The U Boat Black Swan

This Italian designer of fine timepieces has released at Basel earlier this year the Black Swan. The watch was initially made by U Boat designer Italo Fontana for a private collector from Asia who reportedly paid USD $120,000.

The watch is inspired by the movie – ‘Black Swan’ with its 11 carats of black diamonds. On the case, the diamonds are inverted with the culet facing outwards reminiscent of the scene in the movie where Natalie Portman’s character started to sprout black feathers. The bezel is also adorned with Black diamonds; however, these have the table and crown facing outwards. On the other side of the case is a selection of white diamonds which spell out the name of this Avant Garde brand – U Boat.

The case of the watch comes in at 45mm in diameter and is made in solid 18kt yellow which has been satin finished. The crown is on the left side of the watch and is protected by an 18kt gold cup which screws off and on. The case back is also made from gold and uses 8 screws securing it against the elements.

The dial is made up of two superimposed parts: the first is a sheet of 18kt gold; the second is cut and treated with opaque materials used in the production of military equipment. The hands and hour markers are satin finished gold toned. There are 3 Arabic numerals at the 12, 4, and 8 positions, while the rest of the hour markers are indexes. Just above the 6 o’clock position, there is a small aperture revealing a ruby from one of the jewels in the self-winding movements.

The strap is hand stitched black square scale alligator outfitted with an 18kt gold tang type buckle with additional black diamonds set on the side of the buckle.