Established in 2023, the partnership between Vacheron Constantin and The Metropolitan Museum of Art —The MET— was created with the long-term vision of safeguarding and passing on knowledge and expertise. The ‘Masterpiece on your Wrist’ program offers Vacheron Constantin’s clients the possibility of creating a single-piece edition Les Cabinotiers watch, the dial of which will feature an enamel reproduction of an artwork chosen by the client.
The program now offers works from The MET’s collection, such as masterpieces by Claude Monet, Winslow Homer, Vincent van Gogh, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The ‘Masterpiece on your Wrist’ program offers clients a unique experience when commissioning their piece unique, including a private tour of The MET in the company of its expert curators, as well as a visit to Vacheron Constantin’s Manufacture in Geneva.
The partnership between Vacheron Constantin and The MET —The Metropolitan Museum of Art—, launched in 2023, is rooted in a shared commitment to safeguarding and passing on knowledge and expertise. Both institutions individually have extensive histories of conservatorship in artistic know-how and craft, and together seek to share in this commitment to the arts.
For Louis Ferla, CEO of Vacheron Constantin, "the quest for excellence is a constant challenge in which we never stop learning.”
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.
The ‘Masterpiece on Your Wrist Program’ was Initially launched in 2019 offering connoisseurs the unique opportunity to realize a bespoke unique piece edition watch, featuring an enamel dial reproduction of a masterwork housed in the world’s preeminent museums. The partnership with The Metropolitan Museum of Art now broadens this offering, bringing iconic and beloved pieces into the program’s catalog. The ‘Masterpiece on Your Wrist Program’ offers unique pieces from the Métiers d'Art department including Miniature Enamel Painting and Grisaille Enameling.
Miniature Enamel Painting
Miniature Enamel Painting is an exceedingly rare craft, mastered by only a select few artisans worldwide. This technique consists of hand-painting in minutia a desired artwork or motif onto a base layer of baked enamel. Applied in individual thin layers by color, the paint is fixed in place by successive firings. Once the painting is complete, the artisan protects the work with a transparent enamel flux to give it both brilliance and depth. Unlike other techniques, Miniature Painting is perfect for reproducing dramatic details, movement, and colors due to its unique ability to imitate the brushstrokes and impasto depth of classical paintings. Miniature Enamel Painting is the perfect technique for realizing masterworks such as Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies by Claude Monet (1899), Northeaster by Winslow Homer (1895 reworked by 1901), and Wheat Field with Cypresses by Vincent van Gogh (1889).
Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1899
This example features a detail from an oil painting by Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) representing the wooden footbridge over his famed water-lily pond in Giverny. A passionate horticulturist, Monet purchased the land in 1893 to build something "for the pleasure of the eye and also for motifs to paint." This painting in The MET collection is part of a series of views of the bridge and pond. It gives prominence to the water lilies and their reflections on the pond thanks to its vertical format.
Northeaster, Winslow Homer, 1895 reworked by 1901
This example features a detail of Northeaster, one of Winslow Homer’s (American, 1836–1910) seascapes painted at Prout’s Neck, Maine, where he lived and worked in the last decades of his life. Homer studied the rugged coast and churning ocean across the seasons, in varying conditions and at different times of day, painting a series of images that conveyed the timeless power and majesty of the sea. Critics admired this rendering of a particularly fierce winter storm for its “large atmosphere of great natural spaces unmarked by the presence of puny man.”
Wheat Field with Cypresses, Vincent van Gogh, 1889
This example features a detail of a masterpiece painted in oil on canvas by the famous artist Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) shortly after he took refuge at the asylum in Saint-Rémy in 1889. Setting up his easel in the Provençal countryside, he captured the towering cypresses that hold forth over golden windswept fields of wheat, the swaying olive trees, the Alpilles mountains, and clouds swirling in the skies. He regarded it as one of his “best” summer landscapes and repeated the composition in a summer drawing and two later paintings made in his studio that fall.
Grisaille Enameling
The Grisaille Enameling is a monochromatic technique often employed due to its unrivaled ability to suggest depth, luminosity, and dimensionality. Grisaille is the perfect technique to create the illusion of sculpture, especially relief, due to the shading achieved in the process. Grisaille begins with a dark enamel base, usually black, as a background upon which the master artisan builds up translucent layers of Limoges white — a pasty white enamel— to obtain varying shades of grey. Each successive layer builds up a chiaroscuro effect, the representation of light and shadow as they define three-dimensional objects, to suggest to the viewer an object in space. Grisaille enameling is the perfect technique for reproducing masterworks such as Diana by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1893-94).
Diana, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1893-94
This example features a detail from Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s (American, 1848–1907) gilded bronze sculpture Diana which depicts the Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt about to release her arrow. For his only female nude, Saint-Gaudens accentuated the figure’s simple, elegant lines and strong silhouette. The MET sculpture is a half-size model of a 13-foot-high Diana that was on top of Madison Square Garden’s tower from 1893 until the building was demolished in 1925. Saint-Gaudens capitalized on the fame of this iconic New York landmark by producing reductions in various heights.
As a part of the ‘Masterpiece on your Wrist’ experience, the commissioning client will have the opportunity to experience a private tour of The MET in the company of its experts and curators, to guide the selection of their Masterwork, as well as a visit to Vacheron Constantin’s Manufacture in Geneva to meet the master watchmakers and artisans who will undertake the project. The culmination of this process will result in a piece unique watch, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from both the museum and Vacheron Constantin, reflecting the taste and interests of its commissioner and offering a daily view of a masterpiece.
The different watches are powered by calibres including the manual wound Vacheron Constantin Calibre 2755 TMR —Minute Repeater, Power Reserve, Tourbillon, Hours, minutes and small seconds on Tourbillon—, the manual wound in-house Minute Repeater Calibre 1731 developed and manufactured by Vacheron Constantin, and the automatic self-winding in-house Calibre 2460 SC with hours, minutes and central seconds, and which is equipped with a special 22K pink gold oscillating weight engraved with The MET façade.
For more info on Vacheron Constantin click here and for The MET here.
