Vacheron Constantin has unveiled a collection of six Métiers d’Art Tribute watches which take inspiration from the animal kingdom.
Employing six different craftspeople from outside the feel of horology, the collection is an attempt to push the boundaries of watchmaking with the manufacturing process employing new tools and techniques.
Each of the six watches is rooted in an individual craft: gold embroidery, feather work, wood marquetry, glass sculpting, paper sculpting, and micro-origami, with all inspired by a different aspect of the animal kingdom.
While each watch features some radically different features, they are all united by two distinct features – all six contain a 22 karat gold oscillating weight on a 42mm case and the Calibre 2460 G4 movement.
The first watch in the collection is inspired by the feather snake and is appropriately crafted with featherwork, which is used to create the serpent boldly featured on the dial. The 3-D effect is also achieved by using a specially developed metal applique which also supplies support to the feathers. The snake is made up of more than 200 tiny pieces from seven rare Lophophore feathers, a bird found in the Himalayas, while the eye of the creature is formed from 18 karat gold and enamel. In total, around 250 man hours were needed to complete the watch.
Glass was the material used on the second watch, which takes inspiration from the octopus. Featuring a dial background that is composed of a hand-guilloché gold base coated with a dark blue colour, a miniscule glass octopus appears 3.5mm off the face. Employing a new technique because of the tiny size of the octopus, the intricate process meant every tentacle and sucker had to be individually made leading to a year-long development process and many different prototypes before the final version was selected.
The Japanese art of origami powered the design of the third watch which features manta rays appearing to swim across a deep blue dial. Each of the manta rays are also a different length, between 5mm and 10mm, with the individual fish folded from dyed Japanese paper and then placed on brass stems to give the impression they’re floating in the water. Because of how small the mata rays had to be, one could take up to six hours to fold.
A gold tiger is the centrepiece of the fourth watch in the collection. Gold embroidery is not a technique often employed in horology but the tiger on the watch was crafted out of 9 karat yellow and white gold embroidery wires while the animal’s stripes were created using specially developed ceramic coated black wires on a copper base. The base of the dial, befitting the tiger’s jungle habitat, is green silk stitched onto a titanium plate.
The penultimate watch honouring the vastness of the animal kingdom features an all-white crocodile made from paper. Achieved through microscopic paper sculpting as well as embossing, laser cutting and hand assembly, the crocodile is only 3mm in height and required months of experimentation to make the crocodile look alive bit not interfere with the watch’s mechanics.
The final watch in the collection features a wooden falcon. Made from fifteen different types of wood, the hand-sculpted bird takes flight over a layered background, achieved using marquetry. It was not possible to make the falcon in a size suitable for the watch using traditional woodwork techniques and tools with the craftspeople having to resort to using scalpels usually reserved for surgery as well as custom sanding instruments.
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