Heure Zoulou
- Category
- Complication
- Case
- Steel
- Movement
- Manual-winding mechanical Power reserve: 40 h, 21600 vph
- Functions
- Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Retrograde Hours, Dual time 30 sec retrogrades; 24hr DTZ retrograde
- Size
- ø 40 mm
- Thickness
- 12.10 mm
- Water resistance
- 30 m
- Reference
- LHZ2025
- Price
- 35,528 CHF
Description
The Lyrique Heure Zoulou watch celebrates air racing of the 1930s through the lens of 21st-Century Zulu functionality. Zulu time is a geographically fixed time across all time zones used in aeronautical flight planning. This was deemed a fitting North Star for the Lyrique Société Coopérative.
Centered at the Zero or Prime Meridian running through Greenwich, UK, Zulu Hours follow the same timing as Coordinated Universal Time. To best display Zulu time along with current time, Agenhor developed the AGH-6850 from the base up. A retrograde hand sweeps in a 240° arc within the chapter ring of the minutes and hours. The minute, hour and Zulu hands are all co-located on the cannon pinion (center axel).
The mechanism on the dial-side of the movement is uniquely Agenhor. For the Zulu hand, a snail cam on top of the Zulu hour gearing, set by a pusher at 4 o'clock, is followed by the Zulu secteur (the Zulu follower) as the cam turns through 24 hours. When the secteur head drops from the cam's peak the Zulu hand rotates back to the zero hour. This occurs every 24 hours.
The snail cam for the second hand has "double peaks" so that every 30 seconds on a minute snail cam, the follower drops and starts the 30-second count all over again on a 120° arc. A "secteur de second" (the second follower) must spring back twice a minute, creating a lively performance at 6 o'clock on the dial.
The mechanisms for the Zoulou and second hands is both innovative and yet has the genius of simplicity. At the top of the secteur arms (follower arms) are pointed follower beaks that trace the sides of the snail cam as it rotates. At the bottom of the arms are toothed racks that turn the pinions. The toothed rack at the base of secteur de second is attached to a pinion with a tensioner blade spring keeping the follower arm in firm contact with the double snail cam.
All of the ingenuity of the dial side complication is to present a unique and different kind of 21st Century pilot watch. Far from being a pilot in an open cockpit with a white silk scarf blowing in the wind, modern pilots operate in crowded air space regulated by controllers. Pilots are expected to organize their flight plans around Zulu time, and only by such use of the flight timing can any pilot at anywhere on the planet coordinate with every other pilot on earth. They always are guided by Zulu time.
Supplied by the brand to the GPHG for its entry.