Vanguart adds to their Orb platform with a new release of two references in ceramic titanium and ceramic gold.
Press Release information with commentary in italics.
New: Vanguart Orb Ceramic Titanium and Ceramic Rose Gold
The Vanguart Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Blue Ceramic Rose Gold has a POA.
Commentary
This is our first coverage of Vanguart, even though the brand has been around since 2017. The maison is run by four partners. Axel Leuenberger is a movement constructor and CEO and together with constructor Jérémy Freléchox, both are alumni from APRP (Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi), designer Thierry Fischer and financier Mehmet Koruturk. In 2024, they launched the Orb, which is what today’s novelty is based on.
What makes the Orb interesting are:
- case design, which though is a round case, measuring 41mm. The case is nominally round, but actually is a more complex shape. The form is rather fluid, looking like it is mid-morph between a true round case to a tonneau shaped one. The design is lugless, with an integrated rubber strap. Vanguart offers many options for the colour of the straps. The design is quite forward and brings attention to itself when perched on the wrist. And the dial is openworked to showcase the movement, including the large flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock.
- the movement is a time only flying tourbillon, which in and of itself, though interesting is not a particularity of horological innovation
- but it incorporates a function selector, where the user can pivot between manual winding and automatic winding. This is of some technical interest, but in practice, it feels more like a gimmick than a useful complication. Almost all automatic watches can be wound manually anyway, and I do not understand the need for a switch to manual, which locks the winding peripheral rotor.
- the movement layout is clear, logical, with many of the bridges constructed in titanium. In particular, the peripheral winding mechanism is of some technical interest. The oscillating mass is bowl shaped with an open center. This rotor is attached to the front of the movement and is constructed from titanium. Loaded on the edges are gold inserts to offset the center of gravity to allow it to move with the movement of the arm. A diamond embellishes this bowl, and is locked into the 12 o’clock position when the owner puts the watch in manual mode. The rotor meshes via teeth below the bowl to the winding mechanism, which engages on two arms to wind the mainspring. The barrel is also visible from the dial side, and carries the function selection indicator.
- the movement finishing looks very good and haute horlogerie, as we would expect from alumni of APRP
In this new release, the use ceramic in two different hues in combination with either titanium or rose gold. The case flanks and pushers inserted into the crown (for the function selector) are in coloured ceramic, while the rest of the case is either in titanium or rose gold. The colour scheme has a soft pastel vibe and is rather more laid back than the more technical Orb which was released last year.
The all titanium orb had a retail price of CHF 150k, and the all rose gold model was listed at CHF 180k. This is par for the course for a small production, high finish flying tourbillon, but we cannot deny that it is quite expensive for what you get. At publishing time, when embargo lifted, we have no visibility on the price of the ceramic titanium or ceramic rose gold novelties.
Release details
VANGUART TRANSFORMS ITS HIGH-CONCEPT ORB FLYING TOURBILLON INTO A DAILY-WEARER WITH BOLD FLASHES OF COLOURED CERAMIC
The groundbreaking haute horlogerie watch with a function selector that can switch between automatic and manual winding modes returns, driving the limits of technical performance and human creativity across new frontiers
Vanguart, the ultra-luxe independent watchmaker and creator of some of the most disruptive, inventive watches ever seen in haute horlogerie, returns to its wildly inventive Vanguart Orb at Geneva Watch Week 2026. For the first time, the explosive design will be injected with flashes of coloured ceramic, creating a pair of crossover watches that are at once works of mechanical art and suitable for daily wear.
The Vanguart Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Vanguart Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold are defined by a unique cocktail of materials, technologies, textures and colourways. In this way, they create a playful paradox. On the one hand, the soft, relaxed colours in the pink and blue ceramics give both watches a versatility and an ease; on the other, the Orb’s theatrical, joyfully unorthodox architecture remains, dazzling with its mechanical ambition and complexity.
THE COLOUR OF TIME: BRILLIANT CERAMIC OPENS THE ORB UP TO A NEW GENERATION
The Vanguart Orb rocked watchmaking two years ago when it became the world’s first flying tourbillon watch with a function selector that could pivot between manual and automatic modes at the whim of its owner. This provocative function brought fresh intrigue to haute horlogerie, one that explored eternal philosophical questions: how is time shaped? Can it be controlled?
The Orb was an instant hit in watch collecting circles. It shot Vanguart into the limelight and secured its reputation as one of the pioneers of contemporary ultra-luxe watchmaking. Since launch, the watch has been spotted on the wrists of a number of global superstars from the worlds of sport and entertainment, all of whom have chosen to wear Vanguart.
