Vacheron Constantin adds to its stunning Metiers d’Art collection with these beautiful “La symbolique des laques” watches, a tribute to traditional Japanese lacquered art.
Each set of three features a Japanese-inspired pairing of animal with plant on the black lacquered face. Each face opens at the centre to reveal a hand-wound movement with two tiny hands that indicate time only by position.
The lacquer work is undertaken by a Japanese company that has been in business since the mid-17th century. Known as Maki-e, the most sophisticated technique of lacquering, it is practiced by only a few rare craftsmen. The term literally means “sprinkled picture.” It consists of creating a design by sprinkling gold or silver dust over lacquer – usually black – while it is still wet.
The lacquer is made from the sap of the lacquer tree, Rhus verniciflua, which originated on the high plateaus of central Asia and Tibet but today grows only in southern China, Vietnam and Japan. Maki-e developed very early in Japanese history. It fully matured as an art form between the 8th and 12th centuries, becoming the predominant method of decoration beginning in the seventeenth century and remaining so to this day.
True to the spirit of the Métiers d’Art collection, the “La Symbolique des Laques” series was created over three years; each year saw a new set of three watches in a limited series of twenty.
Kame Kaeru Koi watches
This year the “Kame Kaeru Koi” watches, dedicated to the aquatic realm, present animals selected from the vast symbolic legacy of Far Eastern artistic traditions.
Incarnations of longevity, luck and strength, the turtle, frog and carp. No fewer than four months were required to make each one.
Each animal lends a powerfully symbolic face to the passing of time orchestrated by the skeletonised version of the ultra-thin Calibre 1003. Calibre 1003 is the world’s thinnest hand-wound mechanical movement, at only 1.64 mm thick. It was designed, developed and manufactured entirely within Vacheron Constantin’s workshops.
If you are lucky enough to get your hands on one of these strictly limited edition watches it will set you back US$228,000 but is destined to give you a lifetime of pleasure.
