TIMEly GEMS
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This year is seeing an expanded array of creative and colorful gem-set ladies’ timekeepers, ranging from trendy fashionable watches to highly bejeweled pieces to technically advanced instruments of time. And, while diamonds are the traditional favorites when it comes to decorating the dials, colored gemstones, such as rubies, sapphires, onyx and emeralds as well as the more exotic stones such as tsavorites and even the rare Paraiba tourmaline, are quickly gaining ground.
By Cynthia Unninayar |
Crafted from sections of pink sapphire taken from a single block, the case of Richard Mille’s Pink Lady Sapphire required 40 days of machining
and finishing. The new in-house CRMA5 automatic caliber is assembled around a skeletonized plate in micro-blasted 5N gold set with diamonds.
Keeping its technical complexity hidden, the Rubis Secret watch by Van Cleef & Arpels evokes the art of mystery thanks to a white gold plate on the inside of the bracelet. With Art Deco motifs,
it hides the jewelry structure while enabling light to filter through the diamonds and the 115 rubies (151.25 cts). An invisible hinge lets the side drawer open to reveal the dial when certain rubies are delicately pushed. It took more than one year to craft this timepiece.
Audemars Piguet’s Diamond Fury is an 18K gold carapace of brilliant-cut diamonds whose mysterious character is revealed via a secret panel which, when touched, subtly unclips to reveal the dial beneath. Taking over 1,500 hours of craftsmanship and 4,635 diamonds in the full diamond version, the piece is equipped with the quartz Caliber 2601.
In Cartier's Panthères et Colibri watch, a panther lies resting near a hummingbird. When the crown is pushed, a baby panther escapes its mother's paws to chase after the little bird. The mechanism is the brand's new Caliber 9915 MC. The time remaining for rewinding is indicated by the breadth of the hummingbird's flight.
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One of today's high-mech brands that has turned its attention to women's watches in a big way is Roger Dubuis. At the forefront of contemporary Haute Horlogerie since 1995, the brand proclaimed 2016 as the “Year of the Velvet Diva.” To celebrate the Diva, the brand unveiled five collections: Blossom Velvet, Velvet Ribbon, Black Velvet, Secret Heart, and Velvet by Massaro, which uses a special strap designed by the Italian shoe designer. Decorated with colorful enamel and diamonds, the watches evoke high watchmaking embodied in high jewelry. In describing the Blossom Velvet line, Product Design Director Lionel Favre explains, “this approach stems from a wish to create fascinating luminous effects when the light literally pours into the depths of the enamel and plays across the dial with every turn of the wrist.”
Van Cleef & Arpels continues its tradition of inventiveness and the fairylike quality of timekeeping with high jewelry watches and poetic complications. Using precious gems, from diamonds to colored gemstones, its pieces bring together the refinement of traditional crafts and technical sophistication to express the brand’s inspiration. One of its most unique pieces is the exceptional Rubis Secret watch bracelet set with diamonds and 115 dazzling rubies, weighing a total of 151.25 carats. Van Cleef & Arpels also introduced a number of visually and technically splendid complications, such as the Lady Arpels™ Jour Nuit Fée Ondine and the Ronde Papillon. As usual, Cartier presented a variety of sumptuous jewelry watches with various motifs, although this year, the emphasis was on the panther. A mainstay in the Cartier collection for over a hundred years, the wild cat adorns several new ladies’ jewelry timepieces for 2016, including a remarkable Ballon Bleu piece featuring a dial made of enamel granulation and two remarkable mysterious timekeepers. The brand also presented a lovely selection of one-of-a-kind timepieces as well as mystery timekeepers. Richard Mille, noted for its high-tech masculine pieces, had the ladies in mind with a truly remarkable watch whose sublime case is made of pink sapphire. Taking gem-set to the extreme, the entire case is carved from a block of the pink stone. Known for its high jewelry as well as watches, Piaget did not disappoint with its 2016 ladies’ collections. Among them is the ultra-thin 38-mm Altiplano, which, for the fifth consecutive year, highlights artistic skills. Among the featured pieces was the Yves Piaget rose introduced with two new techniques: wood/mother-of-pearl and wood marquetry and gold engraving. Among other brands with extraordinary feminine timekeepers is Audemars Piguet that introduced a number of stunning pieces in the Millenary line as well as its superb Diamond Fury timekeeper. Adding to its line of feminine timekeepers in the original Reverso line, the venerable Jaeger-LeCoultre has introduced the manually-winding Reverso One Duetto Moon that displays two faces representing two separate worlds. On the reverse side, it reveals the moon phase, with the mother-of-pearl lunar disc standing out against a spangled blue sky. In its “Overseas” collection, Vacheron Constantin showcased a lovely ladies’ diamond set automatic watch with a variety of interchangeable straps. While known for its advanced high-mech, high-tech pieces, Urwerk introduced two lovely diamond-set ladies’ timekeepers, UR-106 Lotus, featuring the brand’s signature satellite hours. Christophe Claret also made his feminine debut at SIHH with a new floral wonder that evokes mechanical virtuosity with flying butterflies. At the trendy and fashion-forward end of the ladies’ watch spectrum, Baume & Mercier expanded its Promesse line with Petite Promesse, a line of steel watches set with diamonds for the young and young at heart.
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