Since founding his eponymous watchmaking company in 2009, Ludovic Ballouard has become renowned for his unique methods of indicating time. With its patented hour display, the Upside Down Racing Green model has the finesse of a dress watch, while demonstrating Ludovic Ballouard’s watchmaking prowess, ingenuity and creative spirit.

On a refined “Racing Green” dial, a graceful hand reaches out from the centre. It serves to indicate the minutes, in the traditional manner. However, at the dial edge, there is a conundrum. Here all twelve numerals have been placed on individual discs but only one of them is readable.

As if to encourage its wearer to ignore all but the current moment, Ludovic has created an astounding complication which enables the numeral for the current hour to flip from its upside down position, to upright, instantaneously at the end of the 59th second of each hour. As it does so, the remaining eleven applied numerals remain in exquisite illegible disarray.

At a glance, the current hour can be easily read thanks to the use of a small dot placed on the disc of the active hour. A perfectly positioned subdial at 6 o’clock marks the seconds.

Turn the piece over and a panorama to equal the poetic dial-side aesthetic is revealed through a sapphire crystal case back. Here, beating at a frequency of 21,600 vph the meticulously hand-finished manual winding in-house Calibre B01 has an alluring architecture which demonstrates the dexterity of its maker.

Encircling its perimeter are twelve beautiful “Maltese Cross” mechanisms, each connected to a heart-shaped cam. This system is designed to turn once each hour in order to turn the relevant hour plate thus sending it to its immediate upright position on the dial. Although ultimately functional, the beautiful composition of this patented complication ensures that from every angle this Upside Down model is a showcase for masterful watchmaking.

Housed within a Platinum 41mm case with splendid curved lugs, the watch is finished off with an off-centre crown featuring the Ludovic Ballouard motif. It comes presented on a green hand-stitched alligator leather strap with Platinum buckle.