Layla is a variation on Margot which is Christophe Claret’s first ladies’ watch complication. Layla is suffused with oriental colors and with this new version, Christophe Claret pays tribute to the romanticism of Arabic poets.

the natural pink mother-of-pearl dial reveals delicately engraved verses penned by the Arab poet, Qays Al Mulawwah. The poem from which these excerpts are taken tells the story of Qays, a young poet and son of an illustrious family of Bedouins, who falls in love with his cousin Layla. In Bedouin culture, fathers generally arrange marriages and the young woman’s family refuses this match. Layla weds another suitor, leaves the region and Qays’ lifeless body is discovered several days later, protecting an ultimate poem dedicated to his love.

Just like the first editions of Margot, the Layla edition features an ingenious mechanism that helps to ‘predict’ – or at least tries to – one of nature’s paramount questions: “Does he love me?” A simple press of the pusher at 2 o’clock brings the watch to life. With each press, a petal – sometimes a pair of petals, it is impossible to foresee – subtly disappears under the dial in a smooth action, perfectly depicting the delicate undressing of the flower. The eagerly-awaited answer appears at random in calligraphic letters (in Arabic) on the dial at 8 o’clock: a little –a lot – passionately – madly –not at all? The difficulty for the Christophe Claret team lay in adapting the movement of the Margot for this interpretation so as to match the right-to-left direction of Arabic script.

At each press of the pusher, a distinct, crystalline chime resonates, aurally signaling the pace of the game.

The display back reveals the self-winding rotor, a delicately carved, flower-shaped carousel of colors symbolizing sentiments of love, with a central cabochon concealing the rotor’s ball bearings. Each one of the eight resplendent triangular precious stones denote a feeling – hope, passion, tenderness – also translated into Arabic. Which one will line up with the red-lacquered heart when the flower halts its waltz?

Technical specifications

Movement
Caliber:  EMT17, automatic-winding
Dimensions:  Diameter: 38.4 mm, Height: 9.76 mm 
Number of components:  731
Number of jewels:  95
Power reserve
72 hours
Two barrels
Escapement
Swiss lever
Frequency:  4 Hz (28,800 vph)
Case
Dimensions:  Ø42.50 x 14.52 mm
Water resistance:  3 ATM / 30 m / 100 ft

Material

Case
5N Red gold, 69 baguette-set diamonds, 4.80 carats
Dial
Pink mother-of-pearl
White gold prong-set with emeralds
Top lugs
Framing an emerald
Hands
Steel with 4N pink gold tips
Pushers
5N Red gold
Strap
Emerald green alligator
5N red gold prong-set with pear-shaped diamonds

Functions

• Hour and minutes
  
• “He loves me... he loves me not” (“Effeuiller la marguerite” in French)
• Symbolic ‘colour-feeling’ on the winding rotor

Distinctive features

• 12 "He loves me…he loves me not” petals to ‘pick off’
• ‘Sentiment’ displayed in window at 4 o’clock: un peu(a little), beaucoup (a lot), passionnément (passionately), à la folie (madly) and pas du tout(not at all)
• Pusher at 2 o’clock ’picks off’ one or two petals while advancing the ‘Sentiment’ indicator by one sentiment
• Striking chime at each action of the 2 o’clock pusher with a visible hammer at 8 o’clock
• "He loves me… loves me not” reset pusher at 4 o’clock: all the petals instantly reappear around a pistil, while the ‘Sentiment’ displayed in the window at 4 o’clock turns to an ellipsis (…)

Pricing

CHF 288,000 5N Red Gold Case, 69 Diamonds (4.8 carats)
20-piece limited series