Luxury watchmakers often like to refer to their creations as works of art.
A handful have taken this idea to its logical conclusion, introducing immaculately reproduced wrist-sized versions of old masters onto their dials, painted in enamel, by hand – which is about as ‘artisanal’ as you can get when it comes to creating a watch.
The artistically-inclined watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre, famous for its flippable Reverso watch, set a high bar in 2021, when it released a trio of watches paying tribute to ‘lost’ masterpieces by Vincent Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt and Gustave Courbet, featuring tiny reproductions of paintings by those masters on its dials, recreated in extraordinary detail in a limited run of 10 each. (In fact, J-LC has been using the ‘reverse’ side of its watches to paint just about anything its well-heeled customers have requested for years. It employs at least half-a-dozen enamel artists in its Le Sentier, Switzerland HQ, able to whip up a micro version of Katsushika Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawaor Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, should such an order come in.)
Patek Philippe has produced miniature enamel dials depicting famous landmarks like St. Pierre Cathedral in Switzerland and various reproductions of birds and flowers by the 19th century Japanese artist Ohara Koson, a great status statement in Japan.
Now the watchmaker Vacheron Constantin has handed the curation of its dials over to its customers in a unique way – allowing them to commission a one-off watch from its Les Cabinotiers department, dedicated to unique and mind-bogglingly luxurious watches, featuring a reproduction of any piece of artwork currently hanging in Paris’ Louvre Museum.
The purchaser also gets a private tour of the Museum included – which seems fair enough – as well as the chance to visit Vacheron’s team to witness their one-off watch being created.
Choosing quite which artwork to go for may require some consideration.
The Louvre contains some 35,000 individual pieces of art. If you spent 30 seconds studying each one, it would take you six-and-a-half months to go round the lot.
Perhaps sir would plump for The Raft of the Medusa, the 19th Century masterpiece by the French romantic painter Théodore Géricault, reduced to a 3.3cm scale reproduction? Or The Wedding Feast at Cana, Paolo Veronese’s 1563 depiction of the biblical story of the Wedding at Cana, the event where Jesus famously transformed water into wine? And who could resist Liberty Leading The People, the stirringly great painting by Eugėne Delacroix, commemorating the July Revolution of 1830?
Each artwork can be reproduced within an 18K pink gold case, measuring 40mm, wuth the watch being presented on a brown leather alligator strap.
The only off-limits painting, apparently for copyright reasons – and who among us would opt for something so blindingly obvious, anyway? – is the Mona Lisa.
Vacheron Constantin has an ongoing relationship with The Louvre. An official partnership began in 2019. It has auctioned off watches to raise funds for the Museum, installed video tutorials, supported an educational programme and even restored one of its clocks.
In 2022, it produced a quartet of limited-edition watches inspired by ‘four great civilisations’ representative of the Louvre Museum.
The watchmaker, founded back in the 18th Century, has arguably more claim to high art than anyone.
The levels of precious materials, hours of manpower and spectacular dial work involved in its watches make many of them as collectable as art. One of the company’s taglines is ‘One Of Not Many’.
“I am delighted with this collaboration, which is full of fruitful exchanges between our teams and marked by a shared desire to serve beauty,” comments Laurence des Cars, president and director of The Louvre.
“Born in the Age of Enlightenment, our two institutions share the mission of passing on a passion for art, heritage and the excellence of ancestral craftsmanship. While firmly rooted in history, they are resolutely open to the contemporary world.”
Each ‘masterpiece on your wrist’ watch commission is expected to take around a year to create, while you can expect prices to be on the high side – a one-off Vacheron Constantin ‘Homage to Pierre Paul Rubens’ – featuring the Flemish painter’s La Lutte pour L'Étendard da la Bataille d’Anghiari – was auctioned in 2020, and went for €250,000.
