Tiffany & Co. is paying tribute to its heritage with the new Eternity Enamel Clematis watch, inspired by an original Art Nouveau Tiffany lamp. Read on for more details about its design.
Read More: See Tiffany & Co.’s new Love & Celebration campaign starring Mikey Madison
In 1902, Louis Comfort Tiffany (son of Tiffany & Co. founder Charles Lewis Tiffany) established Tiffany Studios, an artistic enterprise full of skilled designers and craftspeople creating beautiful objects under his direction – exquisite glass vases, windows, vessels, ceramics and lamps full of colour and nature-inspired motifs that were a fine example of the Art Nouveau movement.
Rich, glossy hues and intricate patterns were formed by shaping shards of colourful glass and joining them with copper foil or lead, creating a signature aesthetic that makes these icons of design still highly sought-after today. Indeed, Tiffany lamps still regularly attract substantial bids – in 2018, a new world record was set when Tiffany’s ‘Pony Lily’ lamp sold for $3.4 million at a Christie’s auction.
Now, as a tribute to that long legacy of and craft Tiffany & Co. has revealed the new Tiffany Enamel Clematis watch, which takes creative cues from a Clematis hanging shade, produced by Tiffany Studios around 1906.
According to Tiffany & Co., the original lamp showcased a “a dense pattern of white and green flowers…complemented by a light green and blue background.” The house’s designers have translated this motif onto the dial of the new 36mm watch that features six delicate clematis flowers crafted in aquamarine and turquoise-coloured plique-à-jour enamel, which was applied over a background of snow-set diamonds.
The silhouette of each tiny blossom was first picked out in tiny 18K white gold wire, before being painstakingly hand-painted with enamel, with layer after layer of translucent colour being carefully built up to achieve the desired ‘glowing’ effect.
Created in champlevé enamel, other stylised blooms are scattered across the dial as if blown by the wind. In all, the dial components represented over 100 hours of work, with almost 30 dedicated to the snow-setting of the 432 diamonds alone, and 55 hours devoted to the dial’s careful enamelling and assembly.
Elsewhere, in a tribute to Tiffany & Co’s gem setting prowess, the bezel shimmers with 36 baguette-cut aquamarines, weighing almost five carats in total. A full-cut diamond sparkles in the crown in the house’s signature Tiffany setting, while the sides of the watch’s case are entirely snow-set and the 18K white gold buckle boasts 10 further diamonds.
Get your hands on the latest issue of Something About Rocks magazine
