After serving as Creative Director at Patek Philippe for over 35 years—a pivotal role at one of the most revered names in watchmaking—Laurent Ferrier launched his eponymous brand in 2010. Laurent Ferrier timepieces are the epitome of sotto voce elegance and style and the present unique Galet with sunburst salmon dial with sapphire and ruby indexes is no exception.

The present “Galet” meaning pebble in French gets its name from the sinuous contour and flowing turned lugs resembling a river stone, was a passion project of a distinguished collector wishing to merge a steel case with a dial providing for a flamboyant contrast and subtle gem setting, notably baguette rubies at 12, 3 and 9 o’clock and sapphires placed at the other hour indexes.

The immense difficulty was to create these indexes without any visible attachments or frame as if they were applied to the dial, something that had never been done in watchmaking. So arduous was the task that Ferrier decided not to undertake something similar again.

Giving life to this timepiece is the incredibly well finished and cutting edge self-winding calibre FBN 229.01. Taking inspiration from the natural escapement invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet, the movement features a double direct-impulse escapement using two nickel phosphorous escape wheels and a silicon lever to ensure better distribution of energy. The movement is further hand decorated lavishly to the nth degree with a beautifully tapered rotor bridge, polished angles and Geneva waves.

The watch is in excellent condition and comes with a plethora of accessories including a model of the Porsche 935 Turbo Ferrier drove in the 1972 Le Mans race.