Year-long labour of love: Clock brings alive horse movement

A remarkable timepiece which replicates the natural movement of horses has been unveiled by Swiss luxury watchmaker Parmigiani Fleurier.

The clock’s name, Hippologia, derives from the Greek word hippos, meaning horse, and logos for study.

It is the work of its Parmigiani Haute Horlogerie Manufacture, with a longstanding reputation for making unique timepieces.

It has created many table clocks decorated with sculptures reproducing a dynamic movement. This year, Parmigiani Fleurier wanted to dream bigger and go further.

The horses in the clock are modelled on Arabians and move smoothly and naturally around the clock.

Creating the movement took a huge amount of analysis and testing. The watchmakers developed multiple articulated armatures with carefully judged pivot points and linkage lengths to achieve the excellent reproduction of a horse’s motion.

The mare moves at a trot and the foal at a gallop.

The clock features more than 2200 components.

Its base houses two mechanisms side by side, one connected to the horses, the other to the time display. The system which triggers the horses almost constitutes a third mechanism in itself.

The clock was a year in the making.

The heads, tails and hooves are cast in silver and were hand-polished by a jeweller. The bodies feature a hand-engraved decoration, while the finishes on the table clock mechanism are in the classic tradition of Haute Horlogerie.