SlashGear

Distinctive, beautiful and just plain strange, the Cabestan Winch Tourbillon Vertical is the brainchild of Vianney Halter and the engineering masterpiece of the DMC Group’s Jean-François Ruchonnet.  A wrist-watch built around a winch-driven chain fusee movement, it has a tiny 450 link chain and nickel silver drums; altogether there are 1,352 separate components.

Various cases are available, ranging from brushed titanium, gold and platinum, through to gold encrusted with diamonds.  Two rotating drums indicate the time, while further drums show power reserves; you wind the watch using the glorious little capstans. Everything is put together by hand.

I’m currently sat here trying to calculate how much I’ll get for each of my organs, but sadly even with just a single kidney to keep me going I doubt I’d be able to afford the $275,000–$400,000 price tag.  Even then, by the time I’d shipped my spleen out (packed in dry ice), they’d probably have sold the year’s production; at just four a month, last year’s entire range quickly sold-out.

[via bookofjoe]