As a tribute to tradition, culture, and the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead, Pierre and Jean-Claude Biver have decided to create in collaboration with Joel Niño —a Mexican artist—, a unique timepiece for the Salón Internacional de Alta Relojería —SIAR— to be held in Mexico City from October 17th to the 19th, 2023. This unique piece is called La Danse du Temps —The Dance of Time— and it comes seven months after the release of the first piece from this new brand launched by watch industry maven and veteran Jean-Claude Biver and his son Pierre.
For the SIAR, the unique piece is the same Carillon Tourbillon Minute Repeater as their first timepiece and is the first to be released in 18K rose gold and fitted with an onyx dial, featuring sandblasted motifs representing the traditional Mexican papel picado —a traditional Mexican decorative craft made by cutting elaborate designs into sheets of tissue paper.
Photo: Arturo Ochoa — Unsplash
The dial features hand-engraved rose gold appliques representing one of Mexico’s most famous symbols, the Calaveras —skeletons— inspired by those of Diego Rivera and in particular his emblematic Catrina —a female Calavera.
The Biver La Danse Du Temps is equipped with a case measuring 42 mm in diameter with a matching bracelet in 18K rose gold and powered by the automatic calibre JCB.001-B with micro-rotor. The movement fully visible via the display case back is composed of 390 parts, 44 jewels, and provides a power reserve of 72 hours.
The Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead is an irreplaceable tradition and has the particularity of giving a positive approach to death and the afterlife. This is why skeletons are always painted with a smile or a joyful action, the idea of which has been taken up on the dial of this unique piece: the dancing couple symbolizes eternal love.
Moreover, the Day of the Dead is considered a celebration of memory, a ritual that privileges remembering over forgetting. Similarly, as Jean-Claude Biver explains, the complication, through its vibration by means of the carillon, the beauty of mastering the invisible and fidelity to the mechanical watchmaking tradition, allows the soul of the piece to be born, to reach eternity, just as the Mexicans keep their ancestors and traditions alive through the Day of the Dead.
In this way, Pierre and Jean-Claude Biver have succeeded in uniting watchmaking tradition and Mexican tradition in a unique timepiece that pays tribute to high horology and Mexican culture through eternity.
Sticker Price CHF 620,000 Swiss Francs —approximately $680,000 USD. For more info on Biver watches click here.
