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Louis Bolle PIONEER 2 Mechanical Multi-Function WatchFeatures and Benefits
Louis Bolle Pioneer 2 Gents Mechanical Multi-Function Two-Tone/Champagne Dial
Talk about a watch that’ll turn heads. The ‘Pioneer 2’ from Louis Bolle is just that, an innovator for the way timepieces have evolved. The typical oblong two-tone stainless steel case is turned on its side for a unique wide appearance. Turning the watch over, you no doubt spy the exhibition back which has become a trademark of the Louis Bolle design. Even still, there are more surprises in store. To the east is a dual layout of both day/night and 24-hour dials that will keep you abreast of what time of the day it may be in case a window is not within your field of vision. To the west is the exposed window of the watch’s balance right next to a subsidiary seconds dial that beats right along with it. Yes, this timekeeper is most assuredly in a class by itself.

-- Movement --
Manual wind TY-3100 movement w/ 18 jewels
-- Dial --
Subsidiary sweep seconds dial
Front exhibition balance window
24-hour subsidiary dial at 3 o’clock
Day/night subsidiary dial at 3 o’clock
-- Case --
Luminous hands
Screw-down case back
Sapphire-coated top crystal
Exhibition back w/ Côtes de Genevé bridges
44mm x 44mm x 12.5mm two tone stainless steel case
-- Band --
Hidden butterfly clasp
187mm x 18mm gold tone stainless steel bracelet

No ordinary rustic farming environment was the 1730 birthplace of Jean-Louis Bolle. Farming was an ongoing enterprise to be sure, but within a stone’s throw of where Bolle had breathed his first breath, and no doubt furrowed his share of fields, he also apprenticed for three years learning the art and craft he would master ahead of his peers. These peers happened to be family in the form of cousins and friends he’d known most of his life. At his own cost, and with tools he provided himself, Bolle would excel in a place described as a mechanical workshop, a place whose door he had run past without a thought hundreds of times as a boy, the interior of which was described as a “laboratory of experimental physics” where he worked as a young man.
About this time in the Eighteenth Century dozens of such shops existed as family businesses throughout the Swiss countryside, most numerously found in Saint-Gervais. Such enterprises had proudly dated back 150 years and would continue carrying forward as long as skills, technology and bloodlines would allow. Though Geneva hummed as the heart and soul of Earth’s watch-making universe, no watchmaker nor their laborers in that city could well supply themselves with all components and movements for the many timepieces built there. For those supplies they relied on makers from the outlying villages.
Raised in a farming community, Jean-Louis Bolle understood the law of the harvest. Not only does one reap what one sews, one is given a bit of soil and seed and tools for only so long. One must not make excuses, one must do the absolute best work possible given the resources available. The seasons will not be patient, they will continue to change whether or not you plant or harvest while the seed spoils or the crops fail.
All of this was as simple as night and day to Jean-Louis Bolle who incorporated this simple wisdom into a master business plan.
Considered a master watchmaker after a mere three years apprenticeship, Bolle sought a worthy partner in Abram Dubois and the two established a firm for creating rough movements. Promptly they began turning out components and tools for neighboring watchmakers, building the company, and establishing themselves, still very young in the business. Within two years, their firm began working with watchmakers who had reputable trade with high-end clients in Paris. From there, the clientele expanded connections across the seas: London, New York and on and on.
From humble beginnings, success built upon success, from chambered apprenticeship to international renown. Jean-Louis Bolle was a watchmaker of honest craftsmanship. And so today, we proudly offer these timepieces inspired by the spirit of this master watchmaker, an individual whose heart and soul grew from the furrows and terraces of Alpine farmland. His was an influence that runs humbly and quietly through all time. We now measure time with these pieces of technology harvested from the seeds of his artistry.
RETAIL PRICE $3,595