Now, the Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold elevate the design’s challenging form further still. In either shade, the watch becomes a more versatile everyday watch – “a daily-wear flying tourbillon”. With these additions of coloured ceramic, Vanguart has opened a new chapter for the Orb flying tourbillon, giving it deeper resonance intended to captivate the next generation of aficionados and collectors of esoteric watch art.
THE BACK STORY: AVANT-GARDE DESIGN AND MECHANICS IN A BEAUTIFUL, ERGONOMIC WATCH
The original Orb flying tourbillon of 2024 was conceived and developed over a period of three years as a high-concept, high-complication watch with an ingenious winding selector that put the wearer in control of how it generated power. It had an elegance to it, too: the overall form was a lesson in massing and proportionality, balance and symmetry.
The conceit was that it was also highly ergonomic, sculpted to the wrist. So while its thrilling movement architecture created a visual vortex, drawing the wearer through multiple physical layers into its dancing flying tourbillon, the 41mm case was a mere 10.5mm thick, a measurement that defied its complexity.
Its wearability was further enhanced by its fluid, beautifully engineered curved case back, which followed the topography of the wrist. The effect was a seminal watch that had mesmerising depth and presence, and yet wore with the day-to-day practicality of an off-the-shelf sports watch.
Two years on from the release of the Vanguart Orb, the Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold invite a new audience, one with an appetite for an exclusive wristwatch that fuses extreme watchmaking mechanics with everyday style and sophistication.
THE NEW CHALLENGE: INTEGRATING CERAMIC INTO THE ORB
In 2025, Vanguart fulfilled a special commission to create a series of unique pieces for a high-profile private client to incorporate ceramic into the Orb. As well as presenting a tantalising research and development opportunity to interpret watchmaking’s ceramic trend through Vanguart’s unique creative and technical lens, the project posed a number of engineering challenges. Namely, how to integrate coloured ceramic into the Orb’s fluid form without compromising the design’s distinctive character, the watch’s performance (including water resistance to 30 metres) or Vanguart’s hugely exacting quality and finishing standards.
While it can deliver profound colour and depth, ceramic is a complex material. It’s notoriously brittle and inflexible, and so a special formula was required to deliver the dynamics the new Orb watches demanded. Through a year-long research and development process, the company’s engineers delivered a highly resistant ceramic that could be sculpted into sweeping curves that follow the Orb’s unique geometry and polished by hand to give it a deep brilliance.
Bespoke tooling had to be developed for the work, too, to ensure every component in the watch would be produced and finished to Vanguart’s exacting standards. Quality that goes beyond what is visible is one of the brand’s founding pillars.
In the Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold, this ceramic features in the case flanks and in the pusher inserted into the crown. The ceramic delivers tactility as well as the hardness, colour intensity and scratch- and fade-resistance that have made it such a desirable watchmaking material. Vanguart’s blue and pink ceramics will not scratch or fade, even when exposed to the elements for extended periods.
THE ORB: TIME COMES UNDER CONTROL
The basic form and architecture of the new Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold are carried over from the 2024 launch editions. Both have 41mm round cases measuring 10.5mm thick, with top and bottom components in either micro-blasted and satin-finished titanium or micro-blasted and satin-finished 18-carat rose gold. Both iterations of the case also feature hand-polished angles that create much of the form’s depth.
The story of innovation continues inside the case. The curved réhaut and the Orb’s similarly concave signature oscillating mass are colour- and surface-matched to the watch’s polished ceramic elements using a bespoke treatment inspired by the automotive industry and applied with high-precision micro-painting. This process was performed by a specialist in colour optimisation and required months of trials due to the complexity of applying it to functional, three- dimensional shapes. By adopting this approach, Vanguart was able to deliver a ceramic-like visual effect without adversely influencing the watch’s technical performance.
These two visually prominent components sit either side of an hour track in either titanium or rose gold. Together, they cascade into the watch and into its spectacular 3hz (21,600vph) flying tourbillon movement. In both models, the mainplate, bridges and tourbillon cage are cast in Grade 5 titanium, with micro-blasted, satin-finished, block-polished and hand-beveled surfaces.
The movement’s barrel sits in the prominent 12 o’clock position and hosts the watch’s signature function. Its surface is micro-blasted and laser-engraved with the company name. An inner ring is then colour-matched with a pink or blue PVD coating and interspersed with three apertures that turn black to indicate the watch’s mode: M for manual- winding, A for automatic winding, and H for time-setting. These modes are selected through the pusher set into the crown.
As before, these functions either activate or deactivate the watch’s oscillating mass. When the watch’s function selector is set to manual, the mass remains fixed in place. Switched into automatic mode, it’s released and spins freely, the animation dramatised by the ricochet of light from the brilliant-cut diamond set into it.
