VIII Grand Bal "Fil de Soie"

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VIII Grand Bal "Fil de Soie" - Dior
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With the Dior VIII Grand Bal “Fil de Soie”, Dior is unveiling a new timekeeper paying tribute to the culture of craftsmanship in the ateliers at Avenue Montaigne.

The Dior VIII Grand Bal celebrates the imagination of couture and the know-how of the House of Dior on a woman’s wrist. Its functional oscillating weight is displayed on top of the dial, adorned with diamonds, feathers and hard stones with all the allure of abstract artworks and always evoking the swirl of a ball gown.

For Monsieur Dior, silk was “The queen of all the materials, the loveliest, the most feminine, the most enchanting, with all the qualities Nature gives to things that we cannot make ourselves” (Little Dictionary of Fashion, 1954). For the first time, the openwork oscillating weight is embellished with a delicate weave of silk threads made on a lace bobbin by a lady lace-maker from Le Puy, the cradle of French lace-making since the 16th century. This is virtuoso jewellery illustrated by the meticulous setting of the diamond embroidery. The couture creativity of the work on the delicate silk thread, one and a half metres long and woven in three staggered stages, required the development of a madeto- measure technique so that the traditional art of lace-making could be adapted to watchmaking. And finally, a technical innovation, thanks to an invisible weight in gold and tungsten for a “Dior Inversé 11 ½” calibre, whose new weight required 18 months of research and development, and for which a patent application has been made.

 

Dior VIII Grand Bal « Fil de Soie » version vert d’eau

 

Between a nod and a wink at corsetry, the Op art spirit and the lace’s allusions to gossamer, this delicate composition – available in a sea green or tender pink version – evolves on the dial in black mother-of-pearl from Vietnam, pricked with brilliant-cut diamonds. Made-to-measure femininity in a diameter of 38 millimetres, on a ceramic bracelet or patent leather strap, whose lustre echoes the sparkle of the set diamonds on the bezel. the Dior VIII Grand Bal “Fil de Soie” also cultivates the taste for exclusivity since it is proposed in its two versions in 88 pieces only.

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