As-01

For this model, Lorige delves into the history of motor racing to create an unusual timepiece whose case is machined from the carbon/carbon brake pads of the McLaren MP4/8 driven by Ayrton Senna during the 1993 season. Ayrton Senna, a three-time F1 world champion, finished second in that season after an epic duel with the French pilot, Alain Prost.

Lorige’s mission was to design and manufacture a model worthy of this automotive history, which can only be produced once, and in only eight pieces. It took more than three years for the two partners to patent the specific techniques of reprocessing the carbon/carbon from the racing car’s brakes to transform them into watch cases.

Lorige decided to develop his first Flying Central Tourbillon, based on the work and the expertise of Dominique Renaud and the late Pierre Favre. The LOR-TC01 (TC for Tourbillon Central) movement, designed in collaboration with Timeless Unité Renaud-Favre, is based on a specification that is simple in appearance but highly complex in its manufacturing. Its condensed structure and different finishes accentuate the lines of each element without facilitating the assembly of the movement’s 323 components. The upper cage of the tourbillon is made of titanium, which further complicates the process of the four finishes, especially on such a small surface, the piece measures only a diameter of 13.6 mm.

Only eight Lorige AS-01 watches will be produced because the cases, which measures 40 x 50 mm, are machined from only eight brake pads from the McLaren MP4/8 driven in 1993 by the legendary Ayrton Senna. In that year, the brake pads were 67 mm wide and 53 mm high, allowing only one carbon case to be machined from each pad.