On the back of last year’s partnership announcement with the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art (The Met), Vacheron Constantin has expanded its celebrated Masterpiece on the Wrist program to offer a select number of clients to own a one-off timepiece inspired by some of The MET’s finest artworks.
The partnership between the iconic museum and the Swiss watchmaker was established in 2023, with the joint aim of safeguarding the future of artistic know-how and heritage crafts. As one of several collaborative projects planned by the duo, Masterpiece on the Wrist invites select friends of Vacheron Constantin to work closely with the brand to create a single-piece edition of the Les Cabinotiers watch.
Delving into The MET’s extensive archive, clients will be able to choose one of the museum’s masterpieces to be recreated, in miniature, in the form of an enamel watch face.
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To showcase how this vision can be brought to life, the Vacheron Constantin team has rendered four example watches, depicting Wheat Field with Cypresses by Vincent van Gogh, Bridge over a Pond of Water Liles by Claude Monet, Winslow Homer’s Northeaster and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s sculpture, Diana.
Utilizing a number of rare crafts, the Vacheron Constantin artisans are able to recreate these pieces to the highest degree of detail. Miniature enamel painting (a precise technique mastered by only a few around the world), for example, sees the artwork painted onto an enamel base layer, with successive layers and firings securing the color. A final transparent layer of enamel offers brilliant depth of color.
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Grisaille enameling, on the other hand, can be used to create the illusion of sculpture via its use of varying shades of gray which work to give the impression of depth.
As part of the commissioning process, the client will be invited to experience a curator-led private tour of The MET in order to guide their artwork selection. They will also have the opportunity to visit Vacheron Constantin’s Manufacture in Geneva to meet the team of highly skilled artisans who will create the unique watch.
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Once completed, the commissioning client will also receive a certificate of authentication from both Vacheron Constantin and The MET.
“The quest for excellence is a constant challenge in which we never stop learning,” said Louis Feral, CEO of Vacheron Constantin. “This multi-year partnership will focus on the values shared between the two institutions and will support combined ideas and efforts to engage the artistic and creative community. Continued learning, and support of the transmission of knowledge from master to apprentice, have been at the core of Vacheron Constantin since 1755.”
Over the course of their partnership, Vacheron Constantin and The MET will also work together on artist-in-residence programs and other educational initiatives.
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