However brightly she shines, she knows exactly how to take a discreet back seat
and let the character she is playing catch the limelight. But does the ‘she’ refer to Backes & Strauss’ new ambassador Tamara Rojo, or to her watch, the Victoria Snowdrop?
Probably both, since both the timepiece and the ballerina dedicate their talent to serving the woman wearing it. Since 1789, Backes & Strauss has been applying its jewellery-making excellence to timepieces that sublimate the wrists of true aesthetes. For 17 years, Tamara Rojo has been raising the choreographies of the world’s finest ballets to stellar heights of excellence. Both subtly fade into the background during a performance, giving pride of place to the role of an evening or that of a lifetime.
Daytime and evening roles
Tamara Rojo does indeed play a number of roles in her daily activities. After stepping off stage as the principal ballerina in one of her ballets, she dons her hat as Artistic Director of the English National Ballet. The former role calls for glamour and elegance, and the second for precision and reliability. “Being on time is critical for me”, says Tamara Rojo. “I have an extremely strict schedule of classes and rehearsals that I must stick to”. The most difficult aspect of this is that as soon this work is over, the ballerina’s days and evenings are dedicated to gala evenings and performances. “I attend a lot of events, and for me, having a watch is absolutely crucial”.
In a nutshell, the ballerina’s finest ally must reconcile two opposites by being brilliant in company but discreet on the wrist, accurate yet elegant, enriched by an institutional history and yet intensely personal. It simply had to be the Victoria Snowdrop by Backes & Strauss.
A noble watch for an ethereal choreography
“The Victoria Snowdrop is an astonishing watch”, says Tamara Rojo with a smile. “It is composed of two intertwined diamond hearts. Its inspiration comes from the Backes & Strauss archives based on a 19th century brooch”.
Tamara Rojo’s Victoria Snowdrop was no random choice. It is the cornerstone of the Victoria Princess watch collection by Backes & Strassus. Its interwoven hearts are a reminder of the love story between Queen Victoria and her husband Albert. She was so taken with him that she proposed marriage at their second encounter.
Despite the international success enjoyed by this creation, Backes & Strauss is maintaining an extremely confidential production of this legendary timepiece, with only five emerging per month from its workshops. Each is studded with no less than 604 diamonds, finely assembled during several hundred hours by the master-artisans at Backes & Strauss.
These strong historical roots naturally appealed to the ballerina. With the Victoria Snowdrop, she has chosen “a unique model that earns me plenty of compliments”, she confides with another smile.
Tamara Rojo concludes with a reminder that “the grace, the finesse and the precision of the Victoria collection are precisely the qualities one finds at the centre of the dance world”.
