One of the fascinating aspects of horology is not only its historical, technical and aesthetical sophistication, but also its natural association with complementary arts. One brand that traditionally understood this connection was
Blancpain, who already presented a great number of fantastically crafted timepieces. Many of them featured ancient Asian, often Japanese, techniques, owing to the personal connection their CEO Marc Hayek has with this region.
During BaselWorld, we had the chance to appreciate this unique version of the
Villeret Ultra Slim adorned with an
Mexican silver obsidian dial with a
Rokushō-patinised golden wave sculpture:
The
Rokushō technique (緑青) used by Blancpain is in fact a very time-consuming one, involving several steps to achieve the desired lucid effect. The wave applique starts life as a piece of
Shakudō (赤銅), which essentially is an alloy of copper and gold (the latter typically less than 10%), which is inherently amenable for further coloration. Japanese artisans, but also those in the Mediterranean, have tradtionally used the material for small ornaments - for larger ones the costly gold content was prohibitive.
The Shakudō is sculptured into a lively breaking wave shape, inspired by the
Great Wave of Kanagawa, a Japanese woodblock print created by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist
Hokusai:
The wave is finally patinised in a solution made with Rokushō salts, and then applied on the obsidian dial, a semi-transparent volcanic rock:
Blancpain made the wise decision to mount such an artwork into the most restrained case they have, the elegant
Villeret , here crafted from Platinum, with its famous double-rim bezel. The manufacture calls this watch
ultra-slim, but you need to allow them some degree of editorial freedom as the watch is a solid 10.55 mm thick (diameter: 42 mm):
For its
Métiers d’Art watches Blancpain has chosen a special variant of its beautiful manual-wound 8-days movement, the
Cal. 13R3A, which characterised by its power reserve indicator on the back:
That way you don't mess up the dial side but still provide the essential information on winding state, which I would not like to miss on a manual movement with well over a week of autonomy.
Strapping it on, using the factory-supplied very retentive calf-skin strap, one is completely mesmerised by its sheer elegance, yet powerful appearance. Rarely do you see a timepiece where exceptional artisanship is presented in such an unassuming way!
In my book, this watch is one clear winner of this year's BaselWorld vintage!
For more on
Ref. 6612-3433-63AB, please refer to Blancpain's website
here !
Thanks for reading,
Magnus