SURVIVAL STYLE

Mixing fine dining with fine watchmaking is a recipe for virtue.

An action movie icon and an avant- garde brand create the ultimate tool watch.

In the world of luxury, anything worth doing is worth doing imperiously well. The credo of exclusivity, it can even bring two otherwise disparate worlds — haute cuisine and haute horlogerie — together in one sphere.

According to Blancpain, “watchmakers and great chefs alike demonstrate a fascinating ability to assemble a wealth of components and ingredients so as to create masterpieces”. Incredibly, the Le Brassus watchmaker isn’t just passionate about diving watches and carrousels. Ever since it presented Frédy Girardet with a specially engraved watch after he won the World’s Best

Chef award in 1986, the brand has been rubbing shoulders with the culinary elite.

Three more commemorative watches were given to Girardet and his contemporaries, Paul Bocuse and

Joël Robuchon, for being Chefs of the Century three years later.

With this, Blancpain’s gastronomic ties were formed and included active participation as the official timekeeper for various culinary contests.

Its circle of friends and ambassadors also grew to include some of the other sharpest names in the industry, including Julien Royer, Martin Berasategui and Edgar Bovier.

Blancpain’s association with fine dining became even stronger when the watchmaker recently announced a three-year global partnership with the Michelin Guide. The two will celebrate and promote both parties’ touchstones of “excellence, passion and expertise” in more than 20 events a year.

And, while there’s no word yet on possible special-edition timepieces, we imagine that these events will take those ubiquitous food and watch wrist shots to a new level.