An idea born from a watchmaking dream
For its tenth anniversary, Sartory-Billard unveils the SB10.
A watch born from the SB08 project presented in 2024. This concept watch explored an extreme architecture, combining multiple sapphire elements, advanced complications, and a radical vision of time display: a large aperture for the hours, a fluid reading of the minutes, and a central surface entirely freed from the traditional dial.
Its development involved a level of complexity and demands that did not align with the balance we were aiming for.
And yet, its core idea endured: to offer a clear, almost poetic reading of time, grounded in material.
“I couldn’t give up what made the soul of the SB08,” explains Armand Billard. “That large, highly legible hour display, the fluid minute reading, and above all, that open surface, a true blank canvas for creativity.”
The SB10 is that idea made possible, not a simplification but a distillation, true to the Sartory-Billard philosophy. As the brand’s first complication, it marks a significant milestone. A vision once tied to a million-euro project, now made accessible.
Rethinking the jumping hour
Jumping hour watches offer a unique mechanical spectacle: an instant, precise, almost theatrical change. Yet they are often difficult to read, with small apertures and compressed numerals.
The SB10 takes a different path.
At six o’clock, a wide opening reveals the hour on a sapphire disc. This aperture has been deliberately enlarged to ensure immediate legibility, a conscious and almost personal choice.
“I’m 50 years old, I need to read the time clearly.” says Armand Billard.
The numerals appear in an unusually large format for a jumping hour watch, nearly twice the size of those found on more traditional pieces. Designed specifically for Sartory-Billard by typographer Simon Schmidt, they balance modernity with timeless clarity.
A simple glance at the wrist is enough. Time reveals itself effortlessly.
Without hands
The SB10 features no hands.
Time is entirely displayed through two ultra-thin sapphire discs, approximately 0.2 mm thick, that seem to disappear into the light.
The hour disc jumps 30 degrees every 60 minutes, instantly revealing the next numeral. This creates a striking visual effect, almost cinematic, a precise moment, a shift, a beat, a pulse.
The minute disc, by contrast, moves continuously around the cabochon, creating a dialogue between jumping time and flowing time.
Two rhythms coexist: one discrete and punctual, the other smooth and continuous. This duality defines the character of the SB10.
Minutes in orbit
The minutes are indicated by a sapphire disc completing a full rotation every sixty minutes. Around the cabochon, a peripheral ring coated with Super-LumiNova BGW9 traces the passage of time.
A red marker moves along this luminous ring, indicating the minutes with precision and clarity.
But it is at night that the SB10 reveals another dimension. The ring glows in a vivid turquoise, forming a continuous halo around the cabochon. The light appears to float, suspended around the central material.
Time is no longer simply read, it becomes an atmosphere: a slow, silent, almost hypnotic rotation, a luminous circle in motion, a small celestial phenomenon on the wrist.
Between watchmaking and jewelry
The SB10 has no traditional dial. In its place, a cabochon: a polished surface borrowed from the world of jewelry, with no mechanical function.
This element becomes the centerpiece of the watch, mounted from the outside like a precious stone set onto the case, not to display time, but to give it presence.
Its surface captures light, but also invites the eye and the hand. The cabochon is not only meant to be seen, it is designed to be touched. Polished, crafted, sometimes textured, it creates a physical, almost instinctive connection with the watch.
The cabochon is not interchangeable. It is an integral part of the watch, forming a personal bond between the object and its owner, much like a piece of jewelry that evolves with time.
This is a watch to be looked at as much as it is to be touched, where material invites gesture, where the finger follows the surface to feel its relief and temperature.
The watch becomes a meeting point between the rigor of watchmaking and the freedom of material expression.
Black Sapphire
In this version, the cabochon is crafted from smoked black sapphire.
Its subtle transparency partially reveals the inner architecture of the watch: the jumping hour disc, the mechanical module, and the distinctive typography.
The sapphire acts as a dark veil, revealing without fully exposing.
Depending on the angle and light, it shifts between translucency, opacity, and reflection.
The Super-LumiNova minute ring charges during the day to deliver a striking display at night.
A minimal object, yet rich in depth.
The mechanism
Beneath its apparent simplicity lies a coherent mechanical construction.
The SB10 is powered by the automatic La Joux-Perret G100 caliber, paired with a patented jumping hour module ensuring a precise and instantaneous change.
Both hour and minute discs are made of sapphire and housed within a 39.5 mm stainless steel case.
Every technical choice serves the same vision: clarity, coherence, and purpose.
