Blancpain’s Haute Horlogerie Cameo In Paul W. S. Anderson’s ‘In The Lost Lands’

“I am looking for a guide, someone who knows The Lost Lands… I’m looking for a great treasure of immense power”. This is the moment, a split second, in the trailer for In The Lost Lands when we see an ethereal, misty image of a watch. At this point, most any Hodinkee reader will hit pause out of curiosity – and if you recognize the open-worked complexities of a Blancpain Villeret, I’ll give you ten points for knowledge. The line is spoken by a captivating Milla Jovovich, kicking off a two-minute and nineteen-second tease of intense action movie mastery.

The trailer’s tagline promises the story of a sorceress who travels to The Lost Lands searching for an artifact (you guessed it) with magical powers that allow a person to transform into a werewolf. Combined with a poster image of Dave Bautista, twin guns ablaze and knee-deep in skulls with Milla lurking behind him, you have the promise of another adrenaline-filled flick from director Paul W.S. Anderson. He is a prolific action director known for Alien vs. Predator, the successful Resident Evil series, and many more. But what sparked the wild juxtaposition of one of Blancpain’s most complex Villeret creations with the post-apocalyptic world of George R.R. Martin?

The Back Story

Watching the short trailer, you may be struck by the unusual choice of a Blancpain Carrousel Répétition Minutes Chronographe Flyback in the role of a magical talisman. This is a deeply curated choice, and I spoke to Paul W.S. Anderson and co-producer Dennis Beradi to discover why this watch was picked for their film. 

Expanding on the casting of the Blancpain, Paul W.S. Anderson tells us: “I cast the watch as you would cast an actor, as the best watch for the role. My producing partner, Jeremy Bolt, is a real watch enthusiast and inundated me with photographs of what I wanted: a timeless, magical look. This movie is set in a post-apocalyptic world, but there are items from our world that have survived and have become incredibly valuable with mythical attributes. It is a timepiece at a time when no one wears them, having reverted to a medieval way of telling time by the tolling of the bell at the cathedral.”

Paul continues, “When we discovered Blancpain, it made sense because it is the oldest watch company in the world and, after the apocalypse, one of the few surviving timepieces. So Blancpain was there at the inception, and they’re present at the end of times, telling the time. So thematically, it made sense.”

Unlike most watches we see in movies and on the red carpet, this was not a product placement. “Blancpain trusted us and understood that we got the brand and what it stood for. We could put the watch into the movie, however, we wanted it without our artistic vision being overridden by commercial mandates. There were no set rules in that regard, and for us, it was a perfect partnership.” Paul adds.

The Challenges of Digitalization

The Blancpain Carrousel Répétition Minutes Chronographe Flyback is a $503,800 marvel of micro-engineering, and talking about its limited on-set presence, Paul refers to it as the Tom Cruise of watches as it came with its own security detail. It is also an intensely complex piece of watchmaking, leading to big challenges in digitalization as explained by co-producer Dennis Beradi: 

“We had to up our game, as the normal schematics weren’t going to be available, being classified production drawings from Blancpain. But they let us scan an actual Carrousel Répétition with macro retrofits to our normal scanners. We scanned it at three times the normal resolution, with around 50,000 pixels across every image. We ended up taking over 300 shots and very, very painstakingly tried to recreate the movement, where the textures are very, very subtle.  To capture the way light plays within it involved a lighting study, also on the animation piece, working within Paul’s vision of what it needed to do tumbling through the air and how it looked within the movement. It was a great project, even a mission, to recreate this watch. We wanted to respect it, achieve photorealism, and not let anyone feel like it was a digital watch. It needed to look photoreal for the moment, and I think we achieved that. The process probably took about five months to reach a point where we were happy.”

To put this timeline in perspective, director Paul W.S Anderson tells me that they also wanted actress Milla Jovovich in one of the main CGI shots of the Blancpain: “If you remember the shot in the trailer in the rain where the watch is tumbling towards you, the digital representation of the Blancpain that took Dennis five months to create. Kind of late in the process of that shot. I decided that we should have Milla in the background. But we didn’t have a shot of her, so Dennis created a CGI version of Milla, which took about a week. So that’s one week for the movie star and five months for the watch.”

The Blancpain Carrousel Répétition Minutes Chronographe Flyback

Within the Villeret line of Blancpain’s collection, you will find the brand’s most traditional references, with roots in 19th-century pocket watches. The Carrousel RMCF has a lot to unpack within its 45mm case. But even with a 17.8mm thickness, it would probably look like a dainty dress watch on Dave Bautista’s beefy wrist. But this is not a watch you would wear in daily rotation, so everyday ergonomics plays a more minor role. In fact, with a price of around $500,000, its owner most likely has bespoke tailoring to allow for a left cuff with an extended diameter. 

Technically, this Blancpain is one of the brand’s most challenging watches to produce and has been part of the upper echelon of Blancpain’s range for over ten years. To my knowledge, no other brands offer this complex combination of features, with the tourbillon-framing carrousel being particularly rare. Just like the tourbillon, the carrousel was invented to counteract gravity. However, the tourbillon relies on a single power source to drive the cage and escape, whereas the carrousel uses separate power sources. And this prima ballerina at six o’clock is only part of the Blancpain charm. The Carrousel RMCF also offers tactile oval pushers for a flyback chronograph with a cheeky, red-tipped pointer and the wonder of sound from a minute repeater activated by a discreet slider at 8:30.

Time is displayed on a broad outer dial ring with the soft glow of grand feu enamel and crisp Roman numerals, a circle of classicism that frames the mechanical architecture visible through the open-worked center. For many of us, a 45mm hunk of red gold would feel rather big on even a mid-sized wrist, but it’s worth it for the sheer exuberance on display. The scope of Blancpain’s watchmakers and finishers becomes even more apparent through the display back, where you’ll get a deeper understanding of the thickness of the 543-part Caliber 2358. Under its rotor, we’re treated to multi-level bridgework, all decorated with engraved sunray pattern guilloche that enhances the complexities within.

The Talismanic Power of Watches

At first glance, the traditional craftsmanship of the Blancpain Carrousel Répétition Minutes Chronographe Flyback appears to clash with everything the post-apocalyptic action movie stands for. But its talismanic image fits like a glove, underlining the more profound meaning a watch can provide. The film’s premise underlines the dramatic pull certain grail watches have on our heartstrings and, in fact, the magic they bring to the lucky few. Whether you are drawn to the allure of the hundreds of man-hours behind the craftsmanship or the deep feelings brought to life by a family heirloom piece, a watch is always about more than time itself.

Talking to the director and producer of In The Lost Lands, I draw parallels to the pursuit of grail watches and ask Paul W.S. Anderson how Blancpain’s movie role touches on this: “This is a quest movie. It’s about Milla and Dave’s characters, a witch and a hunter, going on a quest into the lost lands. And the watch is an integral part of that quest. In many ways, George R.R. Martin wrote it as an adult fairytale. But not the Disney version of a fairytale, more like a Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella where toes get chopped off. The original story was dark but with a mythic fairytale feel, and I thought the watch was a perfect fit for that.” Paul says as we close the Zoom call.

For more details, visit Blancpain online. 

Image credit for lead image: Vertical Entertainment for In The Lost Lands. 

​Hodinkee 

​Read More