Art Attack

Mix and Match

Watchmakers are getting more creative with combining different techniques too. For instance Van Cleef and Arpels’ 2013 novelties focused on Extraordinary Dials, featuring enamel in all its forms; from champlevé – where troughs are carved onto the metal and then filled with translucent enamel – to pailonné, where the layers of enamel are applied to fine sheets of silver or gold. There’s also plique-à-jour, which creates a stained glass effect, as well as painting and sculpting of mother-of-pearl, lapis lazuli and gold.

Its latest addition to its Poetic Complications line is the Lady Arpels Enchanted Ballerina, where time is represented through a double retrograde movement indicated by the movement of a ballerina’s skirt. The dancer is delicately detailed using champlevé enamelling, and at a push of a button, her tutu – made of a light metal alloy – rises up in two sections, left to indicate the hours and then right to show the minutes, before they float down again.

Vacheron Constantin dedicated this year’s collection to women, with the aim of having their women’s selections be comparable to the men’s in quality and variety. It comes up with a métiers d’art line each year, and this time it's inspired by the illustrations in the book The Temple of Flora, published by English botanist Robert John Thornton in 1799. Three distinct floral motifs are featured, involving various forms of enamelling, guillochage and gem setting.

The Florilège collection: The Queen, White Lily and China Limodoron are beautifully rendered, with a delicate play on transparency that the craftsmen at Vacheron Constantin seem to have mastered. The watches are equipped with the handwound calibre 4400 with a power reserve of 65 hours, housed in a 37mm case in 18k gold. The watches come in a limited series of 25 per dial design, 20 with round diamonds on the bezel, and five with baguette-cut diamonds. All bear the hallmark of Geneva.