Horological Meandering

Van Cleef & Arpels SIHH 2011 Novetly Event in Tokyo

 

I attended a wonderful event of Van Cleef & Arpels SIHH 2011 Novelty Event titled "Art on Dial".  Although I was not originally invited, I was able to sneak in, thanks to Chronos Japan and VC&A Japan staff.  Thank you very much!

My honest reaction is that I am ashamed of my own ignorance about VC & A horological history and technology behind these beautiful artistic masterpieces.  They are not only beautiful, but also technologically very challenging.

Since long time ago (VC & A celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 2005), VC & A has been making watches.  Historically (not necessarily today) ladies want jewelry and gentlemen want to buy them jewelry, of course, and gentlemen want something for themselves, too.  They ask VC & A to make watches for them.  VC & A asks what kind?  What type?  What concept?  Gentlemen think of story along with the jewelry they want to buy for their ladies.  And that is the start of VC & A's watch making - they were all made to order with concept and story of each client.  Then VC & A searches and finds a watchmaker or watchmakers and other suppliers who can make the story into reality.  This continues today... let us see how it is today.


I. "Les Voyages Extraordinaires"
This year's theme or concept for "Poetry of Time" continues its adventure inspired by Jules Verne "Les Voyages Extraordinaires".  Apologies for not-so-great photos due to poor lighting and my skill.  Some of the notes are quoted from VC & A press release for SIHH 2011.

Beautifully crafted box for FOUR special pieces - LE of only 22 sets.

Midnight Les 4 Voyages
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
The eye slowly descends from the shimmering blue at the surface of the water to the dark blue in the sombre depths. A man in a diving suit is exploring the contours of the sea floor.
Case in white gold. Translucent paillonné enamel. Movement 800P automatic. Strap in alligator leather with folding clasp. Limited edition of 22 pieces.

Midnight Les 4 Voyages
Five weeks in a Balloon
A balloon rises into the sky and prepares to fly over a snow covered mountain peak. In the lower part of the dial, a rhinoceros crosses the savannah. The whole enamelled background is created in a subtle cameo of greens.
Case in white gold. Translucent paillonné enamel. Movement 800P automatic. Strap in alligator leather with folding clasp. Limited edition of 22 pieces.

Midnight Les 4 Voyages
A Journey to the Center of the Earth
The ochre tones of the enamelled decor evoke the Earth and the elemental forces at work in its core. The voyage begins, as in Jules Verne’s novels, at the foot of the erupting volcano in the centre of the dial.
Case in white gold. Translucent paillonné enamel. Movement 800P automatic. Strap in alligator leather with folding clasp. Limited edition of 22 pieces.

Midnight Les 4 Voyages
From the Earth to the Moon
The background of the dial in dark blue enamel evokes the infinity of space where, as night falls, the stars, planets and comets appear.
Case in white gold. Translucent paillonné enamel. Movement 800P automatic. Strap in alligator leather with folding clasp. Limited edition of 22 pieces.

II. "Five Weeks in a Balloon "
This is the "Poetic Complication" series and again from the novel by Jules Verne.

From press release - "White gold case. Dial : champlevé enamel and mother-of-pearl.  Engraving on the caseback. Alligator strap. White gold buckle.  Mechanical movement, Retrograde Hours and Minutes.  Numbered edition."

And you want to see how it actually moves, right?  Here you go.





III. The stages of the Balloon voyage - Extraordinary Dials
The adventure of the balloon journey continues.  The balloon travels for five weeks and visits mane places.  Let's see where it goes.  As a side note, the gift for the SIHH visitors this year and for the guests of this event was telescope.  Why?  Because you would need it when you go to the journey on a balloon! 

Africa

Antarctica

IV. The Event

The setting in the Peninsula Tokyo.  Please remember the watch "Fairy" on the left.  Will be further explored later.

Welcome speech by Mr. Vincent Nelias, Sales Director of VC & A Japan - who actually is very fluent in Japanese but spoke in French this time.  I am always impressed with Richemont Group representative's language skills.  When in Rome, do as Romans do.....

Also welcome speech by Mr. Matsuzaki of Chronos Japan.  Thank you for letting me in, Matsuzaki-san!

Mr. HIrota gives lecture about the watchmaking of VC & A.  Very interesting and easy to understand, as usual.

Ms. Dominique Baron of L'Atelier who supplies Enamel Dial to VC & A.  The collaboration between Ms. Baron and VC & A started in 2005 when VC & A asked her to make 100th Anniversary watch dial and has been working together ever since.  She gave a little lecture on enamel making.

Enamel powder has to be further ground to finer and finer for actual use.... 

A microscope is used to make such masterpieces....

On screen.

Just showing how it is "baked"

Now, this is small!

Samples (see those dials in the actual watches below).

V. Other watches at the Event

Poetic Complications Collection

Titled "Midnight in Paris"

Shows the midnight sky in Paris.  What is the complication?  This dial ROTATES in 365 DAYS!
Needless to say, to rotate the entire dial is not an easy task.  VC & A watches are backed by tremendous technology.

And this is the ONLY timepiece of VC & A that shows the movement - simply in order to adjust the today's date.
You can order whatever city version of this, e.g. Midnight in Hong Kong, and they will calibrate the dial for your city.

VI. Special

Fairy

Similar to "Five Weeks in a Balloon", this is retrograde minute and hour.  But normal retrograde mechanism is not strong enough to move heavy hands such as these (WG + Diamonds).  The God of retrograde - see Don's post here home.watchprosite.com - made it possible.  Like mentioned above, the concept and story comes first, then VC & A searches and finds the right partner to make it reality.

Okay, here is how it moves.




Pont des Amoureux



Very nice and cute watch.  Similar to some others already explained, this, too, is retrograde hour and minute watch.  A lady walk up the bridge in 12 hours while a gentleman does every 60 minutes with flower hiding behind him.

What is the most challenging aspect of this dial is the moment when they meet and kiss at around 12:00.  Without any special mechanism, these two get closest and kiss, but just for one brief instant moment and at the next moment they get separated - both jumps back to the bottom of the bridge.  How did the "retrograde genius" do again?  They incorporated a mechanism in which a "hook" of the gentleman catches the lady under the bridge at 11:50 so that they don't get separated easily, and they continue to kiss from 11:59 to 12:00 (or from 12:00 to 12:01?) for one full minute.

Let's take a look.




This report has become unexpectedly long and a modem burner.  Hope you enjoy as much as I did the event.

Lastly, but not the least, thank you very much, VC & A Japan team, Chronos Japan, and Ms. Baron & L'Atelier

Thank you for reading.

Best,
Ken
This message has been edited by KIH on 2011-02-11 06:08:44