The Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art Villes Lumières Collection

The new Métiers d’Art Villes Lumières collection is an invitation to embark upon a nocturnal journey above cities bubbling with creativity.

On dials draped with an enamelled base in deep shades, a wide variety of powders creates a bird’s eye view miniature tableau of these sprawling urban expanses. Traditional Grand Feu champlevé enamelling mingles with hand-applied precious powder, an art never yet used in Fine Watchmaking. The striking and realistic beauty of these Hallmark of Geneva certified timepieces opens up whole new artistic and creative horizons, where traditional skills are constantly nurtured by fresh influences.

The Maison has dreamed up a sparkling encounter between two exceptional arts: Grand Feu champlevé enamelling, a skill passed on for almost three centuries by the Vacheron Constantin artisans; and hand-applied precious powder, a technique mastered by Japanese guest artist Yoko Imai. This is the very first time that this technique has been used on a watch dial to which particles of gold, pearl, platinum and diamond powder are meticulously distilled one by one, endowing the enamel with exceptional radiance. The bright dots of light, placed with the greatest precision, compose a portrait of these broad and majestic urban landscapes. The light effects play across these strikingly realistic roads, rivers and famous landmarks.

Certified by the prestigious Hallmark of Geneva, the Métiers d’Art Villes Lumières watches beat to the rhythm of a mechanical Manufacture Vacheron Constantin calibre graced with refined finishing, in accordance with traditional Fine Watchmaking techniques. The first models in this new collection are dedicated to the nocturnal magic of Geneva, Paris New York and Beijing. As time goes by, this night-flight will continue over other cities.

An enduring vocation for artistic crafts
The Métiers d’Art Villes Lumières collection perpetuates the age-old Vacheron Constantin tradition of artistic crafts. In 1755, the very first known watch by the founder of the Maison, Jean-Marc Vacheron, already featured delicate engraved arabesque motifs. Ever since, for almost three centuries, gem setters, enamellers, guillocheurs and engravers have been cultivating and passing on these forms of expertise that have become extremely rare. Today as yesterday, over the years and in step with successive creations, their dexterity has given life to masterpieces of the watchmaking art.

These decorative skills have acquired the habit of echoing each other, combining their techniques with art and creativity on watch dials, and often adopting the spirit of lesser known and surprising arts such as illumination, Japanese lacquer, glyptics or gemstone cloisonné effects. In keeping with this tradition, the Métiers d’Art Villes Lumières collection enables Vacheron Constantin to explore new, contemporary and innovative expressive territory for artistic crafts.

Aerial perspective
Vacheron Constantin has depicted major cities – notably renowned for their artistic influence – through their nocturnal panorama. Individually applying precious powder particles naturally implies extreme dexterity, and doing so on the surface of a watch involves the additional constraint of defining an ideal altitude for each city so as to convey realistically the emotional impact of its urban outlines. The miniature tableaus that Yoko Imai has composed faithfully reproduce the real ‘light cartography’ of the cities, with their various sorts of light, such as variously animated districts and even traffic density! This incredibly meticulous work on the map of each city called for several weeks of research and trials on various base materials.

Grand Feu enamelling
For each of the dials, the Vacheron Constantin master enameller first examined the possibilities afforded by champlevé in order to highlight the shapes of the streets, gardens and stretches of water. After hollowing out the gold dial by hand according to the chosen outlines, he then applied successive layers of translucent coloured enamels. Between each coating, the dial is fired at the extremely high temperature of 850°C. These crucial and delicate stages, masterfully guided by intuition and governed by stringent discipline acquired over time, enable the powdered glass mixed with colouring oxides to be melted, transformed and then vitrified by cooling – with the inevitable risk that the dial may crack or flaws may form. In the Métiers d’Art Villes Lumières collection, the master enameller has taken up the additional challenge of composing subtly translucent and dark shades in order to reproduce the singular night-time atmosphere.