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“Natura dicta eo quod nasci aliquid faciat, gignendi enim et faciendi potens est:” nature brings a thing to birth, for it has the power to beget and to form. Thus wrote the anonymous compiler of the Aberdeen Bestiary, one of the most important and well-preserved ancient medieval manuscripts in the world. Written and illuminated over 900 years ago, the Bestiary is a true encyclopaedia of natural sciences, conceived to correlate the creatures of Creation with the profound moral and spiritual messages that God infused in them. Words and images, knowledge and imagination, technique and art: everything in the illuminated manuscript evokes a splendour that transcends the present moment to communicate directly with the heart of man. It is from this suggestive perspective that the designers and master craftsmen at Vacheron Constantin took their inspiration for the new creations in the Métiers d’Art collection: “Les Savoirs Enluminés”, illuminated knowledge and knowhow. The three automatic watches, issued in a limited edition of 20 pieces each and certified by the Hallmark of Geneva, will be premiered on the occasion of the 2015 European Artistic Crafts Days. Each watch tells a precious and technical story, deeply rooted in the common history of Europe. Where culture encompasses both the words and the very manuscripts inscribed and finely decorated by skilled hands.
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O Our common history, precious and technical, is told in each watch. A story deeply rooted in a concept of culture that was not limited to words
Where, today as yesterday, beauty is integral to workmanship. The models in the “Savoirs Enluminés” collection have entirely original dials that conceal complications developed to always surpass the challenges of time. Each dial requires a very high level of craftsmanship that crosses the furthermost limits of fine watchmaking, to rediscover an art that has always been linked to knowledge and the transmission and celebration of time: the miniature. Watches like words, dials like parchment that hold luminous secrets and reveal the time: measurable time, but also the time needed to create them, one step after another, with the same care and devotion of the medieval miniaturists. Words and miniatures that no longer deserve to remain concealed and protected in a library, but which should be worn on the wrist like a family heirloom or an amulet that constantly reminds us of the value of time. The time of transmission: the magnificent illuminated manuscripts produced by medieval monks were created by a master assisted by an apprentice. Or rather, by two masters: a scribe and a miniaturist. Similarly, each timepiece that leaves Vacheron Constantin’s atelier is the fruit of the patient, passionate and accurate work of great masters in fine watchmaking and of the young talents who assist them in the métiers d’art and the complexity of skills involved in the watchmaker’s profession.
05/03/15 18:50