Robb Report “Best of the Best” award delivers very special recognition for Louis Moinet
“Creativity is one of Louis Moinet’s cardinal values, so seeing it rewarded is extremely gratifying. This Robb Report award recognises the best watchmaking visualisation of a concept. It’s a particular source of pride for us because it’s quite unique – just like our watches.”
It was on July 12, 2016, two years ago almost to the day, that Louis Moinet received its first prize from the Robb Report in the United States. That event was already particularly noteworthy in itself: the first distinction awarded to Louis Moinet by the eminent international journal propelled the watchmaker straight into the most prestigious “Best of the Best” category, published each year in magazine format and circulated throughout the American continent.
On July 12, 2018, the Robb Report announced a new distinction for Louis Moinet, this time in Robb Report Russia. Once again, the new prize is in the “Best of the Best” category. What is more, the unusual title of this particular award – “Best Visualization of Idea” – appears to have been tailor-made especially for Louis Moinet and its “SpaceWalker” piece.
Robb Report was won over by Louis Moinet’s successful horological interpretation of the unprecedented adventure of Alexey Leonov, who on March 18, 1965 became the first man ever to have performed a spacewalk. He was also the man with whom one of the most symbolic gestures in history originated – an interstellar handshake with his NASA counterpart, in 1975, at the height of the Cold War, which went on to experience an unexpected thaw.
The Robb Report award went to the “Spacewalker” piece dedicated to this hero. The timepiece features an outsize tourbillon at 12 o’clock, representing Alexey Leonov’s spaceship on his Voskhod 2 mission. On the opposite side of the cage, a diamond with 208 facets hovers above a starry aventurine canvas: this represents Alexey Leonov himself, floating in space outside his spacecraft. The decision to use a diamond was quite deliberate: “Almaz-2” was Leonov’s code name during the mission (his partner was known as “Almaz-1”) – and “almaz” is the Russian word for diamond.
Only five other watchmaking brands have received Robb Report Russia awards; and Louis Moinet, a fully independent atelier, is the only firm ever to have won a distinction for its conceptual approach, in a bespoke category all its own.
Indeed, here as in the world of watchmaking itself, Ateliers Louis Moinet have preferred to take the road less travelled rather than sticking to convention, creating their own watchmaking poetry – for which they have now earned wholly independent recognition from the greatest connoisseurs of international trends and style.
