Luxury watchmaker Louis Moinet has announced the launch of its exclusive limited edition Wabar, a unique tourbillon-powered timepiece with its dial featuring an extremely rare hand-crafted fragment of the Wabar meteorite that was found in Saudi Arabia's Rub Al Khali desert in 1863.

On discovery, the Wabar meteorite weighed 2,550 kg and it was then acquired by the British Museum who cut it for onward exchange, which is how fragments of the meteorite became available.

Currently pieces of this meteorite can only be viewed at the National Museum of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh - where it is the main exhibit, the British Museum, Chicago, Washington, New York and a few other museums in Europe.

The Wabar tourbillon comes in a limited edition of 12 pieces and is designed for the discerning fine watch aficionados and collectors, said Louis Moinet. The hand-engraved applique featuring the Wabar meteorite sets off the silvered hour and minute hands as well as the main spring and tourbillon escapement.

The stunning 18k white gold case of this masterpiece comprises 50 components including the signature Louis Moinet crown guard.

Ateliers Louis Moinet was founded in Saint-Blaise, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 2004. The fully-independent firm was established to honour the memory of Louis Moinet (1768-1853), master watchmaker, certified inventor of the chronograph (1816), and pioneer in the use of very high frequencies (216,000 vibrations per hour).

Moinet was a teacher at the School of Fine Arts. He authored Traitéd’Horlogerie, a watchmaking treatise published in 1848 that remained a definitive work of reference for almost a century. - TradeArabia News Service