Jura to the Province of Quebec.

Mille and Dominique Guenat, the president and director of Horométrie S.A, presented the clock to Régis Labeaume, the Mayor of Quebec City. The unique timepiece is being presented as the city celebrates its 400th anniversary.

The engineers at Richard Mille teamed up with the technical college of Porrentruy and the Neuchâtel Haute Ecole Arc to create L’Horloge Porte-Bonheur (the good luck clock). Housed in a stainless steel case, the clock has two faces showing two different displays: on one side you can see the hours and minutes, while the other face displays seconds, minutes, hours and a perpetual calendar. As a reminder of the clock’s provenance, the Canton of Jura’s time zone is also displayed alongside on a glass column.

It is not surprising that the clock took six years to design, manufacture, and assemble, considering its size. Standing at 3.5 meters height and weighing in at 1,913 kg the clock is comprised of 3,600 parts made of brass, stainless steel, titanium, aluminium, ceramic and ruby. You can see the calibre, gear-trains and balance wheel through the anti-reflective glass all around the movement.

The clock will be on display in Porrentruy, Switzerland from March 7 to May 3, and will then be permanently installed in the Jardins de l’Hôtel de Ville in Quebec City.

Photo credit: Didier Gourdon. Photos courtesy Richard Mille.