La Monégasque

La Monégasque is born in 2011 as a declared tribute to the Principality of Monaco and its image of worldly luxury, between casinos and European "art de vivre": the brand officially presents the collection in Monte Carlo, at the Hôtel de Paris, in October of that same year, after a preview at the Geneva show. The line's very name — a clear reference to Monaco's inhabitants — and its design details recall the atmosphere of the gaming rooms, from the dial finishes to the Chesterfield-style straps that evoke the aesthetic of the Roaring Twenties with a Monegasque touch.

The collection debuts with two new manufacture calibers: the RD78, an automatic movement with 303 components and 42 hours of power reserve used in the Club version in rose gold, and the RD540, the flying tourbillon caliber that equips the line's most prestigious version, the La Monégasque Flying Tourbillon, made in platinum and produced in a limited series with the addition of a big date and a power-reserve indicator.

While never becoming one of the catalog's flagship lines like Excalibur, La Monégasque remains a significant example of how the brand, in the years immediately following Richemont's entry, continued to develop exclusive manufacture calibers tying them to a precise and recognizable imagery — that of the Principality just a few kilometers from the manufacture's historic headquarters.