Watchmaking and art have a timeless connection, so it’s no wonder that Vacheron Constantin – the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer founded in 1755 – has chosen the Louvre Museum in Paris as its aesthetic partner since 2019. The two institutions, founded in the same century, have established a cultural and artistic collaboration for four years. , which continues to thrive today.
Vacheron Constantin already has an extraordinary range of artistic resources, including guilloché experts, gem setters and master enamelers and engravers. Last year, she called on her best talents to collaborate with the museum on a collection of four Métiers d’Art watches. Each is inspired by one of the museum’s many great works of art celebrating ancient civilizations.
A dial is engraved with a sphinx adorned with the nemes headdress worn by the rulers of the ancient Egyptian empire. Another pays homage to the ancient Achaemenid empire, engraved with the Frieze of the Lions, a glazed brick decoration located in the first courtyard of the Palace of Darius in Susa, Iran.
The third represents the statue of Victory, a winged goddess placed on the bow of a warship in homage to Hellenistic Greece of the Antigonid dynasty. The fourth and final watch is engraved with the bust of Octavian Augustus, Caesar’s adopted son, wearing an oak crown, representing the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the Roman Empire.
These four limited edition watches have already been sold. However, while they may or may not return to auction, watch collectors and art connoisseurs can still request Vacheron Constantin to reproduce miniature versions of thousands of Louvre artworks (the Mona Lisa remains prohibited, however), as part of its ongoing program A Masterpiece on the Wrist. Entitled the Les Cabinotiers watch collection, these timepieces are guaranteed to be one of a kind.
A letter of authenticity from the museum will certify the reproduction. Louis Ferla, CEO of Vacheron Constantin, said: “With the Louvre Museum, we are writing an extremely promising common story by combining our areas of expertise and our wildest dreams. »
As part of this initiative, a private buyer commissioned The fight for the norm detail of Battle of Anghiari work of art to be recreated in the form of a watch.
The drawing, projected by Leonardo da Vinci in 1505 and executed by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens in 1603, is generally only visible by appointment at the Department of Graphic Arts of the Louvre.
The watch has a 40mm rose gold case, an alligator strap and a rose gold oscillating weight engraved with a view of the east façade of the Louvre. The custom dial, meanwhile, is created by a master enameler and combines two artistic styles: miniature painting and Limoges white enamel.
Earlier this year, Luxury was able to discover behind the scenes the complexity of watchmaking and enamelling processes during workshops led by Vacheron Constantin in Abu Dhabi. Showcasing the house’s heritage, craftsmanship and commitment to technical excellence, the sessions took place in the private Majlis Nahr Al Hayat building at the Zayed Heritage Centre. The room has been customized to resemble the watchmaking workstations in Vacheron Constantin’s workshop, with each area including watchmaking accessories such as magnifying headsets, case cushions, finger guards and the all-important tweezers . The latter tool is difficult to use but crucial for handling all the small parts when disassembling and reassembling a movement, as touching the components with your fingertips can create oil stains and moisture, which can cause oxidation of movement.
Enamel, often considered the softer side of watchmaking, is fueled by creativity, as evidenced by the works from the Louvre reproduced on the Cabinotiers dials. In the workshop, we had carte blanche to paint metal dials with acrylic paints that we mixed ourselves. The dials were then fired and distributed as farewell gifts.
If the sessions only touched on the profession of master watchmaker, they revealed the complexity of a profession listed as a UNESCO intangible heritage. Christophe Ramel, general manager of Vacheron Constantin Middle East, India and Africa, recognizes that preservation is what supports the brand’s heritage and its partnerships.
“Vacheron Constantin and the Louvre share a concern for archiving, conservation and restoration, with the promise of perpetuating the arts and crafts associated with them,” he says. This common attachment to the splendors of the past and the transmission of knowledge also opened the way for another joint initiative of the two men, Vacheron Constantin supporting the restoration of a clock called La Création du Monde, a masterpiece of the 18th century precision watchmaking offered to King Louis XV in 1754.
In addition to the workshops, the Abu Dhabi leg of the Vacheron Constantin New Releases Tour brought a series of watches of regional significance to the UAE. Among the pieces on display were an 18-karat rose gold wristwatch with a silver dial and monarchical emblems of Saudi Arabia. The watch was gifted to the former Chancellor of Geneva Adolphe Tombet by the late King of Saudi Arabia Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Another was a diamond-studded 18-karat yellow gold automatic wristwatch with a white dial with a crown at 12 o’clock, a special order from Jordan’s former ruler, King Hussein. “For us, it’s a big year in terms of what’s new, and the UAE has a special place in our heart,” says Ramel. “Vacheron Constantin has a long-standing relationship with the region and its collectors, and we have always tried to push the limits.
Updated: September 17, 2023, 4:02 a.m.
