Dolce & Gabbana Unveils a Propietary Mechanical Movement

When Dolce & Gabbana was founded in 1985, the brand already quite a background in selling watches – and ambitions. The Italian fashion-luxury house turned over a new leaf for its watch activities in the early 2010s. Ending its licensing agreement with Binda Group, D&G brought its watch operations in-house. Two years ago, during the 2017 Basel watch week, D&G made its debut in the world of Haute Horlogerie presenting 4 exclusive unique pieces – including complications such as a tourbillon or a minute repeater. The brand’s latest move to raise its horological game is the development of a proprietary movement.

This Dolce & Gabbana proprietary movement was developed and manufactured by MHC. Based in Geneva, MHC – Manufacture de Hautes Complications – is a high-end movement designer and manufacturer managed by Pierre Favre. To name a few recent developments, MHC has worked on projects for Girard-Perregaux, H. Moser & Cie., Bell & Ross or Graff. It is not the first collaboration between Dolce & Gabbana and MHC as the 2017 D&G Haute Horlogerie unique pieces were powered by movements manufactured with MHC.

The new Dolce & Gabbana calibre DG01 is a large self-winding movement with micro-rotor: it is 30.00mm in diameter and 4.00mm in height. It runs at 21,600 vibrations per hour and its barrel can store up to 58 hours of power reserve when fully wound. The variable inertia balance features gold adjustment weights and a flat hairspring. It is made of 209 parts. Two versions are available for now: the DG01.01 with hours, minutes and small seconds at 6 o’clock and the DG01.02 with hours (on 24 hours and not 12 – a reference to the so-called Hora Italica) and minutes.

To launch this new movement, Dolce & Gabbana has unveiled a new line of timepieces, “Manifattura Italiana”. Their design is purely Italian and true to the opulent D&G styling; in contrast, the movement finishing is clean and sober – the bridges and plate are hand-brushed and gold plated. The six different models are inspired by Italian cities (Venice, Milano, Palermo, Florence, Naples and Rome). Each watch is released in an exclusive limited edition of 13 watches. Retail price starts at EUR 39,500. For more information, please visit www.dolcegabbana.com.