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Maecenatism
As Johann Sebastian Bach ironically observed, there is nothing remarkable about playing, all one has to do is to hit the right notes at the right time. This perfect intertwining of time and technique, intuition and interpretation characterises Vacheron Constantin’s prestige watches. The most time-honoured swiss manufacture of fine watches, founded in Geneva in 1755, carries out a careful cultural action based on recovering and giving value to craftsmanship: where the master is also and above all an interpreter who performs skilful and expert gestures to create a caliper or a complication, to inlay or enamel. Among the numerous actions taken by the Manufacture to support the culture of the most refined artistic craftsmanship is the financing of the European Métiers d’Art Days: an event taking place in Paris, Geneva and Milan every year, to encourage the general public to develop a passion for the arts and crafts. But it is above all in the musical field that Vacheron Constantin devoted its special patronage, to exalt the expression of a savoir-faire that combines time, art and culture. For example becoming partner of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande: the prestigious Geneva-based institution and the Manufacture have made a three-year partnership to convey that passion towards the world that Vacheron Constantin has always cultivated, as witnessed by the first travels of its founders, Jean-Marc Vacheron and François Constantin. Within the partnership, the Manufacture supports
Quintessential skills and techinques are the heritage of the most timehonoured Swiss manufacture of fine watches
the post-graduate dilpoma in Orchestra Proficiency: a specialisation that has completely different characteristics to those of the soloist, as underlined by Metin Arditi, President of Osr. The art of precision, renewal and wonder, so typical of Vacheron Constantin, associates the Manufacture’s philosophy to that of the Opéra de Paris: one of the most famous theatres in the world, was so bold in the Sixties to challenge the severe keepers of the Napoleon III style by commissioning Marc Chagall a new ceiling with an oneiric scene. The same fresco by Chagall is the protagonist of the fine watches in the “Métiers d’Art” collection by Vacheron Constantin: in 2007 the Manufacture signed a partnership with the prestigious French institution, and the fresco by Chagall inaugurated a collection made of 15 precious specimens of remarkable timepieces. On the first, magnificent edition, Vacheron Constantin masters proved all their skill: they reproduced the whole fresco, measuring over 200 square metres, on a surface of 31.50mm, using the Grand Feu technique. Only few artisans know the art of Grand Feu, with its secrets and its numberless operations: this technique is surely the best way to link Chagall’s visionary spirit, the Opéra’s cultural commitment and the Manufacture’s farsightedness, that can translate treasures of art and craftsmansip to contemporary objects. As every watch refers to time as the source of its movement, so music needs not only great interpret-
TRUE WORKS OF ART Miniature painting on enamel for the watch Métiers d’Art Chagall & L’Opéra de Paris, “Homage to P.I. Tchaikovski” for the Swan Lake. Opposite, detail of the “Grand Feu” enamel dial.
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