In total, each watch has 395 components. Despite its complexity and the energy required to fuel the watch’s mesmerising flying tourbillon, the movement has a 60-hour power reserve.
THE FINISHING: GOING DOWN A LEVEL TO LEVEL UP
Together, the Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold are an exercise in exquisite artisanal hand- finishing, pushing hand-craftsmanship to its limit.
One major update is the three-dimensional hand-polished bevelling applied to the sand-blasted central bridge. The hour track has been enhanced too, and now features a highly technical blend of micro-blasted and mirror-polished surfaces, creating an elegant pattern that carries an echo of the Art Deco movement.
The lumed hour markers – triangular on the blue model and trapezoid on the pink edition – sit in sharp contrast to this track, delivering on the Orb’s promise of usability by making it immediately legible. This is backed up by satin-polished, lumed and partially skeletonised hour and minute hands that, despite the visual complexity of what lies beneath them, still stand proud, ensuring legibility.
Both editions also elevate Vanguart’s extreme finishing approach further still. The pink edition features a sand-blasted mainplate that is first PVD-treated in a deeper pink hue, and then re-angled again by hand to reveal the polished titanium beneath. In the blue edition, the barrel bridge and tourbillon cage are coated with gold PVD, giving them a gilded allure. This next-level finishing highlights Vanguart’s devotion to haute horlogerie.
THE STRAPS: SWITCH ON DEMAND IN CONFIDENCE
Whether in its overall form or in the tiniest dial detail, the Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold deliver exceptional quality, beauty and ergonomics, ensuring unparalleled wearability.
The same principle applies to the Orb’s straps and strap quick-release system. Developed by Vanguart, the system is activated by an easily accessed but safely concealed pusher on the case back. This way, the strap can be changed at the owner’s discretion, while simultaneously guaranteeing security.
The watches are supplied with a rubber strap colour-matched to the ceramic, while owners will be able to personalise their watches with a suite of additional coloured straps.
THE LIMITED NUMBERS: RETAINING VANGUART’S EXCLUSIVE MAXIM WITH SPECIAL PARTNERS
Reflecting the extreme complexity in the case, movement and material mix found in the new Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold, both models will be limited to just 25 individually numbered pieces with extremely limited distribution.
Since the debut of its first timepiece, the Black Hole Tourbillon in 2021, Vanguart’s success has been driven by a close- knit and deeply valued network of suppliers and partners who share its vision of exclusive haute horlogerie. To honour its role in shaping the Vanguart story and fostering meaningful connections between its founders and discerning collectors of avant-garde haute horology, US retailer Material Good will serve as the exclusive global outlet for the Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium. In recognition of this unique partnership and the close dialogue that informed the watch’s development – each of the 25 pieces will feature a specially engraved “MG” monogram on the case back.
The Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold, which carries a higher retail price due to its increased precious metal content, will also be available through Material Good; through Seddiqi, Vanguart’s exclusive partner in the Middle East; and directly from Vanguart in all other markets.
THE VOICES: THE STORY TOLD BY THOSE CLOSEST TO IT
Mehmet Koruturk, Vanguart President, said: “The Vanguart Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Vanguart Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold reflect how we think about watchmaking today. Our clients expect pieces that move with them – across different moments, different environments, different lives. Ceramic allowed us to bring that versatility to the Orb while preserving what makes it unique.”
Axel Leuenberger, Vanguart Chief Executive Officer, said: “The Vanguart Orb is a symbol of our intent: to enrich tradition through new forms of expression, embodied in design, mechanics and craftsmanship that redefine what a watch can be. The Vanguart Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Vanguart Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold belong to a future we are already building. They are pieces that feel visionary, yet are made to be worn and lived with every day.”
Thierry Fischer, Vanguart Creative Director, said: “Creating the Vanguart Orb Pink Ceramic Titanium and Vanguart Orb Blue Ceramic Rose Gold was a remarkable journey. Colour is deeply subjective, and even more so when shaped through ceramic, with its depth and intensity. We set out to create pieces that feel both warm and precise, technical yet tactile. It required a true dialogue between creative vision and engineering discipline.
It marks the beginning of a new chapter – one that allows us to connect with more people, while staying true to what defines us.”
THE FINAL WORD: EVOLVING THE CODES OF FINE WATCHMAKING FOR AN EXCLUSIVE CLIENTELE
With the release of the Vanguart Orb two years ago, Vanguart created a new template for a round watch with a classical complication that evolved and elevated the codes of fine watchmaking. With its fluent, seamless form and exquisitely finished mechanical movement, the Orb was a visceral reimagining of traditions passed down through generations of elite watchmakers. It took a heritage story and made it science fiction. Now, with the addition of coloured ceramic, the watch becomes a true lifestyle object, ready to carry Vanguart into the next chapter of its remarkable story.