The world of watches can be interesting.
We will be in order to card Russell or Tourbillon who is more serious debate for decades, fans will stand firm in order to two major brands of diving watches, but there will be the same master for several top brands to make enamel watches, and the same year by the two major brands to break the family consensus.
Van Cleef & Arpels has been called the vanguard of 21st century enamel watches. Sometimes, the traditional Swiss watchmaking industry is very interesting to the equally traditionalist Chinese.
On the one hand, they are conservative in tradition and pay attention to the generation and inheritance of teachers, and all kinds of legendary stories about teachers are talked about. On the other hand, they are surprisingly open to some things, such as the same master’s enamel works can be launched by two major brands in the same year.
I do appreciate this endearing stubbornness, because it suggests that in the traditional Swiss watch industry, family differences have more to do with the worship of craftsmanship itself than with a sense of self-deprecation.
It is also indirectly understandable why the universal movement’s role in the Swiss watchmaking boom has been “great”.
Roger dubuis much more watch dial is the combination of complex curved surface, such as chassis when burning enamel easy to result in failure because of uneven stress dispersion, so the yield is low [page] after this year’s Basel, watch of wrist of critics, and the time of fashion editor pan arrows will said to the reporter, he was impressed with the exhibition on the window,
Micro-painted enamel watches by Hermes and Chanel, also by enamel master Anita Porchet.
Her pocket watches for Hermes incorporate the technique of “gold sprinkling,” in which tiny gold particles naturally “float” in transparent enamel;
And Chanel “screen” enamel table, with Coco lady boudoir screen for the theme, ink charm incisively and vividly like “Suzhou embroidery”.
The renowned enamel master has worked with top brands including Count (the first to collaborate with Ainta, according to the collector), Patek Philippe, Vacheron Verdant, Cartier, Hermes, and many more.
For the first time, Patek Philippe even allowed her to put her name on the surface.
Watch collectors will happily share that, in addition to Ainta’s own talents, the century-old enamel glazes and painting tools she inherited from her celebrated master Suzanne Rohr are also one of the reasons why her work is known for its “unusual jewel glow”.
Of course, anyone who tells this story will not forget the final note that Suzanne Rohr’s master was the famous Carlo Poluzzi, another leading figure in Geneva enamel painting.
The allusions of the great masters are always the most attractive.
A few days ago in a small watch exhibition, “Chronos watch” publisher, chief editor Ding Zhixiang is also saying that the enamel made with glass powder is less and less now, only a few masters can make, others can only be replaced with more easily controlled mineral powder, but the finished product effect has not that kind of transparent feeling, it is very regrettable.
Large open fire enamel, the special point is to control the firing between 820¡æ and 850¡æ behind the magnificent sand into gold. Now we all know that enamel is expensive, a piece of enamel watch, at any time hundreds of thousands of people yuan yuan.
It definitely has something to do with the master.
However, it is not just the consumption of master title history, but the enamel itself is a very high threshold skill.
I know what is involved in the harmony of man and nature is very easy to visual boring, so I decided to tell you, now become your price looks fine arts and crafts exquisite luxuriant enamel, actually the most original form, is also a heap of quartz (silica), feldspar, borax etc silicate material (that is, common rock), you can call Jane: grains of sand.
When they are attached to the surface of pottery or porcelain, they are called “glaze”; WHEN they are attached to architectural tiles, they are called “glaze”; and when they are attached to metal surfaces, they are called “enamel”.
When mixed with different metal oxides, they appear in different bright colors, such as yellow, green and brown from iron, fiery red from iodine, blue, green and red from copper, and black and purple from manganese.
[page] Technology is not universal, and master craftsmanship can not be easily replaced by machines.
With a history of hundreds of years, enamel has developed so far, and there are no more than ten top enamel masters recognized in the industry.
An enamel dial, on the other hand, needs to be carefully filled and fired dozens of times, experiencing a high risk of damage, before it can become a strong color and never fade enamel, presenting a variety of delicate forms, such as translucent, gradient, famous paintings and micro paintings.
Dial masters attach great importance to enamel quality and detail, so it is possible to make out of five or more dial faces, can only pick out a satisfactory dial, continue the next process.
Throughout the process, even the smallest flaws will lead to the waste of previous work: once there are particles or cracks, the dial must be scrapped.
So again skilled technicians, drawing such a small disk, often also spend hundreds of hours.
Even with the top brand of craft masters, the annual production is only a few dozen.
Count Phoenix watch, fill in the enamel with a fine brush, use the technique of plique a jours to become transparent enamel without tangling the Chinese style of enamel watch, you can not open China.
Who let China is “porcelain” country, and famous at home and abroad a big craft, is cloisonne?
A large number of enamel clock antique collections in the Qing Palace prove that the royal family and bureaucrats in the late Qing Dynasty had become big buyers of Western clocks and watches over a hundred years ago, and the colorful enamel has almost become the unified standard of “Chinese market watches”.
However, many top watch brands love enamel watch, and continue to launch enamel craft watch, is this the embodiment of the Chinese style?
The nation began to struggle.
The positive performance of the Chinese market in the luxury watch market in the past two years undoubtedly makes people have high expectations for the “Chinese style”.
In fact, as early as the Qing Dynasty, the top watches are very interested in China, they repeatedly study the appreciation of the Chinese taste, figure out the psychology of the Chinese.
Gorgeous enamel, round pearls and other ornate materials are widely seen in clocks and watches, and some clock movements are even carved with patterns.
According to the collection of the Palace Museum, the enamel watch products sold by Jacques Delo to Cox’s Guangzhou Company in 1784 were already full of Chinese characteristics.
However, enamel pocket watches are also quite common in antique collections of other countries.
Painted enamel, which originated in Europe in the 14th century and became popular in France, has religious themes.
Many antique enamel surfaces are mainly based on sailing ships, such as the Athenian watch “Lightning”, which records the voyage of the “Lightning” from Boston to Liverpool in 1854.
Plus CONSIDERING THAT PateK PHILIPPE IS INTERESTED IN ENAMEL DIAL is in the middle of 40 time in 20 century — famous “world time”, have to say, enamel watch is loved by the Chinese while, also widely used in Western Marine culture subject matter.
For Westerners, enamels may be just one of those skills that “preserve color” for time, regardless of whether they are Chinese or not.
In fact, whether Chinese style or not, superb and exquisite master skills are always the core value of artworks.
Because a top watch, the pursuit is always enough to pass down the generation of excellence of the extreme skills, rather than the ups and downs of the market price.
