De Tournemire

Founded by a Parisian family of diamond dealers with a singular concept: placing exceptional diamonds directly into the sapphire crystal of a watch — a question no one in the industry had answered before. 'Why has no one inserted a large diamond into the centre of a timepiece's sapphire crystal?' De Tournemire answers it with remarkable creative flair.

The De Tournemire Tourbillon collection features a double retrograde manually wound mechanical movement produced exclusively for the brand by Concepto — 259 components, skeletonised architecture, double retrograde hands for hours and minutes, flying tourbillon at the base, 72 hours power reserve at 3Hz. The sapphire crystal itself serves as an artistic centrepiece, set with diamonds of varying sizes. Each piece is presented as a fusion of exceptional jewellery and fine watchmaking. The art of combining exceptional diamonds with the finest technology of watchmaking.

The brand made its public debut at Baselworld 2017, and the details reveal a house that knows exactly whom it serves. Centre stones set into the crystal range from 2 up to 7 carats, and even the most restrained men's models carry 6-7 carats of diamonds once the case setting is counted — with the total climbing steeply on fully paved versions. The Tourbillon's 44.8 mm case comes in DLC-coated titanium or precious gold, its crown ringed with baguette-cut diamonds, while the more classical Abyss collection places a two-hand automatic beneath the signature crystal-mounted stone over diamond-set or decorative dials. Because so much of each watch's value lies in its individual centre diamond — no two stones being alike — every piece is effectively unique, and pricing spans roughly €250,000 to €2,000,000 depending on the gem. Press coverage at launch affectionately called it circa-2008 luxury revived for a new decade, aimed unapologetically at what the brand itself described as hedonistic collectors — the clientele of mega-yacht ports and private-jet terminals that a Parisian diamond-dealing family knows intimately. Nearly a decade on, De Tournemire remains a tiny, discreet operation trading on a single unduplicated idea: that in a market where complications are everywhere, an exceptional diamond floating at the heart of the crystal — above a Concepto flying tourbillon built exclusively for the house — is a statement no one else makes.