Is it possible to combine all the artistic crafts in a single watch? It certainly wouldn’t be easy. To begin with, none of them truly belong to the watch industry alone; they are a varied collection of techniques, crafts and processes. A list created by the Institut National des Métiers d’Art lists 198 crafts and 83 specialist fields, making a total of 281 activities. So you can see the challenge involved in cramming them all into the three square centimetres available on a watch dial.
Blancpain has therefore chosen to focus on just one: enamelling. Four unique pieces have been added to the Villeret collection. What’s different about these watches is that they are not accompanied by any explanatory storytelling; instead, each dial is an open book, telling its own story. The attentive viewer will be able to read four tales stretching over more than fifteen centuries.
Four mysterious women
Everyone can read what they like into the stories, and let their imagination run wild. Nevertheless, a familiarity with Ancient China will be helpful in understanding the origins of these legends. The four great beauties of Ancient China were considered the most beautiful women to have lived in a period stretching from 722 B.C. to A.D. 907. Each in their own way influenced the sovereigns of their time, affecting the history of China in consequence. Legend has it that three of them brought the kingdom to its knees. They all met a mysterious end.
A story of water
The first is Xi Shi who, it is said, would wash her clothes in a stream. Blancpain has chosen to represent her with champlevé, a technique where an instrument called a burin carves hollows in a metal plate (in this instance, gold) to receive the enamel. A translucent enamel is used to depict the stream and imitate the transparency of water. By tilting the watch in the light, engraved carp can be seen underneath the enamel.
A vengeful woman
The second beauty is called Diao Chan. She is a fictional character who apparently used her charms to ruin a lord who caused the death of her parents. Her luminous beauty even surprised the Moon, which hid on seeing her face. For this watch, Blancpain has used a special alloy known as shakudō, which was previously used in a 2015 piece representing Ganesh. The alloy is treated with a solution called ‘rokushō’ to produce a dark patina with hints of brown, blue and black, representing twilight. Inserts of red and yellow gold give the scene a three-dimensional aspect.
Self-sacrifice
The third beauty is Wang Zhaojun, who was given to a king as a concubine. The scene shows her leaving her tribe. Here, Blancpain has chosen to combine techniques that are rarely seen together: wood marquetry for the mountain landscape, champlevé grand feu enamel for the foreground and engraving on gold and mother-of-pearl for other elements in the scene. The contrast between the wood and enamel produces a striking impression of depth, as if the mountain were standing at the front of the scene, breaking the horizon line.
Enchanting muse
The final beauty, Yang Guifei, is in some ways a traditional muse of the arts. Her light, graceful form is completely realised in enamel painting. While this technique features on all four pieces, here it takes the full focus, without any champlevé, engraving or marquetry to dilute the effect.
