Manufacture Royale moves from the past to create a new and unusual design aesthetic. Launched in 2010, the brand acquired the name rights to the firm begun 250 years early by French philosopher Voltaire. Following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by King Louis XIV in 1685, protestant watchmakers emigrated to Geneva Switzerland. However, local political pressure created economic restrictions on these foreign inhabitants and by 1770, the Enlightenment writer and philosopher had established the “Manufacture Royale des Montres de Ferney” in France. The modern brand seeks to reinvent, stay creative and have an Enlightened spirit similar to Voltaire.

The present Univers model was based on the 1770 Voltige, however, the dial has the addition of the Voltaire quote: "I feel awkward with this universe, and I can hardly imagine that this clockwork exists without a clockmaker.” In 2017, Manufacture Royale created “The Enlightened Society”, an exclusive club for collectors who already owned the MR brand. The 1770 Voltige Univers was reserved for a very few clients and is no longer in production. The present watch number 1 was originally sold to a client in Singapore. In excellent original condition, the present lot provides the opportunity to own a watch, which is firmly rooted both in the past and present and as Voltaire stated “In all the arts, the greatest pleasures are reserved for the connoisseurs”.