Why is it that Ateliers Louis Moinet is home to a creativity that is becoming increasingly hard to find? Perhaps because the brand’s creative director is also its founder, who is none other than its CEO! Jean-Marie Schaller wears all three caps.
This three-into-one enables a direct connection between management, product and customer relations – a vital indication of the current mood. A finger on whatever ideas are floating in the air. We saw this recently in the watch that Louis Moinet donated to the Only Watch sale (read about it here). We can see it too in the Savanna Tourbillon Tiger.
Reenchanting the métiers d’art
This timepiece stands out for its extraordinary dial. A description it amply deserves. It’s not every day a watch brand invents a new métier d’art. This is certainly not a discipline for lightweights. Cartier and Hermès are probably the two names most actively experimenting with artistic crafts in creative and innovative ways. But what Louis Moinet, from its workshops in Saint-Blaise, has done is unprecedented. It’s a principle with which we are all familiar but no-one had thought to apply it to a fine watch. Until now.
Together again
The principle is that of a jigsaw puzzle. An image recreated from multiple pieces. Nor has Louis Moinet done things by halves. Rather than a few large pieces, the independent brand has opted for 81 individual elements, assembled in a gold case measuring 40.7 millimetres. Except that… once the pieces in a jigsaw have been put back together, the illustration appears perfectly flat and even. The whole point is, after all, that the parts should disappear, leaving nothing but the image.
So as to conserve this idea of a picture assembled from separate parts, Ateliers Louis Moinet’s ingenious solution is for certain pieces to be more elevated than others. The dial of the Savanna Tourbillon Tiger therefore has a construction on four levels that reveals the shape and thickness of the pieces while preserving the jigsaw texture.
Perfect... from all angles
This difference in height is barely perceptible – no more than a few tenths of a millimetre, achieved thanks to a dial plate built on several levels. Each piece reproduces the height of that particular area.
For the artist bringing the tiger to life, however, there is a catch. Because some parts stand slightly higher than their neighbour, the exposed sides also had to be painted. In other words, each of the 81 pieces in this puzzle are miniature-painted not only on their surface but on their sides, too. A task that requires infinite precision and is the only way to preserve the integrity of the image, from every angle.
Captivating beauty
The finished dial is captivatingly beautiful, an impression heightened by the tiger’s hypnotic gaze. The image, which appears in three dimensions, has the fragility but also the solidity of a completed jigsaw. It’s a sensation we’ve all experienced as the last piece goes into the frame: something solid held together by so many fragile connections.
Solidity and fragility, artistry and innovation. This tiger is part of an inaugural series that opens up multiple creative opportunities. Certain customers can request for their dial an image of particular significance to them. Such is the sign of a successful creation: it is never a finality but an inspiration for generations to come.
