All over the world, nations celebrate May Day, otherwise known as Labour Day, on the first day of the fifth month in the Gregorian calendar. While other dates exist for the same celebration, the first of May is globally the most common acknowledgement of workers and the labour movement. I’m stating this extremely obvious fact because I know we have readers out there who will send me irate emails about Labour Day (or Labor Day) being in September. Several countries have gazetted the first of May as a public holiday; Switzerland is not among those countries, hence my (admittedly weak) joke which I repeat every year to the numb exasperation of my colleagues, about Swiss people being so industrious that they honour workers by putting them to work.
Horology is replete with associations of hard work — when mechanical watchmaking is brought up, there is no image more prevalent in the minds of the general public than the bearded, silver-haired watchmaker toiling away at his Alpine chalet assembling minuscule wheels and gears into a ticking machine of precision timekeeping. This image, as we know, is a fallacy; the vast majority of contemporary watchmaking is carried out in well-regulated and modern factories, and watchmaking hasn’t been a cottage industry since the end of the 19th century.
Nevertheless, there remain a rare few individuals in the watch world who still create things of immense beauty with the skills at their disposal. Many of these relate to artisanal dialwork, as most of the remaining elements of a watch — movement, case, bracelets, straps, hands — are now the products of a divided labour system. Without these talented (and often underappreciated) individuals, the watch industry would be a blander, drearier, duller place. Today, we showcase their work.
Most people know Kari Voutilainen as a watchmaker, and it’s true that this is how he primarily identifies professionally. Rather less widespread is the knowledge that Voutilainen, a gentle, soft-spoken man of Finnish extraction, also owns a dialmaking business. Comblemine is a reliable and qualitative dial supplier to brands such as Armin Strom, De Bethune and Schwarz-Etienne, specialising in hand-guilloché work of exceptional refinement. Traditional techniques are practiced alongside newer styles developed by and proprietary to Voutilainen and his team.
To the uninitiated, grand feu enamel might seem a little like alchemy. All those little phials of brightly coloured powders, swirled around and ground down with mortars and pestles of banded agate, secret oils and unguents, fire and glass. Masters of this art are few and far between, with Anita Porchet being one of the best-known, whose canvases become the dials of watches by exalted names like Audemars Piguet, Louis Vuitton, Romain Gauthier. Insiders will know how to look for a tiny “AP” traced in micro-fine strokes on an artistic opus that might measure no more than a few centimetres in diameter.
Some engravers do little more than etch sentimental messages, names, or dates on the casebacks of watches. Eddy Jaquet is not one of them. You may call what he does “engraving” — we call it storytelling of the highest degree. A winged Greek god, musculature delineated in awe-inspiring detail, bearing an hourglass and surrounded by cosmic orbs. An intricate web of geometric forms, labyrinthine and mathematically perfect. A narrative tapestry in relief-sculpted gold, unfolding the adventure tales of Jules Verne. All these came from the hands of Eddy Jaquet. Without these hands, the MB&F LM Split Escapement would not have prevailed in the 2021 edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in the category of Artisanal Craft.
Where does the line between artistry and craftsmanship lie? With Bastien Chevalier, marquetry maker, there is no line, because both artistry and craftsmanship cohabit in his eyes and hands. His contemporary adaptation of traditional marquetry is worlds apart from the decorative wooden mosaics we imagine when we think of marquetry. On the dial of a Vacheron Constantin calendar watch, freeform slivers of wood in a myriad of hues fit seamlessly together, evoking the pelt of the wild Swiss chamois. A saxophonist is captured in a rhapsodic jazz solo against an urban city backdrop, gracing the dial of a Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda tourbillon watch.
A plumassiere is an artist who works with feathers. Paris-based Nelly Saunier transcends this definition — she does not work with feathers, she sculpts with them. Her understanding of how feathers (so light! so soft!) can be used to play with light and dimension, creating shape and structure, is formidable. She built miniature birds for Van Cleef & Arpels watch dials. She created iridescent feather mandelas for Harry Winston timepieces. Her work takes you on the most exotic flights of artisanal imagination whilst still remaining firmly wrapped around your wrist.
