La Fabrique du Temps and Concepto, two movement manufacturers among the most sought-after by the various haute horlogerie brands, worked on the extraordinary KRB-05, the KERBEDANZ caliber inhabiting the two Quintums It's a 29-jewel movement, manually wound, with Côtes de Genève decoration. It boasts a power reserve of one hundred hours, and beats at 21,600 vph using an escapement wheel and pallets made of silicon.

Pure traditional arts on a backdrop of symbols

These two unique timepieces were shown to a few select people at Baselworld. They have just found a buyer. They will nevertheless remain a part of the history of the Neuchâtel watch brand KERBEDANZ as an exclusive witness to the company's claimed and mastered skills, the harmonious marriage between two histories going back centuries: the history of Switzerland's watchmaking regions with their micromechanical expertise, and that of a veritable dynasty that has practiced the quintessential métiers d'arts connected to the ancient tradition of jewelry, namely engraving, enameling and miniature sculpting for generation upon generation.

With KERBEDANZ, a journey of initiation is always close at hand. The brand differentiates itself particularly by its professed mission of "making sense of beauty." It also lets its fans explore universal symbols. Those fans are frequently MIPs, or "most important people," a term to avoid misuse of the term VIP – . These initiatory journeys take place with series of unique pieces, or pieces in ultra-limited series. They are filled with references to cultural and ethnic values that spangle the finishing on the components of the mechanical movement and on the surfaces and reliefs of the dial. Each model has its own history. The watch comes with a Book of Life, an exclusive and unique anthology dedicated entirely to the timepiece. It describes in detail the minutiae and special touches that endow these timepieces with a soul, and give them their intimate and secret inspiration.

Ancient Chinese civilization comes alive.

The 45-millimeter satin-polished case and the double-layered dials of the two Quintums are in massive 18-karat rose gold. The case is immediately identifiable from the original positioning of the winding crown in the northeast, that is, at 1:30 o'clock, which is in itself a symbol. A bas relief with a miniature sculpture on enamel was exclusively conceived, made, hand-sculpted and decorated by KERBEDANZ. It is in harmony with the symbolism depicted on this model, which is drawn from ancient Chinese culture and represents the Five Elements as seen from Earth: Water is in the north, represented by a turtle entwined with a serpent in black; Metal is in the west and is represented by the Celestial Tiger in white; Fire is in the south, represented by the Chinese phoenix or Vermillion Bird, in red; Wood is in the east and is represented by a dragon in blue-green or turquoise; finally, Earth is in the center and is represented by the unicorn or Qi-Lin, a kind of chimera in yellow. The Five Elements are omnipresent in the composition of the sky, the constellations, and in Chinese astrology.

And while the hammers strike the gongs and replace the visual hourly indications by acoustic signals – this is the mechanical idea behind the minute repeater – an animation is suddenly set in motion: One of the paws of the Qi-Lin begins to move, followed by the wings of the Vermillion Bird, while the turtle entwined with the serpent starts to move back and forth. The ballet performed by the two Quintums is above all playful, but it does draw its fantastical skills from the alchemy of the micromechanical sciences taken to an extreme level, all the way to the edge of horological science as practiced by individuals known as “gold fingers."