Shaped Watches
How about something that isn’t round, for a change?
WITH A METIERS D’ART TIMEPIECE, you’re getting the best of both worlds: technical watchmaking content in a mechanical movement, and artistic savoir-faire in the decorative crafts that are on display. From enamelling to engraving to filigree work and beyond, there’s much to choose from and admire. Given the nature of these artistic crafts, you can also be sure that no two watches are alike ‒ even if they share the same design.
Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers – The Singing Birds
A series of four unique timepieces created by Vacheron Constantin’s Les Cabinotiers department, the Singing Birds timepieces are part of the “La Musique du Temps” theme presented by the maison. Any music here is, by necessity, imaginary though ‒ the focus for these timepieces is the elaborate champlevé painted enamelling and guilloché work that have gone into creating the dial’s two distinctive sections. On the left of each dial, a different bird in flight comes to life thanks to the talent of the enamellist. On the right, basket-weave guilloche accentuates the atypical time display format, which has been accomplished using the wandering hours complication.
Hermès Cheval Cosmique Watch
Engraving comes to the fore quite literally in the Hermès Cheval Cosmique watch, which features engravings of a horse and waves in white gold set against an aventurine dial. Executed in relief, the motifs are carved from gold plates less than one centimetre thick before being assembled in layers. The waves are affixed to the dial base first, then selectively painted with a fine black lacquer, before the aventurine dial is applied.
The horse is set into place last of all, and sits above the dial for to create a greater perception of depth. Just 24 pieces of this timepiece will be produced.
Jaquet Droz Petite Heure Minute “Tiger”
There’s a simple reason why black Grand
Feu enamel dials are so rarely offered ‒ they are simply too difficult to produce, as the smallest imperfection is glaringly obvious even to the naked eye. Therein lies the first major hurdle in producing this watch. Upon this jet black dial, Jaquet Droz’s enamellist has painted a white tiger with ice-blue eyes, with a lifelike gaze that pierces the observer. Creating such detail on a microscopic scale like a watch’s dial is no mean feat either ‒ some brushes used were as thin as a strand of hair, and the transparency of the final product must be taken into consideration even before the enamel is fired to set it. AM