bernard cheong
7182
Vianney Halter matures in his next phase...
Before I begin, I was sorely tempted to post this at the Harry Winston forum as another of my "contests"...ahhh sigh!
But what the heck....here goes!
I rushed down to the retailer when I heard that 3, yes just 3 of maybe the entire 2004 allocation of Classic Vianney Halters arrived on Monday!
As you all know, I am avidly studying Vianney's work as he matures and develops his particular style thru these early years as both an artist and watchmaker.
So far, like architecture and pottery, the early practioners were not artists or creatively orientated, but more technically inclined....their works were technical expressions.
Marc Newson tried entering the watchmaking scenes as a designer with reasonable success with the Seaslug, but Newson was NOT a watchmaker.
Vianney is probably the only and first creatively inclined and artistic watch maker in this century, and the previous one too....that is why I am so damned excited by his work! He is no case designer or fancy jewelery man...he is , if you examine his work, a true watchmaker artist...from movement to case, and his work has a raw beauty with a slightly human/organic feel....totally different from the highly finished and fine execution of the plateworks seen in Dufour and some others.
In fact, I am totally fascinated by the raw organic aspects of all his designs, the fingerprints are consistently there from Classic to Antiqua to Goldpfeil and finally to Opus3 this year.
The Antiqua, Opus3 and Goldpfeil jumping hour are the first independant works to boggle the world's collective minds, however like all artists, these works were made with minimal financial constraints and therefore out of reach of most collectors both in rarity and costs.
Here, in looking at the only affordable piece he makes..the Classic which is the MOST RESTRAINED of his creations...we can see the growth and maturity of his work over the last 2 years.
We can compare the evolution of the plate works and movement changes.
The first is my personal watch, the original Classic as seen here:
Next, the present day Classic, can you spot the differences and number them???
And this one, the original old:
And the new!:
I admire the new plate architecture and the expanded top plates with the curves vs the younger more dynamic, but agressive cut of the older version...it is like looking at the potter's later vases vs the ones he made as a younger man.
Enjoy, watchmaking has been given a son that has brought sculpture and art to its hallways...the time has come.
