Jean Dunand just unveiled a new one-off timepiece, the Orbital Confucius. "The mechanical prowess and poetry in motion of the gyrating tourbillon is enhanced with a miniature painting of sublime Oriental charm, an exceptional and highly original work of art." This ultra-luxury watch features a hand-painted portrait of Confucius, on a very thin black onyx dial that has been inserted on top of a gold disk. Many hours have been spent in creating this timepiece, including fifteen kiln firings.

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The new Shabaka by Jean Dunand will be featured at BaselWorld 2007. It may be hard to believe, but this watch has a whopping 721 parts and 54 jewels. Another cool thing to note is that the buttons on the side are not for the chrono, but they are to set the date. I like how complicated this watch is although the price is probably something very few people in the world can justify.

When I say ultra limited I mean as few as one watch. There is only one of this particular watch produced. This seems to be a trend with some of the top watchmakers. Jean Dunand offers ultra limited edition watches such as this one for $300,000 to $1,000,000. I think the idea is pretty cool, however it alllows very little economies of scale and makes the watches affordable only to the richest people in the world. Another manufacturer could produce a similar watch for a fraction of the price and satisfy much more demand and still make more profit overall.